The South African Breweries (SAB) Foundation holds its Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards annually to find, scale and support local entrepreneurs who are thinking outside the box in terms of how they employ innovation to solve social problems in their communities efficiently and at scale.
“For 2021, the SAB Foundation received more than 750 entries from local innovators. After a rigorous judging process 23 finalists were selected. Their innovations range from mobile apps that support small-scale farmers, through to assistive mechanisms for people living with disabilities, and biodegradable packaging that reduces the use of single-use plastics. This list of finalists includes 17 from the Foundation’s eleventh annual Social Innovation Awards as well as 6 from the sixth annual Disability Empowerment Awards,” explains Bridgit Evans, SAB Foundation Director.
Hailing from Gauteng, Karidas Tshintsholo, whose innovative project, Khula! App is a tech ecosystem of agri-platforms that connect farmers directly with formal markets, funders and input suppliers.
“We believe that you cannot sustainably solve agricultural problems by treating them in isolation, as the industry is very interconnected. Our innovation ecosystem has three main components, with the first of these being a fresh produce marketplace. It enables farmers to go through a vetting process to ensure that they are compliant with industry food safety requirements. Once approved, we are able to connect them directly with leading bulk buyers of fresh produce, and that they can trade with in a digital spot (once-off) or contract market. We do local- and export trade and are already working with established names in the industry,” explains Tshintsholo
The second component of the Khula! App is the input marketplace, through which farmers (both big and small-scale ones) are allowed to directly access the leading suppliers of agricultural inputs and technical services. Farmers are able to buy directly from these suppliers on the Khula! App and the business then deliver the products directly to these farmers or alternatively, to their nearest depot. Consequently, this platform becomes a tool to help emerging farmers get ready for the formal market.
“We currently have a network of more than 132 major depots across the country and we have over 200 technical advisors (crop, seed, animal) that we can send to each farm to provide technical advice and support. We leverage our relationships with leading suppliers, to access nationwide distribution points and technical services,” says Tshintsholo.
The final component of the Khula! App is its funder dashboard, which is a tool that is aimed at connecting funders from within the industry to the most deserving farmers. That connection enables them to find, disburse to and track their investments in the agri-businesses of deserving farmers.
“Moving from the phase of being an emerging farmer to the commercial stage can be very expensive for farmers, and often first-generation farmers need all the support they can get. Through our one-stop solution, they are able to obtain that crucial level of support,” concludes Tshintsholo.