Call for Applications: Urban/Township Agriculture Technologies – South Africa

This call aims to support groundbreaking technology initiatives /projects aimed at modernisation of the agriculture sector, addressing food insecurity and uplifting township communities. Technology solutions supported by this call are expected to maximise food production in small spaces, closed environmental settings/buildings, promote a healthy ecosystem and increase biodiversity in urban areas while addressing the challenges of food insecurity, nutrition insecurity and unemployment. Applications are invited from any South African legal entity, including start-up companies, small, medium and micro enterprises, private individuals, science councils and higher education institutions

Call Specification

The technological focus areas / industrial sectors are as follows:

• Example 1: Agriculture Urban technologies such as Vertical and Rooftop farming: to harness the untapped potential of urban spaces, promoting sustainable agricultural practices to maximise food production.
• Example 2: Water saving related technologies to combat the immediate effects of water-scarcity and arable land scarcity and the extreme rise of urbanization cause worries to both modern and conventional farmers: i.e. commercially profitable semi-automated, low/high-tech vertical hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic farming.

Eligibility

• Individual applicants must be South African citizens with valid identity documents.
• Must be registered or in a process of registering with the Companies and Intellectual Commission.
• Must be registered or in the process of registering on National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database.

Compulsory Requirements

• Demonstrate a viable, feasible and sustainable business case.
• Demonstrate a positive socio-economic impact and cultivate a sense of community pride and self-sufficiency, empowering residents to take control of their food sources and contribute to the local economy.
• Have a proof of concept, viz. an idea that has been proven, tested and validated, i.e. TRL 4 or higher. Technologies at higher TRL 7 – 9 and that are ready for scale-up/piloting or pre-commercialisation/full commercialisation will be preferred.
• Must have an industry partner.
• Applicants must declare all sources of previous funding received from the public sector.
• In the instance where the application relates to foreign-owned intellectual property, this will need to be licensed or assigned to the applicant before funding is approved.
• Primary technology development activities must be operated within South Africa.
• Applicants must attend a compulsory briefing session.

For more information, visit Technology Innovation Agency (TIA).