Fifteen innovative pitches rewarded at 2026 Agritech Innovation Challenge final.

The Agritech Innovation Challenge was organised as part of the Project to Accelerate Digital Transformation in Cameroon, PATNUC.

The project led by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, and of the Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries. 

The project is funded by the World Bank. The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, chaired the event.

Following regional competitions held across the 10 regions from March 25 to April 17, 25 startups were selected for the national final with nine of the startups specialise in agriculture, four in Fintech, and three each from livestock, climate change, and fisheries.

Following the assessment of the jury, LightCow, an intelligent cattle surveillance and management system developed by Yves Bertrand Solanga was chosen as the overall best. 

Enter MINPOSTEL boss 

In her speech, the Minister of Post and Telecommunication said the Agritech Innovation Challenge is a competition designed to foster innovation in the agri-pastoral sector through promotion, digital inclusion, and the adoption of digital agricultural solutions by stakeholders in Cameroon’s agri-pastoral sector.

Being the 2nd edition of the challenge, she explained that the 15 winning startups of the 2026 Challenge will be supported in the development and implementation of their respective business plans with each winning startup receiving up to 40 million FCFA.

“I'm very happy and satisfied because this second edition of AgriTech Innovation Challenge has to tackle and to meet the challenges of agro-pastoral sector. Through the result, we have a demonstration that innovation, ICT, can really improve the activities of agro-pastoral sector, can improve life of people living in rural area,” she said. 

She added: “I'm expecting that the different organizations of agro-pastoral sector will really receive those innovations and put them in action so that very soon we will have the results and benefits of the development of our agro-pastoral sector through innovation and ICT”. 

The member of government further mentioned that over 200 candidates entered the competition and through a rigorous selection, the number was streamlined before getting to the final 25 startups. 

Support to winners

According to the National Coordinator of PATNUC, Dr Mfuh Windfred Fuaye Kenji, the 15 selected winners of the 2026 AgriTech Innovation Challenge will be to match them with some farmer groups to facilitate the adherence to their solutions or innovation. 

But before that, he said, the startups will continue to work with some experts to help them build their business plans which will be finance through PATNUC project. 

“So those who have won, they will build a business plan, and that business plan will be financed by the project through the adoption of those solutions by the farmers themselves,” the PATNUC National Coordinator explained when quizzed on the next step for the winners of the innovation challenge. 

“It's not just money that's given to the winners to take away, but that money is used in a coordinated investment in the businesses that they will create with the farming groups to be able to adopt those solutions and to improve on the solutions,” he added. 

Winners hail initiative

Yves Bertrand Solanga, whose LightCow project emerged overall best, expressed the joy of his team to have won the best startup project.

According to him, the award is a reflection of the hard work and efforts put together by his entire team and partners to bring the innovation to light. 

“This isn’t just my victory alone. There is a whole team behind it, and there are partners supporting the project,” he said expressing gratitude to the Government of Cameroon and the World Bank. 

Speaking about his wining project, the LightCow innovator said, the project is a smart solution that enables the monitoring and management of livestock. 

He noted that the common practice of cattle farming in Cameroon, relies mainly on extensive systems, with animals grazing freely in vast areas and with minimal monitoring or limited availability of reliable data. 

“So what we’re bringing is a system that tracks the cow’s life cycle over several years, monitoring its location, temperature, and vital signs, and determining, for example, if a cow is entering gestation or its lactation period so we can collect the milk,” he said. You know that milk, in Adamawa, is a major business and a thriving industry. 

“So this is a solution that allows us to collect all this information and provide it to the farmer so they can make better decisions regarding their operations,” he added.

For his part, Danwe Stéphane whose Ndemri project emerged overall third said his team is overwhelmed to emerge on the honour roll on their second participation. 

Regarding their pitch, he said they observed that about 70% of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa do not use the right tools. 

“So Ndemri is a mobile application and a web application aimed at helping farmers. We have an AI smart camera where you can just take some pictures of the ground or some plants, and the database that we have would reveal if the plants are healthy or not, or if the soil is good or not…” 

He further emphasized that the system also has an AI tool that is inserted directly into the soil, which helps in analyzing the soil moisture, temperature, pH level, and other complimentary data for the benefit of the farmers.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3786 of Monday May 11, 2026