Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations Round 10: Labor Saving Innovations for Women Smallholder Farmers

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health has launched the Grand Challenges Explorations Round 10 on Labor Saving Innovations for Women Smallholder Farmers. The aim of this call is to solicit innovative, holistic solutions to boost labor productivity of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa with a specific emphasis on increasing the productivity of women farmers’ labor.

The competition encourages researchers and entrepreneurs – especially those working outside of agricultural development – to review what has not worked in the past in order to better understand the various constraints to farmer adoption of labor saving innovations and to generate ideas that will revolutionize current approaches to crop protection, management and harvesting.

It encourages encourage new thinking in technical innovation in this space, and because many of the constraints to adoption of these innovations appear to be multi-disciplinary, we will also welcome innovation in – or across – all four areas of focus detailed below. Your submission may address one or more of these categories:

•     New or adapted labor savings technologies that take into consideration cost, maintenance, upkeep and farmer needs in the design.
•     Improved practices that save labor in land preparation, seeding, weeding, pest control, tillage, harvest and post-harvest.
•     Business and/or distribution models that positively affect incentives for farmer adoption of labor saving devices.
•     Educational or public awareness methods that tackle socio-cultural and/or gender constraints to adoption of labor saving innovations. This may include novel and low cost methods in marketing approaches for technologies that have demonstrated labor saving impact for women through piloting or beta testing.

Phase I grants of $100,000 USD are awarded initially; projects have one opportunity to apply for a follow-on Phase II grant of up to $1,000,000 USD.

Deadline- November 7, 2012

For more information, visit this link.