MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Agricolleges International

One-line solution summary:

Providing an online platform for agricultural training in rural Africa

Pitch your solution.

AGRICOLLEGES through its teaching methods provides students in rural areas with affordable, accessible, industry-relevant education and training in agriculture. Growing the skills pool, reducing unemployment and driving improved food security by revolutionizing the training in agriculture- and water-smart related content.

Online training might be questioned for its ability to deliver on agricultural training and skills development, but its innovative use to address skills shortages, combined with a blended and shared learning approach, creates our recipe for successfully delivering quality graduates into the industry and create the opportunity for "agripreneurs".

Our platform has proven to be suitable and very successful in rural African environments.

We aim to fund students through bursaries to make the difference between outdated education systems and the use of technology smaller, by enabling students to learn using the latest technology, on the cloud, in rural or remote areas, in ever-changing environments, to secure their own future.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

A serious crisis is facing agriculture worldwide that threatens food stability and security. This is a lack of skills and knowledge in the agricultural field.

This worldwide crisis is caused by several factors, most importantly the lack of quality graduates and them not being able to contribute to the risk management of an organization or sustain themselves, leading to a threat on food security, social stability, economic and political stability and investment opportunities.

Although there are training opportunities, they are not all of quality and often do not reach rural African students that lack funding to study.

In 2016 AGRICOLLEGES, through in independent company, did extensive market research on the prospect of providing the rural youth in Africa with agricultural education and in South Africa alone it concluded that 48,8% of employed white persons and 32,1% of employed Indians had tertiary qualification, however the employed black Africans and colored with tertiary qualifications was 15,7% and 14,5% respectively. Providing education will increase the % of skilled persons such as Managers and Technicians as well as semiskilled persons such as clerks, salesperson, skilled Agriculture and related trade and plant and machine operator occupations.

What is your solution?

AGRICOLLEGES is a modern cloud-based e-learning institution, using world-class technology as a platform to address the agricultural education gap in Africa and beyond, by providing students with affordable, accessible and industry-relevant education and training in the fields of agriculture and related agri-industries. The technology is already proving successful with mobile capabilities and low data costs.

A very big focus in Agricolleges and all curriculum development falls on Life Skills or Soft Skills as well as Smart farming (water, energy, resources).

Launching our first course in March 2018, we have successfully graduated over 400 alumni in 18 countries, with majority being African countries. There are currently a further 150 students on courses.

The original need’s assessment done indicated the need to collaborate to make a difference on a large scale.

Course and content development - with Stellenbosch University.
Best technology - Brightspace by D2L, world’s leading LMS in 2017.
Instructional design - Mumbai based non-profit company Consilience
Student financing/funding – Financial service providers initially filled this gap, but students don’t have money to even pay back loans. Therefore, an independent non-profit company Educate To Grow NPC was established and will partner in this program as bursary fund manager.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The target groups include school leavers, emerging farmers, youth or adults with a desire to get involved in Agriculture, but with limited financial means to achieve this as well as those farmers across Africa that need to uplift their people through a formal program without these students having to leave the farm and go to a college. This includes rural communities and the Agricultural officers that assist these communities as advisers.

A strong focus will be placed on the vulnerable youth and female empowerment.

Three groups emerged from a comprehensive needs’ analysis carried out by Agricolleges.

Smallholder and emergent farmers across Africa.
Government extension officers.
The commercial farmer and the largely unskilled workforce already employed by these farmers.

The expected results of this project are endless. To list a few:

Addressing unemployment
Empowering women and youth
Trained individuals will transfer these skills to their communities
Farmers will have skilled people managing their risks
Long term profitability and securing the future for everyone involved
Creating more employable individuals
Creating entrepreneurs or "agripreneurs"
Much needed food security across Africa
Retaining skills in rural areas instead of an influx of people into the cities

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Support small-scale producers with access to inputs, capital, and knowledge to improve yields while sustaining productivity of land and seas

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

When considering rural Africa, one must keep in mind that education, technology and employment is an ongoing challenge.

Providing communities with the technology to study agriculture will greatly improve the prospect of producing resilient and nutritious food. Upon completing the courses AGRICOLLEGES has developes, students will be equipped with the skillsets and knowledge to make them more employable and/or become “agripreneurs”.

This challenge is not one that will be conquered overnight and the AGRICOLLEGES approach tackles the challenge from within the communities and alongside the communities, for them to become self-sustainable and ultimately strengthening the agricultural sector of their economies.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Tzaneen, South Africa

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Scale: A sustainable enterprise working in several communities or countries that is looking to scale significantly, focusing on increased efficiency

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Wynand Espach