It took a decade for the former young innovator to become the boss of a tech company specializing in the modernization of agriculture. He has developed many solutions that facilitate the work and improve the yield of farmers.

In Niger, the company Tech-Innov has managed to build a solid reputation among farmers over the past nine years. The founder Abdou Maman Kané (pictured) has strived to make his company a national and global reference with the many innovations developed to help local farmers.

The computer scientist and entrepreneur made a name for himself in 2011 by winning the first place of the Orange Prize for Social Entrepreneurship in Africa and the Middle East with his remote-controlled irrigation system "Télé-irrigation". According to him, this idea, which came from his own experience as the son of a farmer, has been in his mind since 2005.

When he was younger, he noticed how difficult it was for his parents and other farmers to access water for their activities. They struggled to carry water several times a day over long distances to regularly water their crops. He then started to think of a way to help them. That is how he came up with the idea to not only improve their working conditions with ICTs but also put an end to manual watering.

In 2013, Abdou Maman Kané created Tech-Innov, a company specialized in the promotion and marketing of agricultural and irrigation technology solutions. With this startup, he marketed Tele-irrigation system, a hardware and software kit composed of a tank connected to a pump and a network of pipes installed in a field. The pump is connected to a box equipped with a SIM card. The farmer simply dials a code from his phone to activate it and start watering. Users can also access real-time information such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, solar radiation, air speed and quality to know when to water.

Abdou Maman Kané also developed other solutions such as the smart bio-fertilizer, the drinking water kiosk in rural areas, automatic watering, and mobile weather. These achievements have earned him several awards including the second prize Climate Startup COP22, the third prize of the Young African Social Entrepreneur of Libreville (2015), the Hassan II World Grand Prize for Water (2015), the Medal of Ecological Creation in Nice (2013), and a medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva (2012).

Ruben Tchounyabe