As climate change descends on Egyptian farmers, a growing number of local tech startups are launching smartphone-based services to help them manage unpredictable weather and squeeze more profit from their diminishing crops. Egypt hosts the second-biggest startup market on the African continent after Nigeria, drawing $446 million in venture capital in 2021, according to the industry journal Disrupt Africa. And although agriculture-related apps accounted for less than 2% of that funding, the looming threats of climate change and food insecurity—plus the hype surrounding the COP27 climate summit, which will be hosted in Egypt in November—are causing more investors to take a closer look, said Duaa Nassef, manager of a startup incubator at Nile University. “Agri-tech is becoming a very promising sector to invest in,” she said. “There are so many of the problems farmers here face that you can easily tackle with tech.”
SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA
