Innovation Award project videos

The Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnership supported collaborative projects between organisations in the UK, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria. These projects developed and tested innovative approaches to improve food security and strengthen climate resilience in Ghana and Nigeria.

These two-minute videos from the project partners share their key achievements, lessons learnt and future plans. The range of innovations discussed cover a variety of topics including everything from smart pest monitoring in Ghanaian plantations and AI-powered pest and disease recognition in banana plantations to enhancing seed storage reliability and quality assurance and climate-smart technology that transforms maize crop nutrition.

Watch the full collection of project videos to find out more about each project.

Building future partnerships

Although the projects have now ended, many teams are keen to continue developing their innovations and building new partnerships.

If you’re interested in collaborating with any of the innovators featured in the videos, get in touch with the Innovate UK Business Connect AgriFood team.

Key insights from the projects

At our recent showcase event, Innovation Award project partners shared the technologies they developed and discussed lessons they have learnt. The event featured two expert panels, where partners shared practical insights from collaborative projects addressing agricultural challenges in Ghana and Nigeria. The Partnership’s early-stage projects are already delivering actionable insights, scalable technologies, and new opportunities for farmers and agri-tech businesses across continents.

1. Successful innovation starts with local context

Across the projects, partners highlighted the importance of adapting technologies to local conditions, including unreliable power supplies, limited network coverage and varied smallholder farming practices. This meant designing solutions using, for example, battery-powered devices, cost-effective connectivity (i.e. LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) satellites), and adapting tools to different climate, crop seasons and soil types.

2. Co-creation with farmers and local institutions to support scale-up

Co-designing technologies with farmers, extension officers and local institutions helped ensure that innovations reflected local agricultural practices and user needs. Workshops, field demonstrations and feedback loops also improved trust, usability and long-term relevance.

3. Early planning for local sourcing and supply chains supports commercialisation

Projects showed that thinking about local sourcing and supply chains early can improve affordability, sustainability and long-term commercial potential. Using locally available inputs can also reduce dependency on imported materials and help innovations fit existing market conditions.

4. Clear data governance helps build trust

Partners emphasised that clear communication about how data is collected, used and shared is essential for building trust with future customers, especially for technologies involving automated decision-making. Early involvement of regulatory bodies was recommended to ensure alignment and support future certification, speed approval processes and enable integration into national systems.

5. Clear communication of value supports adoption

For new technologies to gain traction, potential users and customers need to understand their value early on. Field demonstrations and clear articulation of benefits helped overcome scepticism and pricing concerns. There is a need to engage industry players (for example seed producers, commercial farms, regulatory bodies, and supply chain partners), as well as to publish scientific results and expand academic networks.

6. Reliable AI tools depend on high-quality data

Several speakers highlighted that reliable AI-driven decision support depends on high-quality, validated data. Ground-truthing through field testing, sensors and agronomic expertise is essential to ensure outputs are accurate, relevant and actionable.

To find out more about the Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnership Showcase and lessons learnt, watch the event recording.

The Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnership: UK-Brazil-Africa is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and delivered by Innovate UK.