O-Farms is a business accelerator initiated by Bopinc and Village Capital, in partnership with IKEA foundation, with the goal of making circularity a mainstream approach for improved livelihoods and sustainability. For implementation of the accelerator activities in Uganda, O-Farms is teaming up with Hive Colab.
The agricultural value chains generate many losses and byproducts that are often disposed as waste, making agriculture the most relevant sector to leverage on for opportunities of a circular economy in Uganda.
The following agriculture sub-sectors in Uganda generate considerable waste and by products during production and processing:
Crops (Oil and nut crops, root crops, pulses, plantains, cereals and grains)
Horticulture (Fruits and vegetables and industrial crop processing)
Livestock (Cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and poultry)
Fisheries (Nile perch and tilapia)
The above sub-sectors have huge potential for circular agribusiness models with tremendous business opportunities and business models for reusing or bringing agricultural food losses or waste and by products back into the food system by producing human food or food supplements, animal feed, biodegradable packaging for food and beverages, bioenergy, organic fertiliser and compost.
Hive Colab is looking for a diverse cohort of SMEs building innovations or business models for bringing agricultural food losses, or by-products back into the food system for:
Examples include: Using rejected tomatoes for ketchup, banana peels for food packaging or rice husks for animal feed and fertiliser.
The circular agribusiness SMEs can expect to receive the following benefits:
Hive colab wants to see circular agribusiness become a mainstream approach for entrepreneurs in Uganda food systems by 2025, to achieve this we will be accelerating a cohort of 11 circular agribusinesses in partnership with Bopinc, Village Capital and IKEA Foundation within a period of 1 and half years to steer the transition from linear to circular food system. We are therefore looking for circular agribusiness SMEs that meet the following minimumeligibility criteria:
The call for applications closes16th October 2022 Midnight EAT.
For more information and/or any questions, please email: o-farms@hivecolab.com
Nexus International University
Nkumba University
Bugema University
Mountain of the Moon University
Datamine Technical Business School