Deadline: January 27 2022
The Global Alliance Innovation Exchange challenge competition, delivered by KTN Global Alliance Africa, is supporting Flamingo Horticulture International to identify innovative approaches in pest control for the detection and screening of False Codling Moth, Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick). The False Codling Moth (FCM), is an economically damaging pest impacting a variety of alternative host plants across its natural range in sub-Saharan Africa. For this Global Alliance Innovation Exchange challenge competition, Flamingo Horticulture International seeks innovative solutions to detect and screen FCM.
This Global Alliance Innovation Exchange challenge relates to the detection and identification of FCM within chili plants, which is currently achieved by visual inspection. Flamingo Horticulture International would like to see approaches that could enhance detection and screening of FCM within produce. Solutions could focus on detection and identification of FCM during production, at harvest, during grading of chilies, or immediately prior to export during packaging.
Facts about False Codling Moth
Adult moth:
• Small moth, ±7-10 mm long
• Moth is nocturnal and so is active at dusk and during the night
• Moth breeds throughout the year on host plants
• 5 – 6 generations/year
• Males lives 14 to 57 days
• Females survive 16 to 70 days.
• Dispersal normally is limited to several hundred meters (1500M).
Eggs: Translucent and 1mm in diameter, 100-400 eggs are produced per adult per life cycle
Larvae: L1-5 stages
Eligibility
Entrants to The Global Alliance Innovation Exchange challenge competition must be:
• Established businesses, start-ups, SMEs, individual entrepreneurs, or academics.
• Collaborative solutions (Business to Business B2B and B2R&D) are valid applications. If collaborative solutions are being tabled a single lead organization needs to register the application. The Global Alliance Innovation Exchange challenge organization can be either an industrial or academic partner.
• Priority is given to solution providers based in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa. However, innovative solutions from other countries will be considered.
Applications will be assessed on:
• Relevance to the topic
• Innovative nature of the subject
• Coherence of the proposed business model
• Feasibility/ economic viability
• Development potential
• Maturity of project/solution
• Ability to launch project quickly/ ease of implementation
• Suitability for the Kenyan Market
Benefits
The selected solution provider(s) will:
• Work with Flamingo Horticulture International who will facilitate and support the product testing on the trial site (Ngong Veg farm, outside Nairobi)
• Receive GBP 25,000 seed funding to work on the specific challenge. Funding will be received in installments, subject to specific Milestones (eg project plan, mid-project report, and final report.)
