Green Promoters, a team of five Rwandan varsity students creating an organic pesticide fertiliser to replace chemical products, scooped $30,000, after emerging winners of the Wege Prize, a global competition for the circular economy solutions.
According to Marie Merci Uwimbabazi, a Conservation Agriculture student at Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) and the team’s leader, their aim is to reduce the effects of the chemical pesticides and fertilisers by developing and marketing an organic pesticide fertiliser dubbed ‘EZA Two-in-One.’
The product, she said, can be used as a pesticide and fertiliser at the same time. It is also environmentally friendly, safe and affordable.
The introduction of EZA Two-in-One promises to reduce the costs of imported inputs, while also promoting safety in agricultural production, a conclusion that was made by a panel of judges during the awarding ceremony.
"We want to scale up our project, for now we are still working on a small scale, we are trying these on a very small area,” said RICA’s Uwimbabazi, joined by her two of her other colleagues, who are also from the same institution.
"We also want to buy appropriate equipment to help us increase production capacity, and also be able to give quality products because for now we are using traditional tools such as mortar and pestle,” she added.
Organised by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD), the annual competition convenes student teams from all over the world to pitch innovative approaches to address global challenges in ways that transform the economy.
Green promoters was selected from a group of five finalists, drawn from a global field representing 70 academic institutions in 29 countries, with students active in almost 100 areas of academic study.
"These inspired, dedicated students are innovators and disruptors in key areas that will help us address the multitude of issues facing the world today,” says Gayle DeBruyn, a KCAD professor and leader of Wege Prize.
She added, "We are delighted to see the five finalist teams working with our diverse group of supportive judges to nurture their inventive ideas and create tangible solutions that can help accelerate our transition to a circular economy.”
DeBruyn said that the awarded teams are those whose ideas spark the brightest hope for real world implementation and success.
Throughout the nine-month competition, participating teams refined their solutions over three distinct phases as their scope and complexity grows more challenging.
Established in 2013, Wege Prize aims to solve complex, layered problems and to encourage students in higher education to take a diverse, collaborative approach in developing new, tangible solutions to produce and consume essential goods in sustainable ways that are applied and used after the competition’s conclusion.
How the product is made
There is an urgent need to solve the negative effects of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
Against this backdrop, Green promoters are working to create an organic pesticide fertiliser to replace chemical products and increase farmers’ access to this alternative.
The product is designed to be used as a pesticide and fertiliser simultaneously.
The product is made from farm organic waste and idle resources, such as invasive bushes growing near forests and bush areas, in various communities.
"People don’t know how to make use of [the invasive vegetation] so we want to benefit from those and be able to make our product,” said Uwimbabazi.
Uwimbabazi and her four team members grew up on farms, and two of them are studying conservation agriculture, an experience they have used as inspiration and a knowledge base to help them develop their proposed product.