The Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) is pleased to announce the 21 winners of the second round of Open Calls for Innovations. The awardees will be supported by the program’s Regional Innovation Hubs in the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Southern and Central Africa. Each innovator will receive a customized support package that may contain a grant, technical assistance, investment facilitation, and enabling environment support. 

The Middle East and North Africa RIH innovators are: 

• Agrifresh (Lebanon) produces sustainable ready-to-eat vegetable products for consumers by using a water and energy-efficient system as well as solar energy.
• Arez Plantation Site (Iraq) encourages organic agriculture by selling organic trees, seedlings, and competitively-priced, locally-manufactured compost.
• BioMasr Ltd (Egypt) develops small biogas systems and integrates biogas system owners and operators into the agricultural process through a digital platform.
• EcoFeed (Tunisia) turns locally-sourced agricultural by-products into high-quality animal feed, providing an affordable alternative to expensive imported products.
• FreshSource (Egypt) has a digital platform for sourcing high-quality produce that aims to enhance transparency and efficiency to reduce food losses.
• Garbaliser (Lebanon) turns waste into liquid fertilizer with a specific focus on women end-users, providing access to training and affordable, user-friendly technology. 
• Greenco (Lebanon) helps end-users manage animal waste by turning it into compost and liquid fertilizer that is sold to farmers.
• Lombrisol (Morocco) uses microorganisms and worms to turn local organic waste into fertilizer and compost. 
• Natagri (Lebanon) works with smallholder farmers and small businesses to turn their low-grade fruit crops into high value dried fruit products.
• Plug’n’Grow (Egypt) offers water-efficient, controlled-environment hydroponic products and services that are scalable and adaptable. 
• Rim Mills (Lebanon) produces moghrabieh – a Lebanese food product made of wheat, semolina, water, and salt; to improve sustainability, they set up a collector in their facility to harvest and reuse the water.

The South and Southeast Asia RIH innovations are:

• First Consolidated Cooperative Along Tañon Seaboards (FCCT) (Philippines) is simplifying the composting process for Filipino farmers through improved technology and better farming training. 
• Shreenagar Agritech Industries Ltd (Nepal) whose solution, AquaLink, focuses on low-cost floating fish feed and other climate smart solutions for fish farming.

The Southern and Central Africa RIH are:

• AgriPredict Solutions Limited (Zambia) has a digital platform that provides weather information, agricultural extension, and market services. 
• Alzanael Private Limited (Zimbabwe) provides farmers with agro-processing services through their solar-powered dryers.
• Bing (Democratic Republic of the Congo) produces briquettes from waste and biochar, which helps to reduce deforestation and rejuvenate soil.
• Freejoy (Democratic Republic of the Congo) works with non-governmental organizations to provide end-users with solar dryers for fish and training on how to use the technology
• Greencare Eco Solutions (Zambia) produces compost-based organic granular fertilizer and liquid organic fertilizer.
• Ovos de Ouro (Mozambique) produces day-old chicks, eggs, layers (chickens that lay eggs), and chicken feed; and they offer extension services and advisory support. 
• RDG Collective (Zambia) reduces end-users’ reliance on rain-fed irrigation by offering pay-as-you-go solar water pumps and micro-irrigation products.
• Sustainable Builders Zambia (Zambia) focuses on strategies to tackle constraints in the agricultural supply chain that affect smallholder farmers through business and agronomic advisory services. 

The Open Call for Innovations is an activity under Water and Energy for Food: A Grand Challenge for Development (WE4F). WE4F is an international partnership amongst the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). WE4F aims to increase food production, impact poverty, and promote biodiversity, climate, and environmental resilience by sustainably scaling solutions to meet the challenges in the water-energy-food nexus. 

The Middle East and North Africa RIH is a consortium of Berytech, cewas, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Chemonics Egypt; South and Southeast Asia RIH is a consortium of Tetra Tech and DevWorks International; and the Southern and Central Africa RIH is a consortium of Tetra Tech, Open Capital Advisors, and IWMI.