Sesi Technologies Is Tackling Africa's Food Loss Problem with a Moisture Meter

One-third of all food produced globally, approximately 1.3 billion tons, is lost or wasted each year. Although food waste is prevalent in middle-income and high-income countries worldwide, post-harvest food loss poses a much more significant challenge in developing countries.

In Africa, food loss affects the financial stability and food security of smallholder farmers and is a key reason why the continent remains a net importer of food products.

Most food loss occurs during storage, preservation, and transportation. Farmers store grains in woven baskets or bags, and determine moisture content by biting the grain or feeling inside the bag. They can rarely afford a moisture meter, which could objectively measure the moisture content of stored grain. The crude storage and measuring techniques, however, increase the chance that the grain will be infested by mold and pests, two major causes of post-harvest loss.

Sesi Technologies is a Ghana-based agritech company focused on reducing post-harvest losses and improving farm productivity. It designs hardware and software products for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses in Africa to help them increase their yield and maximise their profits.

Isaac Sesi, a Ghanaian entrepreneur and engineer, founded Sesi Technologies in March 2018 to commercialize a moisture meter created by the U.S Department of Agriculture. Sesi worked with Kansas State University’s Post-Harvest Loss Reduction Innovation Lab (PHLIL) to modify the moisture meter’s battery life, price, and supported grain types. The result was GrainMate, a low-cost, indigenous moisture meter specifically built for African smallholders.

GrainMate measures moisture, temperature, and humidity and displays the information on a backlit LCD screen. It can be calibrated for 32 different grains and is priced affordably at 800 cedis (approximately $73), which is about four times cheaper than professional-grade moisture meters. It is also available as a storage warehouse monitor that takes temperature and moisture readings to ensure they don’t exceed certain thresholds.

Sesi’s mission is “to lead the way to no poverty and zero hunger in Africa by empowering farmers and businesses with impactful technology solutions.” The company’s latest innovation, FarmSense, is a soil intelligence platform that combines a handheld soil sensor, a mobile app, and a web dashboard. The company also buys hermetic bags for crop storage (such as the ZeroFly hermetic bag) and resells them to farmers. These bags can preserve stored grains for up to two years, protecting them from mold and pests.

Sesi Technologies’ products have served more than 8,000 farmers in Ghana and beyond. However, adoption has been much slower than Sesi and his team expected. Most smallholder farmers are hesitant to invest in equipment, especially when it requires an upfront payment.

Sesi started Sesi Technologies to commercialize the PHL moisture meter and make it accessible to millions of farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa. These farmers usually operate on thin profit margins, and even a small reduction in post-harvest loss can make a huge difference.