How to get help

Get in touch with the TAAT e-catalogs team via email:
e-catalogs@taat-africa.org ›

For technology providers

To add your technology to the e-catalogs, start by creating an account. When you are logged in to your account, go to My Technologies and click on 'Create new'. You will find a description of the process, detailed guidance and help documents on this page: Technology Providers

For technology adopters

Browse our technologies and use the search filters to find technologies suitable for your projects. Use the 'Request information' button if you have any questions or feedback for the TAAT team about the technology. We will try our best to get answers to your questions and we can arrange an introduction on your request.

---

Glossary of terms

Adopted in

Here we list countries in which the technology is used by end users without the technical intervention of the technology providers. In fact, we offer two options: countries where a technology has been tested, and countries where a technology has been adopted.

Adopters

People looking for innovative technologies to improve their agricultural productivity: private sector actors (start-up, investors, distributors, ...), as well as public sector decision-makers.

Adoption

The process of accepting and implementing a new technology in their farming systems.

Climate Impact

Here, we assess our technologies with regard to Climate Smart Agriculture (https://ccafs.cgiar.org/climate-smart-agriculture), and we look at the impact of each technology on:

• Increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; 
• Adapting and building resilience to climate change; 
• Reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

Compact

A formal agreement or commitment between stakeholders in the agriculture industry to work together towards a shared goal or objective, such as improving soil health or increasing crop yields.

Gender Assessment

We base our assessment of the impact of our technologies on social groups that could be impacted on the GenderUp approach promoted by the UC Davies and the CGIAR (https://genderup.ucdavis.edu/)

The GenderUp approach is a conversation-based method that supports project and research teams in scaling agricultural innovations in a responsible and socially inclusive way. GenderUp allows team involved in scaling to acknowledge and eliminate barriers that hinder the involvement of various social groups, particularly women, in utilizing innovations. It helps us to understand how the use of an innovation can potentially have adverse effects on different social groups.

In the TAAT e-catalogs, where possible, we record the potential impact on at-risk social groups through a documentation of diversity, intersectionality and impact mitigation.

IP

This section tells you about the Intellectual Property (IP) status of the technology. It can be Open Source/Open Access or it can come with IP rights, formal or informal. Formal IP rights include Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, and Plant Variety Protection. If a technology is not Open Source, the owner may be open to grant licences.

Key points to design your business plan

We introduce here essential elements to develop your business plan: a brief list of important questions to consider before launching your new business, and where available, information on the technology's value proposition, target audience, key resources, strategic partners, and cost structure. This section will assist you in evaluating the various crucial aspects to ensure the success of your business.

Key points to design your project

We introduce here important information to assist you in incorporating this technology into your project. To facilitate this, we present how the technology can impact gender, climate, and sustainable development goals. Where available, we provide a list of activities to plan for your project, a toolkit for optimizing the technology, suggestions for key partners, and communication tools about the technology.

Key points to design your program

We introduce here essential information to help you integrate this technology into your program. This includes highlighting the technology’s potential impact on gender equality, climate resilience, and sustainable development goals. Where available, we provide case studies, a list of projects where the technology has been inserted, a toolkit to optimize its use, and recommendations for key partners.

Projects where the technology has been implemented, in the Development Partners e-catalog

In the Development Partners e-catalog, technology profiles include, where available, the projects and countries where the technology was or will be deployed. 

TAAT has the objective of improving the effectiveness of large government-led development projects by including the best technologies in these projects. The TAAT Clearinghouse’s Country Engagement team advises project teams during the design and review phases on which best technologies could be selected and integrated. 

In the Development Partners e-catalog, we provide the name of these projects where the technology has been successfully  integrated. As soon as it will be available,  we will update the technology profiles with the projects' Monitoring and Evaluation data, to link to impact measurement. 

These projects are tangible examples of how technologies are scaled across Africa to address food security, enhance climate resilience, and promote sustainable livelihoods.

Pipeline view

The TAAT e-catalogs, by default, only show technologies that are pre-validated (automatic assessment based on Scaling readiness) or validated (judgement by the validation committee).

However, users can decide to see all the technologies submitted to the TAAT database, including those that have not yet been pre- or fully validated. This is known as the “Pipeline view” and can be switched on from the e-catalog’s filters. 

Problem

A short description of what problem this technology helps solving. We see all our technologies as potential solutions. But unless you know what problem you need to solve, it will be difficult to find the right solution.

Scaling Readiness

Scaling Readiness is a science-based assessment of the status of innovations or technologies in terms of their development stage and ability to be scaled. Scaling Readiness is also used to accelerate this development for scaling (https://www.scalingreadiness.org/).

Scaling Readiness produces a score that measures an innovation’s or a technology’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the innovation or technology has been used so far. Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 0 is where you start the research and development journey and 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status, at the end of R&D.

Axis 1: Maturity of the idea – this is about the concept, the blueprint for the innovation or technology.

• • Concept tested (8) and validated (9) in uncontrolled environment (that’s the real world)
  • Semi-controlled testing (6) and prototype (7) in a controlled environment – in a semi-controlled environment, some parameters are kept under control but others are relaxed: the environment resembles the real world in some regards, but not all.
  • Controlled testing (4) leading to model or early prototype (5) – R&D typically takes place in a “controlled environment”, where researchers keep some parameters constant or optimal to simplify and speed up research.
  • Idea for the technology (0) initial research (1) leading to formulation (2) then Proof of Concept (3)

Axis 2: Level of use – this is about who actually has used the technology or innovation so far.

• • The technology has been used in the real world, by its intended users and without connection to the technology provider’s project:
    • This is happening widely (9)
    • This is happening a little (8)
  • The technology has been used by other projects and organizations:
    • Projects or organizations that are NOT connected to the technology provider, in several cases (7)
    • or a few cases (6)
    • Projects or organizations that are connected to the technology provider, in several cases (5)
    • or a few cases (4)
  • The technology has only been used in the technology provider’s organization:
    • The technology has been used by their project team and direct partners (3)
    • The technology has been used by of their whole project team (2)
    • The technology has been used only by project leaders (1)

Examples of Scaling Readiness scores on a 9 x 9 matrix where the vertical axis is the maturity of the idea, and the horizontal axis is the level of use.

Scaling Readiness for the e-catalogs:

In the TAAT e-catalogs, we use the second axis (who has used the innovation or technology so far) to evaluate whether this innovation or technology is ready to be scaled, in our pre-validation approach. This status is then reviewed and needs confirmation by our independent validation committee. 

We require the level of maturity of the idea to be 8 or above, and the usage level to be 7 or above, for a technology or innovation to be pre-validated.  

These are therefore the idea maturity levels necessary for pre-validation:

• • Concept validated (9) in uncontrolled environment
  • Concept tested (8) in uncontrolled environment

And the usage levels necessary for pre-validation:

• • The technology has been used in the real world, by its intended users and without connection to the technology provider’s project:
    • This is happening widely (9)
    • This is happening a little (8)
  • The technology has been used by other projects and organizations:
    • Projects or organizations that are NOT connected to the technology provider, in several cases (7)

Solution

How this technology helps solving the problem at hand. Not that in the vast majority of cases, one technology alone will not solve the problem. This is why we suggest accompanying technologies or toolkits of technologies.

Validation

Technologies presented in the TAAT e-catalogs are validated: we ensure that they are ready to be used, and that, when used correctly, they will deliver as promised. We use a two-step validation approach: (1) for a pre-validation, we estimate the Scaling Readiness of the technology, based on the information provided by the Technology Provider, and in collaboration with them. If the technology is ranked at 7 or above on the 0 to 9 “innovation use” axis, that records prior cases of use of the technology by end-users, in the real world. (2) the pre-validated technologies are reviewed by a committee of very experienced, independent specialists who decide, based on the information available and their experience, whether the technology should be validated or not.

Note that the TAAT Technology Database underlying the TAAT e-catalogs receives technology profiles for all technologies, validated or not. Technology Providers can update their technology’s profile when technology development has progressed, and the validation status will change accordingly. A technology that is not yet validated can be seen in the e-catalogs by selecting the optional “Pipeline” view that shows all technologies in the TAAT database, regardless of validation status.

Note also that technologies selected by TAAT during the first phase of the project (2018 to 2022) were validated by the original TAAT project and steering committee. This validation did not take into account Scaling Readiness and there was no dedicated validation committee. In the e-catalogs, this different level of validation is displayed as “Validated TAAT1”.

Validation committee

This committee is made of experienced, independent personalities, who provide an unbiased vetting of the agricultural technologies for inclusion in the TAAT e-catalogs. The validation committee has final say on whether a technology is validated or not. 

The TAAT e-catalogs only offer technologies for which we have been able to assess the readiness to scale. This assessment is based on supporting evidence provided by technology providers, informing on the maturity of the technology.

Before the review by the committee, technologies undergo an automated assessment of their scaling readiness. Those technologies that have reached a high enough level on the Scaling Readiness index of use, will automatically be pre-validated. The committee then decides to fully validate or not, based on available evidence and their common knowledge of the African agricultural and technological knowledge.

Of course the validation status depends on available evidence on the technology and its usage: this will change over time and will then be reflected in the automated pre-validation status and the validation status after review by the committee.

Where it can be used

“Agroecological zones (AEZs) are geographical areas exhibiting similar climatic conditions that determine their ability to support rainfed agriculture. At a regional scale, AEZs are influenced by latitude, elevation, and temperature, as well as seasonality, and rainfall amounts and distribution during the growing season. The resulting AEZ classifications for Africa have three dimensions: major climate zone (tropics or subtropics), moisture zones (water availability) and highland/lowland (warm or cool based on elevation).”  (IFPRI, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=hdl:1902.1/22616)

On our maps, we display in colors the AEZ where a technology can be used, but leave uncolored the AEZ where it has not been tested and validated. When you display the “details” about AEZ, we also show you the information in tabular format.