USAID Announce Inaugural Asia EDGE Agriculture-Energy Prize Winners

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USAID Announce Inaugural Asia EDGE Agriculture-Energy Prize Winners
The WE4F Asia EDGE Mid-Stage Grand Prize winner, ATEC Biodigesters International, provides rural farming families across Cambodia tools to turn organic material into energy through a pay-as-you go financing method.
ATEC Biodigesters International

For Immediate Release

Friday, June 19, 2020

BANGKOK - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today the five winners of the first WE4F Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) Agriculture-Energy Prize.

“The Water and Energy for Food Asia EDGE prize recognizes and rewards promising innovators at the nexus of renewable energy and agriculture,” said Juniper Neill, USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia Deputy Mission Director. “The $345,000 in cash prizes will help the winning entrepreneurs mobilize private investment to implement modern energy technologies—ultimately to expand market opportunities in renewable energy for securing food systems.”

The WE4F Asia EDGE Mid-Stage Grand Prize winner, ATEC Biodigesters International, provides rural farming families across Cambodia tools to turn organic material into energy through a pay-as-you go financing method.

The WE4F Asia EDGE Youth Innovator Grand Prize winner, RecyGlo, is a waste management, reporting platform that operates in Myanmar. The company also sells, franchises, and co-develops waste-to-energy and natural fertilizer solutions in other Asian countries.

USAID also congratulates the runners-up of this year’s Prize: Gham Power, Claro Energy, and Agrosolar. Launched in December 2019, the inaugural Asia EDGE Agriculture-Energy Prize attracted more than 70 other applicants from 20 countries across Asia. 

The Prize is an activity under the Water and Energy for Food: A Grand Challenge for Development (WE4F), an international partnership among the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands, Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. WE4F aims to increase food production, impact gender and poverty, and promote biodiversity and climate and environmental resilience by sustainably scaling solutions to meet the challenges in the water-energy-food nexus.  To learn more, visit: www.we4f.org and follow @WE4FGCD on Twitter.

The Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) Initiative is a U.S. whole-of-government effort to grow sustainable and secure energy markets throughout the Indo-Pacific. To learn more, visit: https://www.usaid.gov/indo-pacific-vision/nrm/asia-edge and follow @USAIDAsia on Facebook and Twitter.