The Smart Agriculture Box innovation, introduced by the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs (Dardlea), received recognition at the 2024 South African Breweries-sponsored, Beyond Awards, at the two-day ESG Africa Conference held at Sandton Convention Centre on October 1.
Dardlea entered for the awards through the Beyond Sustainability Project category, competing with hundreds of other big companies with their innovations. These awards provide a platform to recognise people and organisations driving sustainable business practices in Africa and brought together business leaders from all over Africa to address pressing issues in sustainable practices.
This year’s theme was ‘Moving from compliance to impact’, emphasising equipping participants with practical tools to integrate ESG principles within their organisations. Last year, the inaugural Beyond Awards received over 88 entries from a range of companies. For the 2024 edition of these prestigious awards, more than 400 entries were recorded.
This year’s categories were as follows:
1. Beyond large-scale champion: This award recognises and celebrates the organisation that has most successfully embedded sustainability into its business model and practices with significant and measurable impact.
2. Beyond small-scale champion: This award recognises and celebrates the small enterprise with the most substantial impact in sustainability, social responsibility, environmental stewardship and governance.
3. Beyond sustainability report: This award recognises and celebrates the most comprehensive, relevant, honest and engaging sustainability report.
4. Beyond sustainability project: This award recognises and celebrates the most scalable, sustainable, integrated and transformative environmental, social and/or governance project on the African continent.
5. The Beyond African Trailblazer Award: This award recognises and celebrates the most remarkable individual contribution towards advancing sustainability in Africa. Individuals such as business leaders, media personalities, civil society or government officials may apply.
Any individual or organisation with a proven footprint in sustainability may apply for these awards. Entry is free of charge. For more information about entering for the 2025 Beyond Awards, organisations and individuals may visit the official Beyond website at www.beyondawards.co.za.”Even though we did not win in our category, being in the top five is a big win for us, considering that we made it through a gruelling process of interviews and presentations and outperformed many other big companies with their innovations,” said Dr Maanda Dagada, chief director of farmer support and development at Dardlea. “The Smart Box is doing wonders, improving the quality of produce and ultimately the yield, while saving water. Those who are already using it, including Amakhosi, schools, home-based care centres and individual farmers or projects, can attest to that.”