A milk project in Uganda won US$200,000 in the 2008 round of the World Bank grant program, Development Marketplace.

Milk coolers that adapt beer-cooling technology for use by Ugandan farmers is among the winning ideas.

More than $4 million was awarded in seed money to 22 innovative agricultural projects.  Other innovative ideas included rice fields that serve as fertilizer for cost-effective and environmentally sustainable farming in Ecuador and leasing mechanisms for unused dry riverbeds that permit migrants and displaced persons to cultivate fresh produce in Nepal.

Winners represented 16 countries, including 5 from sub-Saharan Africa. 

In Senegal, farmers and fishermen from 40 communities will generate their own biofuel through a method of power transmission using unrefined seed oil straight from the cold press, thus reducing  cost of delivering their products to the market.

With the grants as seed money, winning projects often go on to scale up or replicate elsewhere, winning prestigious awards. Pump Aid, a 2006 winner of a $120,000 grant, secured an additional $25 million to expand water and sanitation services to reach 8 million people in Zimbabwe and Malawi over the next five years.

The Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program that identifies and funds innovative, early-stage development projects with high potential for impact and replication.