"I have a friend who is a farmer who used to notice each year that he had lost half his crop production," the 30-year-old, who has been making robots since he was ten, told the Telegraph.
"I came up with the idea of building a robot after he reached out to me as an engineer to see if I could help."
Farmers can see where they need to irrigate their crops by using the FarmBot's humidity sensors to track soil moisture levels.
Mr. Kodo is renting the robot to farmers after spending eight months developing and testing it.
In order to expand their deployment into rural areas with more farmers, he now plans to construct 50 more over the course of the next three years.
The selection for a coveted prize for African inventors and entrepreneurs includes sensors to maintain the health of beehives, health monitors for infants, and a farm robot that patrols fields to warn farmers of crop illness.
The finalists for this year's Africa Prize from the Royal Academy of Engineering will compete for a portion of the £85,000 prize fund.
In its eleventh year, the award is the biggest in the continent for promoting technical innovation, with participants addressing issues ranging from healthcare to renewable energy and food shortages.
Recipients of the award have raised over £29 million in capital to further develop their innovations.
