Farming hackathon to take place in Nairobi

Hack4Farming is calling on Nairobi-based programmers, developers, analysts and data scientists apply to take part in the event, with space limited.

“Agriculture companies and researchers across the world are working to help smallholder farmers adapt to changing conditions and to take advantage of new technologies,” the organisers said. “But it remains challenging to provide insights that are current, relevant, and specific to the farmer’s location and circumstances.”

To tackle these problems, the event is looking to develop data solutions that can be utilised by East African seed companies to offer farmers actionable information or products to help them cope with challenges such as adverse weather conditions, poor soils, and market access problems.

“Fortunately, more data and technologies are available to East African agribusiness than ever before, ready to be packaged into innovative tools and market insights,” the organisers said.

“At Hack4Farming Nairobi 2016, seed company representatives will present their most pressing information challenges to teams of Nairobi-based software developers, and the hackers will have 48 hours to design, prototype, and pitch solutions.”

Hack4Farming aims to demonstrate the potential of advanced agriculture intelligence in the East African market, and will connect agribusiness actors with developers. The winning hackathon team, as determined by a panel of judges, will receive a shared cash prize of $2,000, as well as the opportunity to work with aWhere and participating seed companies to develop and deploy their project.