Hackathon launches apps for agriculture

But this was a hackathon with a difference. Determined to produce concrete results with a real impact for young entrepreneurs and small-scale producers, CTA organisers decided to customise the concept and make it more of a learning and entrepreneurial exercise. Instead of lasting just a few days or a week, this first CTA “hackathon” and its accompanying activities were spread over the space of a year, with preparation and follow-up activities to support participants.The Agrihack Championship, which focused on East Africa, took the form of a regional tournament, with key stakeholders involved in the preliminary phase to identify the agricultural challenges needing solutions from ICT applications. A series of national selection events was held before the nine most promising entries, drawn from six countries, were invited to the finals, held in Kigali, Rwanda on November 7, 2013 as part of CTA’s 2013 ICT4Ag Conference. All the entries were from young people interested in developing ICT solutions for agriculture. Many of them are still students.