An application to connect farm producers with markets and prospective buyers in the neighbourhood has emerged the winner at the Hack4Farming hackathon in ICRISAT here.
In all 11 teams, with most of them comprising eight members, participated in the two-day event organised by the premier institution in association with Microsoft, T-Hub incubator and aWhere of the US from Thursday.
The winning team 'DARe-Digital Agri. Rural eMarketing' was made up of six persons from the ICRISAT and two mentors from Microsoft. Four of the six are research scholars.
Good ideas
Announcing the winner on Friday, Director General of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) David Bergvinson said participants of the hackathon submitted very good ideas related to agriculture and associated areas.
Shalander Kumar of the ICRISAT and the system modeller of the winning team said that the focus was on devising a digital solution to help farmers realise good price for their produce and cut down on the transaction cost they incurred now. The cloud-based app will connect farmers to markets, buyers as well as transporters, all in an area of 40-45 km. It would facilitate price discovery for the farm product and serve as a window on weather information.
Apart from the prize money of $ 2000, the winning team gets an opportunity to avail business and sector specific mentorship services with T-Hub to develop their idea into a viable product.
Technology tools
Microsoft India R&D Pvt. Ltd. Managing Director Anil Bhansali said that the IT major, whose technology tools powered the hackathon, was keen on strengthening its partnership with the ICRISAT.
Agriculture, according to Rama Iyer, senior vice-president of T-Hub, is one area where technology could make a big impact.
Mr. Bergvinson said "Digital technology can accelerate the pace of developing and delivery sustainable and equitable solutions to smallholder farmers and in doing so enable us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals before 2030".
