The Centre for
Technical Agriculture (CTA) is offering East African computer programmers a
fantastic opportunity to display their skills in a four-day hackathon, says Ken
Lohento, the Programme Coordinator on Information and Communication Technology
for Development (ICT4D) at CTA.
He also told NaijaAgroNet that the hackathon will
take place from 4-8 November in Kigali, Rwanda as a parallel event to the ICT4Ag conference,
adding that the competitors would be expected to develop ICT applications that
offer solutions to key agriculture information challenges.
Lohento disclosed to NaijaAgroNet that CTA is organising
this hackathon in partnership with East African ICT hubs and labs (iHubs),
stressing that the iHubs will each propose teams of two or three people,
including developers and designers, to compete in the hackathon.
According to him, the
top three applications develop and the iHubs supporting them will receive a
substantial prize including cash awards, capacity building and incubation
opportunities. In addition, the winning applications will be showcased at the
ICT4Ag awards dinner.
He explained that this
hackathon, is the first for CTA, as a pilot exercise with the aim to highlight
the potential of ICT applications in agriculture and to support the development
of ICT innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture especially by young
people.
In order to ensure
that the applications developed meet the needs of those in agriculture in East
Africa and that the developers have the opportunity to further refine and
launch the applications after the event, CTA are involving, from the start, key
East African stakeholders.
International
organisations supporting agricultural development, business development or ICT services
will also be consulted, while they will contribute to the identification of the
agricultural challenges to be used in the hackathon.
“They will also assist in the design of strategies enabling the adoption of the winning application,” he said, emphasizing that a planning meeting will take place from 16-17 July in Rwanda to prepare for the hackathon.
Remmy Nweke
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