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ICT4Ag Hackathon National Winners AnnouncedThe ICT for Agriculture (ICT4Ag) international conference and its parallel hackathon (dubbed “Agri-hack championship”) is taking place (4th – 8th November 2013) in Kigali Rwanda. The conference seeks to examine how ICTs are truly empowering producers and consumers along the entire value chain. Earlier this year, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) launched a call for expression of interest for hubs to hold national events across East Africa. 9 Hubs, which are among the key ones in East Africa, were selected. Each of these hubs organized national hackathons or selection events.Winning teamsThe winning teams from each hub’s national event are as follows:

• Hive Colab (Uganda)- The Agripreneur – Digital Platform to connect and harmonize key Youth stakeholders along the agricultural value chain. By Byamugisha Donald and Denis Izakare
• OutBox (Uganda)- ENSIBUUKO: Leveraging mobile and web technologies to improve access to finance for better household livelyhood. By David Opio and Gerald Otim.
• iBiz Africa (Kenya) – Kosmerc Systems: Mobile app providing location based information to farmers on favourable crops, seeds, fertilizer, farm management and soil type. By Jeffrey Cherogony and Clinton Busolo.
• C4DLab(Kenya)-  FARM DRIVE: Digital book keeping app to enhance credit-worthiness for a 21st century farmer by James Macharia Kimani and Caroline Mbithe Muteti.
• Habaka Madagascar Innovation Hub – HighHay: Project Management application for farming by Joelisata RABEHARISOLO and Miradontsoa Asafa ANDRIANARISON.
• Buni Hub(Tanzania) – AgrInfo: Farm Plots GIS by Rose Peter Funja and Grace  Slyvester Makanyaga.
• Kinu Group Limited (Tanzania) – HabariMazao: SMS, USSD, and Web based platform for collection and sharing of market price data – from markets to the farmers by Elilaki Bariki Guard and Ntomoka Sugwejo Kaboda.
• IceAddis (Ethiopia) – mAgric: by Mr. Nebiyou Yirga Wolde and Dr. Abeselom Samson Joseph

 iHub (Kenya) was selected as non competing hub. They will send a team to showcase their product but will not compete with the teams from the other hubs. The team that will represent iHub is Smart Agriculture- Automatic weather stations that sends updates on when to plant to farmers, etc via sms by Tom Ekajja  and Cyrus Baraza.During the Finals of the Agri-hack Championship in Kigali (04 to 07 November 2013), all applications will be fined-tuned. National teams will received advices from key stakeholders and users. Each national winner will get a prize. After a pitching session, the best three applications selected by a panel of judges will receive awards as described below:

• Cash Prizes
  • 5000 Euros for the Overall winner
  • 4000 Euros for the Runner Up winner
  • 3000 Euros for the Second Runner up
• Six month incubation and mentoring

The winning teams will be offered incubation and mentoring for six month in the hubs that they are affiliated with to support finalization of their applications and hopeful kick start their businesses.The teams from each hub were given these challenges to work on:

• Challenge 1: How can bi-directional information sharing and communication between farmers and extension workers be encouraged or improved? Key areas of interest include information sharing and advisory on soil fertility, fertilizers, weather information, pests, diseases, access to localized farming inputs, multimedia content and ability to verify counterfeit products
• Challenge 2: Through ICT applications, how can access to financial services be made easier for farmers through a disruptive, innovative tool?

The teams will now work on their product as they await the finals where they will be required to pitch in front of expert judges, mentors and fellow entrepreneurs. They will also be required to have working products during their presentation at the finals. kLab, is the hosting hub and will conduct its national selection event on 19th and 20th Oct. If you are in Kigali and would like to participate in this event, sign up HERE: http://klab.rw/public/event/37.The Agri-hack Championship is organized by CTA in partnership with various stakeholders including MINAGRI (Rwanda), MYICT (Rwanda) and with the financial contribution of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). m:lab East Africa is the technical manager of this event.For more information, visit www.ict4ag.org;  Email: agrihack-admin@ict4ag.org