Aiming to encourage and support individuals, developers and innovators in the field of agriculture, the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture has launched the ‘AgriHackathon’, the objective of which will be to stimulate the innovation and creation of digital solutions and platforms that address the challenges of the sector in a ‘smart’ way, contributing to the development of a sustainable agricultural environment in line with the goals of Vision 2030.
According to the Ministry’s explanation, the ‘AgriHackathon’ is a technological competition between innovative solutions to the kingdom’s agricultural challenges, with the potential of transforming them into real projects that support agricultural development goals, enhance food and water security, increase productivity and quality, improve supply chain operations, address agricultural challenges, drive the use of modern and emerging technologies in the agricultural sector, and raise agricultural awareness among different segments of society.
The competition is based on providing new and innovative solutions to different challenges in two tracks: the first revolves around sustainable agricultural development and food security, fishery wealth, promoting sustainable consumption practices, protected cultivation, modern agricultural techniques, water-economising agriculture and rainwater harvesting. The second track deals with plant and animal health, improving preventive measures against animal diseases and pests, and combating red palm weevil.
The Ministry pointed out that the ‘AgriHackathon’ competitions offer participants the opportunity to develop their ideas and showcase their technical capabilities and skills, meet experts and specialists in the agricultural field, and compete in a creativity-boosting atmosphere with financial prizes reaching $80,000 (SAR300,000) for the top three winners.
Registration is open until September 14. Interested parties can visit the ‘AgriHackathon’ official website and follow the required steps to complete the registration process.