Aiming to build data-sharing solutions for palm oil farmers, Grow Asia names winner of its first hackathon
Grow Asia is a multistakeholder partnership platform established by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in partnership with the ASEAN Secretariat
Grow Asia Hackathon winner Team A
Grow Asia, a multistakeholder partnership platform established by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in partnership with the ASEAN Secretariat, today announced Team A as the winner of its first hackathon event held at Unilever’s LEVEL3 campus, Singapore.
Hosted in collaboration with Unilever, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), and Bayer, the two-day hackathon aims to build data-sharing solutions to improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of smallholder palm oil farmers in Southeast Asia.
Participated by over 80 individuals including students and startups, the event saw 21 teams pitching their ideas to a panel of judges.
Winning team Team A presented an online messaging tool or chatbot that aims to inspire farmers to learn sustainable methods and best practices from other farmers.
According to a press statement, the team was chosen as winner due to the user-friendliness aspect of the technology that it is using. The solutions will also require low production costs.
The team took home a S$5,000 (US$3,700) cash prize to further develop their solutions. Grow Asia and its partners will also support the team in the further implementation of its technology.
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During the event, participants received mentorship from mentors at Bayer, MUFG, Unilever, Yara, Cargill, Forum for the Future, Eachmile Technologies, International Finance Cooperation (IFC), Daemeter, The IDH (Sustainable Trade Initiative) and Ocean Protocol to help refine their solution.
Participants were also provided with real-world data, including satellite imagery from Planet Labs and weather data from IBM’s The Weather Company.
As an organisation, Grow Asia aims to reach 10 million smallholder farmers by 2020, helping them access knowledge, technology, finance, and markets to increase their productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability by 20 per cent.
The institution brings stakeholders such as smallholder farmers, governments, companies, and NGOs to develop “inclusive and sustainable” value chains that benefit farmers. It launches and supports locally driven Country Partnerships.
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Image Credit: Grow Asia
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