By Chelsey Keith P. Ignacio, Special Features Writer
Producing a more sustainable agriculture and food system is vital for the country’s growing population. And with clever imagination and novel thinking, the value chain can substantially improve.
The Hack4Food: Agriculture and Food Innovation Challenge 2022 by the Rotary Club of Makati aims to cultivate creativity and collaboration in solving the challenges in the agriculture and food systems. This one-week virtual hackathon is open to all stakeholders, especially the youth, to make a positive impact in agriculture and food challenges.
“The Hack4Food project provides an opportunity to our young IT practitioners [to] apply their creative talent and inventive minds for something profitable and empowering to the sectors that produce our food. Ironically, these are the sectors that continue to be marginalized in Philippine society. They are the sectors that will benefit from an initiative that will improve their lives and stir up their communities,” Atty. Luis Angel Aseoche, president of Rotary Club Makati, said during the launch on Jan. 25.
The Hack4Food challenges cover three areas of focus: education, supporting the environment, and economic development.
“Under the education area of focus, the Hack4Food project challenges the youth to use their creative talent to design value chain systems that would take into account climate change and other risks, as well as develop forecasting models and tools that would guide them in formulating decisions with respect to value chains,” Mr. Aseoche shared.
In terms of supporting the environment, the hackathon aims to encourage farmers to engage in crop diversification, which has been proven to help fertilize the soil.
“This project would also make them veer away from traditional farming methods and practices that denude our forests, start forest fires, kill animals, and harm the environment,” he added.
He also said that the project seeks to improve the lives of farmers and fishermen through practices that result in economies of scale. It also aims to empower them by encouraging them to form groups to create practices that can enhance overall efficiency and productivity, upgrade operations, and increase profit.
Some possible outputs for the Hack4Food are business or value chain model, technology apps, digital farming apps, analytical farming tools, and innovative farming methodology. Participants can also develop other solutions.
The Hack4Food is open to groups of two to five participants or as an individual who must be Filipino citizens within the Philippines. While the competition does not have an age limit, the youth and younger generation are strongly encouraged to participate.
The deadline for registration of participants will be on Feb. 26 at 11:59 p.m. The submission guidelines will be released also on Feb. 26, which the registered participants will receive through their registered emails. The submission deadline for projects or proposals will be on Mar. 5 at 11:59 p.m.
Winners will receive the prizes of P50,000 (first place), P30,000 (second place), and P20,000 (third place).
The Hack4Food is presented by the Rotary Club of Makati, in collaboration with Rotary Club of Bay, Rotaract Club of Makati, and the Analytics Association of the Philippines.
