Agricultural organizations across East Africa are working hard to help
smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate and marketplace. Data
is crucial to this adaptation, but organizations face challenges
collecting reliable field data, sharing information with partners, and
communicating actionable insights back to farmers.
To help improve the status quo, Nafundi (http://nafundi.com) has
partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and aWhere
(http://awhere) to bring together East African agricultural
organizations and developers for a Hack4Farming
(https://hack4farming.github.io) event in Nairobi, Kenya.
From October 16th to October 18th at Sankara Nairobi, we will train
developers on useful data collection tools like Open Data Kit, connect
these developers with organizations in need, and support both as they
brainstorm and build solutions during a hackathon. Teams will compete
for the best solution and the winner will earn a consultancy contract
to further develop their idea.
In addition to the training and hackathon, we will be hosting a
kickoff and networking reception on the evening of October 16th. The
reception will feature a keynote speech by Dr. Bitange Ndemo
(http://bitangendemo.me), former Permanent Secretary of Kenya's
Ministry of Information and Communication.
We hope all of you in the East African developer community will be
able to join us for the Hack4Farming hackathon in Nairobi from October
16th to 18th. To sign up, go to https://hack4farming.github.io
Thanks,
Yaw