The hackathon held during the conference, which addressed how through information and communication technologies to engage young people in the agricultural sector. Experts believe that the key to solving the problem of hunger in Africa. According to the common determinant of hunger (GHI) for 2017, seven of the eight countries with extremely alarming or alarming levels of hunger are located South of the Sahara is the Central African Republic, Chad, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Zambia.

While high unemployment along with other issues, forcing African youth to leave rural areas and move to cities. At the same time, older farmers are working in the context of climate change, poverty and poor infrastructure. This leads to the fact that, with 65% of arable land in the world, African States annually spend $35 billion on food imports for the growing population.

"In our families consider agriculture an unprofitable business. It does not bring incomes, - said one of the participants of the hackathon 24-year-old Rwandan Wilson. We believe that farmers will use the technology after seeing the benefits that they give."

Among the developments of the contestants - an app that connects young farmers and landowners in Senegal on the principle of Tinder (an app for online Dating according to the specified parameters, and taking into account the location of users), mobile blockchain platform that helps Nigerian farmers to prove your creditworthiness landlords of the earth, and also the device that allows you to optimize the costs of water and fertilizer, running on solar batteries.

The winners of the hackathon were the authors of the application AgriPredict already operating in Zambia. It helps farmers to determine what disease or pest has affected their culture. The program, in particular, recognizes corn deciduous scoop (Spodoptera frugiperda) insect, from caterpillars which affects many farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

The project was born in response to the disastrous for the Zambian people the consequences of the invasion of the South American tomato moth (tuta absoluta) and corn deciduous scoops in 2016. "We have noticed a shortage of tools that could help farmers to mitigate or even prevent damage of crops," - said the Executive Director of the project mouila, Kangwa.

According to the member of the jury of the hackathon and an expert on digital innovation in FAO Henry van Bergstaden, the team showed a "highly technical decision and the ability to convey a message to young people through Facebook (access to the application can be obtained by downloading to the device or through a social network - approx. +1)". As prizes the winners will receive trainings of FAO, which will allow to improve the design and meet with potential partners and sponsors.

Photo: inform-ua.info