Edo state has hosted Agric Data Hackaton 2015, which is Nigeria’s first hackaton on government open data. The tech competition was organized by the state ICT agency in partnership with the agric ministry and SabiHub, the state’s only tech hub.
Participants were asked analyze challenges facing the state’s agric sector to proffer tech solutions, using the available agriculture datasets on Edo State open data portal.
Speaking at the event, Yemi Keri, Managing Director of Edo state ICT Agency described the state’s open data platform as one that allows citizen engagement and participation in governance. She said: “Our achievements are not just for the government but for all to tap into freely hence our data is licensed under the creative common license that enables the free use and reuse of datasets on the portal, providing innovative flexibility of the use of data.”
In his remark, Abdul Oroh, the state commissioner for agriculture urged participants to leverage the available dataset on agriculture to create simple solutions to some of the challenges facing agricultural sector in Edo state.
According to Nigeria Communications Week, the challenges include obsolete skills and out-dated technology; inadequate and inaccurate baseline data coupled with poor record keeping as well as lack of qualified personnel collect data from the field; inadequate agro-services to meet the needs of farmers; poor accessibility to credits by farmers; inadequate land; low income and exploitation of farmers by middlemen; non availability of structured market for agricultural products and inadequate storage infrastructure.
He also mentioned low range of enlightenment campaign, inability to prioritize areas of comparative advantage, absence of access roads and lack of processing plants for most of the farm produce.
