AgriHack West Africa also known as The Youth-Enabled Fish Farming #AgriHack (YEFFA) is currently receiving applications from ICT innovators, developers, fish farmers and fish farming enthusiasts who are based in Nigeria, Benin and Togo.
These applicants would be interested in working towards solving any of the persistent problems of the fish value chain in these countries.
YEFFA is an adaptation of the AgriHack Talent Initiative that CTA has been championing, which aims to support ICT innovations and entrepreneurship in agriculture by youth up to 35 years old.
This is the first time it is taking place in West Africa. Previous editions held in East Africa, the Caribbean and lately Durban AgriHack Talent Challenge all achieved great successes in developing sustainable solutions to challenges in various facets of agriculture and building youth capacity.
Ideas submitted will go through evaluation by an appointed jury with expertise in fish farming, ICTs and business management. Pre-selected entrants will be invited for a boot camp for interactions and coaching, and a final selection of participating teams will be made.
Five teams in each participating city will go for an immersion exercise at predetermined sites. This will help them understand better the present state of the fish farming ecosystem, exchange with practitioners on the field and gain clearer insight into how best to develop their solutions.
A 48-hours hackathon (intensive ICT application development session) will follow right after this immersion. The hackathon will take place simultaneously across all four participating cities. There will be technical and business mentors to guide hackers through their development. Best participants will benefit from additional training in entrepreneurship in ICTs for agriculture service provision, and will be involved in regional and national mentorship and incubation activities for several months. They will also have the opportunity to pitch their applications to potential users and investors in West Africa and beyond.
Best applications developed are expected to be high-impact solutions to identified challenges affecting the value chain of fish farming. The project aims to facilitate employment opportunities to best participants, through capacity building and provision of ICT services to the aquaculture sector in West Africa.
Application portal closes by 12th of April, 2016.
For more information on this challenge, visit the website AgriHack West Africa
