Innovative Mobile Applications for Sustainable Agriculture

FAO Liaison Office in Geneva and the Geneva Trade Platform (GTP) organized a Hackathon competition, inviting students all over the world to provide innovative ideas on mobile applications that could improve outcomes for farmers and policy makers. 

Among the submissions, three hackathon finalists were invited to present their ideas. Team B2 from Bulgaria presented an application for small producers that measures and analyses farmers’ environmental footprints and connects them to support services. Team Garbatella from Spain proposed an application that would connect small producers with local consumers and Team Winners from Switzerland presented an application to support sustainable fertilizer use by farmers, which could also support domestic policy making. 

A panel of experts evaluated the finalists’ ideas based on the creativity and originality, whether the proposals solve a genuine problem, the feasibility of the proposal, and the style, structure and clarity of the presentations. After an in-depth evaluation, Team Winners won first place and Team Garbatella and Team B2 tied for second place. 

During the event, Cathy Sall, Associate Programme Officer of the International Trade Center (ITC), and Rolf Traeger, the Least Developed Countries Section Chief of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), shared their work on agriculture and technology.  

Cathy Sall introduced her work at ITC on tech sector development and entrepreneurship, especially in relation to start-ups in developing countries. She highlighted how smallholders often face challenges relating to access to credit, access to inputs, access to data, and market access. 

Rolf Traeger spoke about UNCTAD's work on Least Developed Countries and underlined the need for sound policy and traditional modes of service provision that may be needed alongside app-based or other technology-enabled services. He emphasized the need for innovations to be adapted to local contexts. 

FAO and Geneva Trade Platform 

FAO and the Geneva Trade Platform (GTP) have partnered to organize a series of events themed around the role of the multilateral trading system, supporting innovative approaches to strengthening agricultural sustainability. Previous events covered how trade, sustainability and agriculture can further be integrated into the multilateral policy discussions; and the needs of LDCs in this context. The next and last event of this series will take place on 12 December and focus on greening agricultural subsidies.