Team 16 wins the hackathon with a proposal for an advisory service for Sudanese farmers

On Friday 16/12/2022, the closing event for the 1st online WaPOR hackathon organized by WaPOR partner, IHE Delft, took place virtually and was livestreamed on youtube (you can watch it in its entirety ▶ here). It was the culmination of 2 weeks of work for the 6 teams that made it to the final round, after having their pitches selected in an event at the half-way mark.

During the hackathon, the participating teams had a pool of experts that they could tap into to help them consolidate their ideas on how to use WaPOR data for the monitoring and evaluation of global challenges, the theme of this event. 

Team 16, composed of Mohammed Salah, Maher Raoof, Ahmed Abobakr, Waleed Hashim, Rashid Sami, Eyad Rami, won after presenting a proposal for a monitoring system for agricultural areas in Sudan that is based on a combination of WaPOR data and other local data, that could advise farmers via SMS on the best practices that could allow them to increase their productivity while avoiding over-irrigation and over-fertalisation, two major problems in agricultural areas in the country. As were those of other finalists, their proposal was strong; it included a business plan and a clear path towards implementation. They will benefit from financial and mentoring help from IHE Delft towards implementing their ideas. 

As mentioned in the pitch, in Sudan agriculture is both the largest contributor to national income, but also the largest water user, which means that takling over-usage of water in this sector can help alleviate the severe water scarcity that the country is going through as well as help improve farmer's yield. 

▶▶ To find out more about team 16's winning proposal, watch their pitch here. 

▶ You are also able to watch the recordings of other events linked to the hackathon: the opening session and the closing of the 1st week of hackathon.