The HES-SO Valais-Wallis, in partnership with AGRIDEA, the Swiss association for the development of agriculture and rural areas, organized from May 27 to June 02, 2021, the third edition of the online hackathon on the theme of agriculture and its sectors. This week-long interdisciplinary event brought together farmers, computer scientists, economists, designers and other curious people from all fields wishing to participate in the production of prototypes of innovative agricultural tools and services.
This year, the Innovation Marathon for Agriculture was able to count on several participants from the Valais, Lake Geneva and German-speaking Switzerland to work non-stop to ensure the successful development of the proposed challenges. Thanks to this work and to the numerous skills of the participants, 8 different challenges could be detailed.
The first place was awarded to the challenge "A cash register at the farm", an idea that allows consumers to go and get local products without having to worry about carrying cash, while informing farmers about their available stock.
The second place was awarded to "Agrivoice", a platform gathering farmers' concerns. It allows to identify the real problems on the field and to bring answers to them.
Finally, the third place of the podium was for "The decision support tool for farmers"; an application that informs professionals about the weather, diseases, destructive insects and others concerning their crops.
One of the challenges on the podium will have the opportunity to participate in the AGROVINA exhibition in 2022. The project will be selected in the coming days.
The jury was composed of Mrs. Astrid GERZ, Agridea and Star'Terre collaborator, Mr. Nicolas CRETTENAND, president of the Food Hub association, Mr. Marc-André BERCLAZ, municipal councilor of Sierre and Mrs. Lauriane DANI, general councilor of Sierre and president of the sustainable development commission.
Together they determined, on Wednesday June 2nd during the final presentations, the best projects by noting the qualities of each one. The evaluation criteria took into account the understanding of the idea, the innovation, the link with agriculture, the technique developed and the economic aspect of the project.
For more information: www.agricathon.ch
