About us

AgrIsland Hackathon addresses the organization of an online hackathon with the objective of generating digital solutions to support the agri-food sector on European islands. On top of that, AgrIsland Hackathon will provide a clear roadmap involving ongoing and accessible mechanisms for the selected solutions to successfully hit the market.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SECTOR IN THE ECONOMY

As many sectors, agri-food is being severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. This impact will be even deeper in regions where there are more barriers that shrink the opportunities to a prosper future. The Macaronesia region, made up of islands, gathers several aspects that, together, put the agri-food sector in a poor condition:

Outermost region

Being an outermost region involves several weaknesses itself. Remoteness, poor connection and high economic dependency on a few sectors mainly services are some of the barriers an outermost island has to deal with. Now, COVID-19 has even worsened those aspects. With the general lockdown, vulnerable sectors like agri-food are been pushed to the line of reinventing and looking for innovative solutions that allow them to continue their businesses.

Access to water resources

Although an island is surrounded by water, ironically water access is a major problem. The proper management of water in islands is extremely essential as one of the main water supplies for irrigation is based on desalted water, very demanding energy process. This is an issue in order to follow the principles of the Green Deal on sustainable food system.

Limitation of space

By definition, an island is a small portion of land surrounded by water. Therefore, unlike mainland, optimization of space for agricultural crops is crucial.

Social canteens

Poverty affects the 36% of population in Macaronesia. As an example, in the Canary Islands there are a total of six social canteens in the entire region. Situation in Azores and Madeira is similar. Azores islands are the Portuguese region with the highest poverty rate with even fewer social canteens than CIR. A better management of resources is needed to provide efficient and sustainable solution to nourishment access.

AgrIsland Hackathon will take these issues as a basis ground to work with. It is a fact that Digital Transformation provides the perfect environment to create innovative solutions. New business models arise based on collaborative work and provides new ways of businesses on the agri-food sector.

The AgrIsland Hackathon is an iniciative funded through the open call ‘RESPOND’ of the SmartAgriHubs
project. The goal of this Open Call was to mobilise our ecosystem and beyond in proposing digital solutions in addressing the current COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the wider agri-food sector.

Experts

Ángela Delgado Presidenta de ASAGA
Manuel Redondo  Secretario Técnico de COAG
Miguel Verón  Socio Fundador de AJAC
Akos y María Ecohuerta Canaria
Antonio Jara CEO de HOPU, BoD de Fiware
José Echeyde Departamento de Computación de ITC
Silvia Bulhoes Agrónoma en Terra Verde
Víctor M. García CEO de Agroislas
Antonio Collado Director de Innovalia en Canarias
Jorge Galván Director del CIDIHUB

Jury

Antonio Collado Director de Innovalia en Canarias
Jorge Galván Director del CIDIHUB
Antonio Jara CEO de HOPU, BoD de Fiware
José Echeyde Departamento de Computación de ITC
Cesar Martín Red de vigilancia tecnológica e inteligencia competitiva VTCAN
Por definir  Agricultura de Azores
Grupo de expertos Asociación de Jóvenes Agricultores de Canarias

Sponsors

Organizer:
With the support of: