Invitation for submissions to the ‘Fall Armyworm Tech Prize”

The Feed the Future initiative and the Challenge Prize Centre and partners, launched the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize, to stimulate usage of digital tools and approaches to provide solutions to help combat the fall armyworm

The Fall Armyworm has ravaged the crops in sub-Saharan Africa and mostly affected maize, although it can feed on other crops such as rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, cotton and vegetable crops.

The Food and Agriculture Organization launched a guide that seeks to guide efforts in tackling the FAW in Africa and also a dedicated portal to support the fight against the FAW.

Therefore access to key information by smallholder farmers can improve their resilience and preparation in dealing with this crisis.

How can digital technologies and ICTs help in assisting the farming communities to access information on how to mitigate, identify and combat the fall armyworm?

The Fall Armyworm Tech Prize

The Feed the Future initiative and the Challenge Prize Centre and partners, launched the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize, to stimulate usage of digital tools and approaches to provide solutions to help combat the fall armyworm.

• Prize Statement - These ICTS interventions include social networks, satellite imagery, electronic data collection and sharing, sensing technologies, crowdsourcing, and the global movement to share open data.

These technologies and approaches can be used to efficiently communicate relevant information to farmers. The prize is focused on sourcing and sparking innovations for African smallholder farmers and those that work with them. Some of the considerations are :-

• Enable smallholder farmers and those who support them to accurately identify incidence of fall armyworm in their crops.
• Produce timely, context appropriate, and empowering insights for smallholder farmers to treat the incidence of fall armyworm.
• Reduce productivity losses caused by fall armyworm among those using the tool or approach.
• Ensure the appropriate and responsible use of pest management assessments, tools, and interventions.

• Eligibility and Submissions- The competition is open to all individuals, groups, organizations and companies globally and particularly invites local innovators from Sub-Saharan Africa to apply. Read the Eligibility Criteria here. Before submission of your application it will be helpful to review the FAQs here  Submission Deadline Monday 14th May 2018: 23:59 ET

For any questions send to [email protected]

Information used to produce this news adapted from the announcement here