Potraz to hold a a hackathon challenge in Gweru

POTRAZ has shifted its focus to the second Hackathon set for or the 2021 set to be held in Gweru this Friday.

The Gweru edition Of the Hackathon event, an iniative which brings to the fore new innovations to the light , will see teams competing in proffering solutions aimed at solving the problem of low average agricultural yields in the country, and will run under the sub theme “#TowardsVision2030WithAgric-Tech”.

The Hackathon is aimed specifically at addressing the problem of low average agricultural yields. and was a necessiated by a research.

In a 2019 study by the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) and the Financial Gazette, findings revealed that the country’s average maize production was 0.64mt/ha, whilst South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya produce an average 5.3mt/ha, 2.8mt/ha, 1,67mt/ha and 1.66mt/ha respectively.

Whist the survey focused mainly on maize, it equally applies to other crops as well. The challenge in Zimbabwe is that smallholder farmers, the 1.8 million households, that constitute the majority of farmers in the country, produce only about 0.54mt/ha whilst commercial farmers contribute 3.82mt/ha, hence the low average yield and low production (too much idle land).

These issues require urgent and sustainable interventions that can only be brought about by the introduction of technologies that address the root cause of these problems, hence the need for a Hackathon aimed specifically at addressing the problem of low average agricultural yields.