For the first time, EkoNiva has taken part in the Technoforge Agrotech hackathon. The event was organised by the Group’s training partner – Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, a division of the Higher School of Economics.

The hackathon brought together over 200 registered participants from 32 universities across Moscow and the region. For 14 days, the teams tackled 4 different tasks, brainstorming and working continuously. The event served as a unique platform where farmers’ ideas were put into practice and became ready-made IT solutions of strategic importance for the agricultural sector and the entire country.

EkoNiva Group’s leading specialists designed the tasks and further provided methodological support and expert guidance throughout the event. They mentored the teams, giving them advice and valuable insights.

All the challenges were focused on large-scale digitalisation of the sector. The participants were to develop a desktop application to analyse cow rations and the fatty acid composition of milk. Another assignment involved creating a Business Intelligence tool with interactive graphs to identify soil factors limiting crop yields. Additionally, the teams designed mobile apps for consumer seed quality control using artificial intelligence and for determining phenological stage of plant development via image analysis. The winners and runners-up of the hackathon received money prizes and were invited to work or do paid internships at EkoNiva.

‘Technoforge Agrotech acts as a catalyst for farming technology innovation swiftly turning promising ideas into reality. We not only speed up the implementation of out-of-the-box solutions and attract new talents but also stay responsive to the industry needs. This time, the focus was on the quality and automation, which explains the pulling power of our hackathon for the brands shaping the future of the agribusiness’, says Ilya Semichasnov, Director of Project Design Centre at Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics.

During the project presentations, EkoNiva’s experts rated highly all ideas, so, choosing the winners was genuinely challenging.

‘These days have been full of intense work and brainstorming culminating in functioning prototypes. The interaction between the technology teams and industry experts made it clear that the collaboration between farmers and IT specialists can be highly productive’, emphasises Zlata Bondar, Head of Artificial Intelligence Department at EkoNiva Group.