Six winning teams were awarded in the third edition of the AgTech Challenge, a competition that promotes solutions based on digital technologies for agricultural, livestock, forestry and fishing productive activities. The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 13 at the Executive Tower of the Presidency of the Republic, with the presence of authorities and participants.
The event was attended by the Minister of Livestock Agriculture and Fisheries, Fernando Mattosthe president of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII), Flavio CaiafaThe general manager of the National Agency for Development (ANDE), Amalia Quirici, and the Director of Promotion of Agricultural Information Systems of MGAP, Amalia Alvarez. During the ceremony, the challenges proposed by the technical team of the Instituto Plan Agropecuario and the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA).
Presentation of the challenges
In this edition, five themes were proposed for the challenges, which included support systems for agroecological plant protection, remote monitoring of apiaries, rennet worm alert, grazing and stocking decision making tools in intensive dairy and beef cattle systems, and precision livestock farming. In the idea development stage, 71 people participated, divided into 27 teams, applying for four challenges, except for the sheep challenge, which had no applicants.
During the ceremony, Amalia Alvarez noted that 40% of the participants came from the interior of the country, and stressed the objective of promoting the use of digital technologies in the agricultural sector to encourage young people to stay in the countryside. Minister Fernando Mattos also emphasized the importance of supporting technological development applied to agriculture and strengthening post-award follow-up to obtain successful results in real life.
The award
The prizes were distributed among six winning teams. Each team received funds for the validation of the business idea in the amount of $200,000, accompaniment from a institution sponsoring venturesaccompaniment in the validation of the enterprise AgTech and support to access land for validation.
Five challenges and six winning teams
Five thematic challenges were proposed for this edition:
- Support systems for agroecological plant protection.
- Remote monitoring of apiaries.
- Rennet worm alert.
- Grazing and stocking decision making tools in intensive dairy and beef cattle systems.
- Precision livestock farming.
Support systems for agroecological plant protection. The winning team was "Bioguardians".. His venture focuses on crop monitoring and control, taking advantage of the natural capabilities of plants to contribute to the protection of the environment and the welfare of people.
Remote monitoring of apiaries. The winner was "SARA". Its telemetry system uses the latest technological trends in Industry 4.0 to collect useful data, such as ambient temperature and humidity, internal temperature and hive weight, which can be visualized in real time through a web platform or mobile application.
Grazing and stocking decision making tool for intensive dairy and beef cattle systems.. The winner was "Tracking Collar".. Its technology uses GPS sensors and other electronic devices to delimit the boundaries of a farm, geolocate the animals in real time and obtain body temperature data.
Precision livestock farming. There were three winning teams: "Cattlemen", "Ganader.ai" y "Cattle Management".. These ventures presented innovative solutions to improve livestock management and performance.
The third edition of the AgTech Challenge has been a success in promoting technological solutions for the agricultural sector. With the backing of the authorities and the support of the winning teams, it is hoped that these ideas will become realities that will boost the development of the countryside and benefit society as a whole.
