A team of postgraduate Geoinformation Science students from the Centre for Geoinformation Science (CGIS) recently won the climate change category at the Durban AgriHack Talent Challenge.

The team comprised of Victoria Rautenbach (UP), Sean Cullen (UP), Nadia Oosthuizen (Natural Resources and the Environment Unit, CSIR) and Danie Jooste (UP) and they developed the Temo le Boso mobile and web application (an overview video).

The platform (website and app) aims to serve as a decision making tool for farmers in selecting which crop type to potentially plant in their area under future climatic conditions. For the prototype, they used open data from many sources, notably data from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), a partner of the activity. They received their trophy from a board member of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), another partner of the activity. The price for the category is 4 000 euros and the opportunity to fully develop the application.

The Durban AgriHack Talent Challenge took place in conjunction with the Global Forum for Innovation in Agriculture, African Edition (GFIA Africa) and it started at the end of 2015 in Durban.

A video of the product they developed is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSBK0c0PgI 

This article is adapted from http://durban-agrihack.ict4ag.org/index.php/2015/12/03/meet-the-winners-of-the-durban-agrihack-talent-challenge/