The innovation model in agriculture that has predominated for decades has prescribed scale, low costs and efficiency. But it is increasingly recognised that both farmers and consumers are being underserved by the current system. The focus of the third FarmHack in a series of on-farm hackathons in the Netherlands was to explore opportunities offered by data and technology to help producers that want to operate in short supply chains to connect to consumers, limit costs and enhance the experience and the value of regional produce.

FarmHack.NL: on-farm hackathons in the Netherlands

This series of on-farm hackathons that took place in the Netherlands was organised to encourage collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders for data and tech-driven innovation in agriculture. The initiative was supported by GODAN. The first part of the series dealt with visualisation and automation of ‘big’ farm data, the second part revolved around the challenge of enabling farmers to handle drone and satellite data and manually adjust variables in order to tailor machine instructions.

Challenge

The FarmHack took place on a farm in Raalte, near the city of Zwolle. The hackathon’s challengers asked three dedicated teams consisting of coders, hackers and designers to help farmers in the region to operate in short supply chains. In particular, they wanted to know if data and technology could help positively discriminate farmers that are innovating on sustainability, and offer consumers actionable insights to support farmers who are making bold decisions within their management practices.

The underlying challenge is that for too long the use of data and technology in agriculture has been limited to optimisation of current farming operations. By re-using farm data perhaps we could also address problems regional producers are facing regarding relative costly logistics. Adding value to produce has long been too expensive because individual farmers don’t automatically have the network to sell, move or market their product. Innovative use of data and technology can offer these farmers’ opportunities to cooperate and organise smart logistics, connect with customers, float ideas, gauge interest and figure out what tweaks are necessary.

FarmHack Results

The winning team programmed an interactive application which is not just a platform to order food, but a platform that will educate consumers on sources of food and food production processes. The app called “Hello Farmer!”, allows the consumer to see how ripe the farmers' pumpkins are, or whether the farmers' pig is ready for slaughter. They built a working prototype and will continue to develop the functionality of the app.

The second app idea revolved around the concept of a mass market delivery box that offers consumers a modest but dynamic selection of fresh regional produce, with a fitting level of pricing and a focus on consumer convenience. The app was a simple solution to facilitate both supply and demand of fresh ingredients, instead of the current model of delivering whole meals.

The third concept elaborated on a regional Food Hub that would enable digital and physical integration of regional produce before micro distributing in the city. There is a lot of interest from urban areas to commit to regional produce, but dealing with individual farmers and consumers is a hassle and not very cost effective. Setting up successful operations will require a targeted data management strategy. The idea this team worked on started with digital integration of currently available farm data and a natural grow strategy from there, while at the same time collecting the physical produce in one place, before micro distributing it in the city.