The Rallying Cry in partnership with Alliance of Biodiversity International are seeking to cut post-harvest losses by tapping innovative solutions that will transform the Kenya’s agriculture sector.
Speaking during the launch of the Kenya AgriHack, Livestock Development Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke said the initiative is meant to develop innovative, climate smart and gender –responsive solutions to reduce losses in grain, diary and horticulture.
“The issue of post-harvest losses troubles our agricultural sector and demands our immediate attention and innovative solutions now,“ said Mueke.
The Rallying Cry Founder Carey Bohjanen said the hackathon aims to address various challenges experienced by farmers as well as small and Medium Sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries like market linkages ,knowledge gaps, lack of infrastructure ,access to finance and supply chain.
“We at The Rallying Cry are looking forward to meeting agri-preneurs, agri-processors and agri-corporates, software developers, logistic experts, academic, government officials and others with ideas and solutions to this issue,” she said.
According to The Rallying Cry this is a timely response to the urgency in the agricultural sector which has been worsened through floods, droughts and other calamities that cause losses.
“These losses mainly occur downstream between the production and retail stages in the supply chain from production to consumption. In most cases any loss in production translates to loss of resources like land, water, energy and any input and income for various players in the supply chain hence posing the need for the hackathon to help solve this crisis,“ added Bohjanen.
The Kenya AgriHack will award its participants with cash prices of up to $5,000 and capacity building opportunities like access to competent research and innovation facilities offered by Accelerate for Impact Platforms( A4ip)
