Why, How & What? Foodathon #HacktheHunger

7 min readJun 4, 2020

Foodathon #HacktheHunger Nepal’s 1st Hackathon on Food Sustainability

Nepal has 30 lakh hectares of fertile land. 3.8 million Families are engaged in agriculture. Still we rely on food imports. Nepal imported agricultural goods worth more than Rs 220 billion last fiscal year. With the breakdown in the supply chain, and increasing reliance on imports, prices of daily essentials have already begun to rise in the market. Nepal imported vegetables worth Rs 4 billion during the period of this lockdown. Meanwhile food produced by farmers in other parts of Nepal is becoming waste. Disruptions in the supply of farming inputs like fertilizers are certain to impact food production. The travel restrictions keeping farmers at home could result in a year of hyperinflation. A food crisis is looming.

Food is a language through which society reveals itself and how we grow it and share it is critical for this and future generation. From this foodathon we want to bring innovative solutions to challenges around sustainable food systems, production and supply.

BITS Ladder invites you to partner for this event. Ten-Fifteen selected teams will develop and present their ideas in 13–14 June 2020. The top winning team will be awarded surprising prizes. The basic requirements for registration will be:

A brilliant idea on how to tackle challenges on food sustainability
A team of 2 to 4 members
Teams members will be from diverse academic background

If you have any questions, please contact info@bitsladder.com.np or +9779818078779

Background

Food is an equalizer. However, access to food is impacted by the pandemic for middle and low-income families. Food supply chain is disrupted leading to shortages and the problem of waste. Food prices are rising due to import difficulties and opportunism by traders. Nor is buying food a great option now. People are locked inside their houses with enough spaces and rooftops. People need to be empowered to maintain livelihood and remain self-sufficient. New technologies, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) represent a huge potential to tackle hunger and offer innovative approaches to this complex challenge. Farming must adjust to new realities and find a mix between tradition and innovation.

What is Foodathon?

Foodathon is an innovative event where teams consisting of skilled experts engage in creating solutions for food sustainability issues and challenges in a collaborative environment. The outcome may be an ICT tool, software, app, sustainable product, business model or other solution, which may lead to the inception of a start-up business or projects. This Foodathon is an opportunity to show how production, storage and transportation of food related challenges can be turned into opportunities and could be solved in a sustainable way. An exemplary solution is efficient, innovative, scalable and as a crosscutting theme environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. All projects should be in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially with SDG 2 Zero Hunger.

Who can apply?

Through our partners we are planning to reach more than 10,000 youths working in the agriculture, management as well as technology sectors. Foodathon is open to interested individuals of Nepali Origin who want to solve the food crisis during this pandemic. The participants can be of any age. They shall demonstrate interest, knowledge or experience in the field of the Foodathon and be passionate about agriculture and innovation, or have an idea that impacts food sustainability, hunger and/or poverty related to food systems development. Each team must have 2–5 members. Ideally, the team members may have following skills:

Agriculture/food systems development
Consumer behavior/ food marketing
Business administration
Service design
Environmental science
Project management
Marketing/ communications
Social media
Artificial intelligence
Software programming

Schedule

24 May 2020 — registration of the team starts
06 June 2020- registration for team ends
09 June 2020- announcement of the 10 selected Foodathon teams
13–14 June 2020- Date of the Foodathon
July — December : Monthly 2 hours session — Entrepreneurship and innovation

Prize and benefits for the Participants

During the Foodathon, participants will be able to connect with our partners, receive support to develop their ideas, and benefit from a skill set of experts from the domain.

The winning team will have a chance to win a seed money of Rs 50,000 for the implementation of the solution or idea along with mentorship. The solution or idea should be able to tackle the ongoing food crisis in Nepal. The winner will get the following benefits:

50,000 cash prize to one winner
Winner token for the winning team
6 month mentorship from our mentoring partner for the theme winner (depends upon mentees/team initiative)
Certificate and tokens to to the winner of each theme
Networking Opportunities for all the participants
All the participants receive 6 sessions on entrepreneurship and innovation with E-certificate

The challenge

Registration and proposals will be completed in English while presentation can be done in Nepali as well as English. Projects should contribute to sustainable food production, storage and supply. The following topics might be taken into consideration when developing the idea.

Urban agriculture
Organic farming
Food Production
Growing Food
Food Processing
Food supply
Farmers’ access to market
Service design models

The projects will be judged by the criteria of:

Creativity and innovation
Impact
Scalability
Sustainability
Business Model
Design and user experience
Quality of the pitch

Themes

Urban Farming

Urban Farming is growing or producing food in a heavily populated town or municipality. It exists in many forms including community garden, backyard garden, rooftop, balcony gardening, growing in vacant spaces, etc. Urban farming helps stimulate the local economy through job creation, income generation, and the growth of small businesses.

Grow your Food

Food can be grown at any scale, from windowsill to a plot, even in water and without soil. Growing food has a wide variety of options with different techniques. It is a simple solution to numerous health , environmental and economic problems. Growing your own food is also a form of exercise that relieves stress, anxiety and boosts energy.

Organic Farming

Organic farming is a method of raising crops and livestock and has evolved into a niche of its own. Number of restaurants and supermarkets rely on organic farmers to supply them with organically grown fruits and vegetables and organically raised, or free-roaming livestock. Organic farming is highly sought because they provide customers with safe, wholesome food from a toxin-free environment.

Food Storage

Food Storage allows food to be eaten for some time, from weeks to months, after harvest, rather than immediately. Food storage can be mixed and matched in supply. Food can also be stored by drying it, or canned. Food can also be converted into other forms like pickles, jams etc for storage. It depends upon type of produce, quality desired and facilities available for storage.

Food Supply

Food supply is where food meets business. Generally , Food supply is food production and its movement from source to destination. It is a complex combination of activities, functions and relations that includes production, handling, storage, and transport, package, wholesale and retail. There are different players or agents in this system. It is the lifeline of the city that provides food.

Who owns the ideas developed during the Foodathon?

It is up to the organizer to predefine ownership of the ideas developed during the period of Foodathon. All the ideas and prototypes will be open source (Creative Commons), so free for everyone to use and develop further. The reasons to make the idea open source are as follows:

Idea might gets stuck if teams are not keen on working together after the Foodathon
Teams might get inspiration from other ideas and presented challenges
Team members might fight over ownership
Main goal of the Foodathon is to encourage participants to solve issues in food sustainability

Event Awareness

The following ideas have been discussed for the campaigning of the event:

Virtual Mobilization of youth from agriculture, technology, innovation and business
Social Media Campaign via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc
Press release in media houses