Philippines: Innovation Olympics 2.0 opens for developing new farming technologies

In addition to the wave of modifications that this brand-new regular has been bringing, innovative innovation services also take the center phase in the Development Olympics 2.0, an “agri hackathon” for young innovators to rise in establishing innovative options for the farming sector of the nation.

“Through the Innovation Olympics, we hope to introduce technological developments to enhance vegetable production, and to influence the youth to consider farming as a professional objective and be ambassadors of modern agriculture,” said Henk Hermans, General Manager of East-West Seed Philippines.

With this year’s theme “Precision Agriculture for Small-Scale Veggie Farming”, Innovation Olympics 2.0 works as an avenue where students can share, produce, and pilot brand-new innovation services for metropolitan and rural smallholder veggie farmers. Online training and demonstrations, and actual implementation of the tasks in farming neighborhoods, along with seed money for each stage, will be offered to the taking part groups.

“Accuracy Farming aims to increase the profitability of farmers while sustaining the environment through utilizing more effective and new technologies in crop production. Through the Innovation Olympics, we imagine developing creative concepts on precision agriculture that can help our smallholder farmers,” shared Dr. Glenn Baticados, Director of the University of the Philippines Los Baños Innovation Transfer and Organization Development Workplace (UPLB-TTBDO). “Millennials can get thinking about agriculture through the Internet of Things (IoT), precision agriculture, and Expert system,” included Joel Laserna, President of FarmFix Solutions Inc, throughout his keynote speech at the online introducing of the Innovation Olympics 2.0 on October 23, 2020.

Undergraduate and graduate students, who can form a team of a minimum of 3 members per team, from any university in the Philippines are welcome to join the competitors.

From the overall of thirty taking part teams that will get P10,000 ideation money each, 2 finalists from each area will then be chosen to execute their projects with P100,000 seed cash each.

The culmination of the competition will be conducted during the National Demo Day in June 2021, where the six finalists will contend for the grand prize of P200, 000 after a panel of professionals assess the execution and effect of their ingenious services. With this competitive spirit, young innovators are challenged to step up the video game for the nation’s agricultural sector by imparting new farming practices and systems to the smallholder veggie farmers.

“During this time, the agricultural sector is the most afflicted and at the same time the most appreciated … Extraordinary times call for amazing procedures that’s why we have Innovation Olympics 2.0. This will lead us to a much better, larger, and smarter new typical for agriculture,” said Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, the Director of Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Research Study and Research in Farming (SEARCA). He likewise added that while the new typical challenged the farming sector, it also paved a method for more developments to be developed and employed to help our food producers and address the requirements of our consumers in this unmatched time.

“We value farming innovation that taps into the resourcefulness of local communities and utilizes the imagination and imagination of young individuals,” included Dr. Vergel Concibido, Global Agronomy Lead of Sensient Colors LLC.

Youth and Development
Innovation Olympics was released by East-West Seed, together with the UPLB-College of Economics and Management, Center for Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship, and PEAK: The UPLB Company Network, in 2017 as part of its 35th anniversary event.

Bagging the leading innovative innovation at the very first Development Olympics are the students, also named as Team Agriviz, from the Asian Institute of Management (OBJECTIVE). They won P250,000 cash prize for the “Bukid Fresh” or previously understood as “E-Magsasaka”, an e-commerce platform that they developed and tested in their embraced farming neighborhood. Through this innovation, they aim to resolve the difficulties of vegetable farmers in having direct access and info with their market. Through Development Olympics, the group was able to not only showcase their concept however also to turn it into truth in their embraced farming neighborhood.

“I motivate all the young innovators to take this opportunity to establish your game-changing jobs and help transform the “brand-new typical” in our food and agriculture sector. Our company believe in your talents and we understand that, together, we can make a long lasting distinction in this sector and in the lives of our farmers,” stated Hermans.

Anton Marañon, Vice-President of SAGREX Corporation and likewise among the keynote speakers throughout the Development Olympics introducing, reminded how essential innovation is not just in agriculture but in all fields: “Innovate or die.”

The Ingenious Olympics is made possible through the partnership of East-West Seed with SEARCA, Sensient Colors LLC, UPLB, UPLB-TTBDO, UP SIBOL LAB, and PEAK: The UPLB Business Network.

For this year’s Innovation Competition 2.0, East-West Seed will be accepting applications till November 7, 2020. Application can be sent out via https://tinyurl.com/IO2Application. For more details, please visit fb.com/InnovationOlympics.

For more details:

East-West Seed No. 50/1 Moo 2, Sainoi-Bang Bua
Thong Rd, Amphur Sainoi, Nonthaburi
11150, THAILAND
T: +66 (02) 831 7700
F: +66 (02) 923 [email protected]!.?.!www.eastwestseed.com!.?.!