ANDIJAN, 12-14 November, 2022 - Administration of Andijan region, Digital City Technology Park in Andijan, the Ministry for development of information technologies and communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the state institution Center for digitalization of agro-industry under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and  the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a competition among young programmers “Digital Uzbekistan: Agriculture Hackathon-2022” within the framework of joint FAO/UNFPA project "Shared Prosperity through Cooperation in Border Regions of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan", funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund. The project is aimed at expanding cross-border cooperation through socio-economic and environmental issues among young people and women of target communities in the border regions.

The main goal of the hackathon is to further increase the interest of the young generation in the field of ICT and start-up projects in the region, to identify ambitious and talented young people, and to encourage them; to support in the selection and implementation of the best ICT solutions to increase the efficiency of production and processing of agricultural products.

The event hosted youth teams who brought ideas for creating better and sustainable food systems, advancing rural development, fostering the development of collaborative platforms. The hackathon  also served as a platform for the representation of the rural youth’s and girl’s voice, where they have the opportunity to network with peers and exchange views. 

The competition was organized in two stages: 

The 1st stage consisted of accepting applications for participation during October 5-25, 2022 and selecting projects based on an online interview, which were considered promising by the commission.

The 2nd stage was held offline on November 12-14 in the building of the "Digital City" technology park, and programmers  participated in the competition as a team or individually.

 Hackathon nominations were: 1) Digitization of the agricultural sector; 2) Finding ICT solutions to the problems of processing and selling agricultural products; 3) Innovative projects to increase the employment of the population, especially women and youth, in agriculture.

“As noted on the World Food Forum held from 17 to 21 October 2022 in the FAO Headquarters in Rome with participation of the National Youth Delegation of Uzbekistan, today's leaders should listen to the opinion of the younger generation. Youth energy is critical to transforming our food systems and today's youth must be at the center of decision-making. We call on the Agro-hackathon participants to act boldly and decisively so that your dreams turn into concrete and practical actions. It is my hope that the brightest ideas of young people will be heard and further developed letting our youth to contribute to the development of agriculture and food security in Uzbekistan”, - Mr. Sherzod Umarov, Assistant FAO Representative in Uzbekistan stressed.

Mr. Yu Yu, UNFPA representative in Uzbekistan, noted that “the hackathon, which is organized in the framework of the joint project, is a very innovative approach to find solutions to some crucial development issues. UNFPA aims to ensure every young person’s  full potential is fulfilled and I believe that this hackathon for young programmers is a good start in finding innovative solutions and inspire other talented young IT specialists all over Uzbekistan”. He also emphasized that the projects which were accepted to the final stage of the competition were very strong and of high quality. 

After a thorough judging phase, the winners of the hackathon were selected and awarded with laptops. Also, 3 projects were selected and soon equipment or software necessary for the implementation of these projects will be provided. The amount allocated for each project constitutes 100 million sums. The award fund was formed by FAO and UNFPA organizations.  All other hackathon participants were awarded with certificates and souvenirs for their active participation.

During this hackathon partner organizations looked for  innovative solutions to the challenges which the agricultural sector faces and  to fast track progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).