About the Challenge

Farmers in Ghana currently experience issues with the weather conditions. Floods on the one hand and dry spells on the other make it very hard for them to grow their crops. Without localised weather forecasts it is very hard for them to make decisions. Wageningen University in the Netherlands has built a model based on the farmers hydro-climatic information needs. The model will be fed by i) scientific knowledge and data as well as ii) citizen or farmer information (indigenous knowledge and data). The model will then produce actionable knowledge for the farmers for adaptive farm decision making.

This challenge is meant to develop an application to bring the data to the farmers and collect their information at the same time. The application should:

Allow for text, voice messaging and visuals;
Display indigenous and scientific forecasts with indications of probability;
Have an automatic algorithm to process and integrate forecast;
Allow the downloading of scientific forecast and simple uploading of indigenous forecast and observation;
Offer the possibility for users to share feedback; and
Be able to be used offline and with limited internet connectivity.

We invite companies to submit a prototype of the application they would build. Selected companies will be invited for a 2-day workshop and are then asked to put in a final proposal for development. The challenge is open to everyone. Submission can be done by individuals or a team of two (Young Ghanaians are encouraged to apply). The winning team will be determined by:

1. Quality of the Idea - Including creativity and originality
2. Implementation of the Idea - Including user experience, design, and performance
3. Potential Impact on the Waterapps Objectives – Which is effective co-production of hydroclimatic information services

No individual can be part of two different applying teams. Some teams will be invited to a 2-day training session and a follow up pitch. Teams can then bring their own devices to showcase their app and its use during the presentation. Limited funding is available for the winning team to build and implement their solution.

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