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 ICT and start-up projects in the region, to identify ambitious and talented young people, and to encourage them; to support the selection and implementation of the best ICT solutions to increase the efficiency of production and processing of agricultural products.

The hackathon served as a platform for the representation of the rural youth’s and girls' voices, where they have the opportunity to network with peers and exchange views.

“As noted on the World Food Forum held from 17 to 21 October 2022 in the FAO Headquarters in Rome with the 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. I hope that the brightest ideas of young people will be heard and further developed letting our youth contribute to the development of agriculture and food security in Uzbekistan”, Mr. Sherzod Umarov, Assistant FAO Representative in Uzbekistan stressed.

Mr. Yu Yu, the UNFPA representative in Uzbekistan, noted that “the hackathon, which is organized within the framework of the joint project, is a very innovative approach to find solutions to some crucial development issues. UNFPA’s mandate area is youth empowerment – so that every young person reaches their full potential and I do hope that this hackathon for young programmers will be a good start in finding innovative solutions and inspire other talented young IT specialists all over Uzbekistan”. He also emphasized that the projects 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 laptops. Also, 3 projects were selected and soon equipment or software necessary for implementing these projects will be provided. The amount allocated for each project constitutes 100 million UZS. The award fund was formed by FAO and UNFPA organizations. All other hackathon participants were awarded certificates and souvenirs for their active participation. 

UzA