Livestock theft, as well as predators that kill sheep, are problems that many sheep farmers in Uruguay face on a daily basis. To solve this problem, the winning team of the first Agro Hackathon at Expo Prado, which took place on 17 and 18 September, developed an application that connects a mobile phone that hangs around the neck of the sheep in charge of the flock - like a cowbell - and sends an alert to the mobile application of the producer or the person in charge of monitoring the animals in case of movement of the animal.
Vigiator is the name of the venture led by Agronomy student Lucía San Román and the partners and directors of Jalumar - a company dedicated to the development of Android applications - Martín Alurralde and Sergio Gorrochategui. The prize they received for winning the hackathon is a trip to the REAP Confference in England, where they will be able to learn about the latest trends in technology applied to agriculture.
Except for Alurralde and Gorrochategui - who work at the same company - the Vigiator team met at the hackathon. Two days after the end of the hackathon, they already met with some of those interested in supporting the development of the application, such as Central Lanera, which brings together the country's wool producers.
During the Hackathon, the team complemented each other very well. San Román contributed with his knowledge of the agricultural sector, Alurralde was in charge of developing the app and Gorrochategui contributed the commercial side.
Developing the project in the context of Expo Prado made it easier for them to see the herdsmen and producers who were on the site. "The need was already there; we had to find a way to develop it. We started talking to the goatherds to listen to them," said Gorrochategui.
Alurralde explained that the dialogue with the cabañeros allowed them to "bring the project down to earth". "They told us that the most they had ever seen was a little bell; this is a digital cowbell. They used to listen to the sheep all night long. We want to have a more social part, where at the push of a button it alerts the rest of the neighbours to be on the lookout," he explained.
Another of the functions provided is the possibility of making a digital report directly from the app, in the event of an attempted or actual theft. It has other options, such as activating the microphone of the mobile phone that the sheep has on its neck and emitting a triggered sound to scare off the predator.
The Vigiator team will travel to England on 7 November, with hopes of reaching that date with a more advanced prototype, as the idea of the partners is to move forward with the venture. For her part, female team member Lucía San Román said it was important to know if the person in charge of monitoring the livestock would be willing to use this kind of technology through a smartphone app. "We wanted the device to have complex functions, but we wanted it to be simple for the producer to use," San Roman said.
"There are experiences of the use of technology in agriculture that are recognised worldwide, such as traceability". Leonardo Loureiro, VP of Cuti's Global Markets Committee.
Results of the experience
The first Hackathon Agro, jointly organised by the British Embassy in Montevideo, the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI) and the Rural Association of Uruguay (ARU), was defined as "a success" by the organisers. The idea, originally proposed by the British embassy, sought to bring together agriculture and technology, as they are sectors with great potential for growth.
The British embassy's programme officer, Pia Delisante, said that the challenges to be solved by the teams, related to livestock and predators, improvements in grazing, optimisation of feedlot feeding and grain crops, were set out in conjunction with ARU and the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, which shows an interest in solving these challenges. "It's a novelty that the government is involved," Delisante said.
For her part, ARU's head of exhibitions, Andrea Galeano, said that they were looking for existing problems that medium and large producers have. "I think that most of the hackathon projects will somehow have a future, because of their importance," she predicted.
From CUTI, the search for transversality and the dissemination of technology in various sectors of productive activity, was the element that motivated the participation in the meeting. The vice-president of the CUTI Global Markets Commission, Leonardo Loureiro, commented that in Uruguayan agriculture there is cutting-edge technology applied, and "although sometimes it is thought that it is relegated, it is necessary to disseminate the advances".
Social security hackathon on the horizon
Leonardo Loureiro, from CUTI, confirmed the interest of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to organise, together with the Chamber, a hackathon focused on solving difficulties in the field of social security.
According to Loureiro, in a meeting held at CUTI's offices and attended by Minister Ernesto Murro, after evaluating the experience of the agro hackathon for its impact, he expressed interest in starting to organise a similar activity in his portfolio in the near future.
Source: The Observer
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