ABU Students Win N2M at FCMB Agrictech Hackathon for Innovative Crop Disease Detector

The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria has made headlines once again as six of its students secured the second position at the FCMB Agrictech Hackathon 2024.

This victory brings with it a cash prize of two million Naira.

The ABU students have shown their talent in finding creative solutions for agricultural challenges.

The Innovative CropDiseaseDetector

The ABU team earned their prize for developing an innovative device called CropDiseaseDetector.

This solution aims to help farmers in northern Nigeria by providing early detection of crop diseases.

The CropDiseaseDetector is an affordable and user-friendly AI-based device that works in real-time, even offline, which makes it very suitable for rural areas.

This device identifies different diseases affecting crops commonly grown in northern Nigeria and offers practical solutions to farmers.

It can also be scaled to cover different crops and adjust to various regional disease patterns.

This ensures farmers can get relevant advice based on the crops they grow and the diseases common in their areas.

The Award Ceremony at Primrose Tower

The award ceremony was held at the Primrose Tower, the FCMB Head Office in Lagos, on Monday, 30th September 2024.

At the event, Sufiyanu Ibrahim from the Department of Computer Engineering collected the award on behalf of his team and the university.

This recognition reflects the hard work and dedication of these students who worked tirelessly on their project.

Meet the AgroGuardians Team

The six-member team, known as AgroGuardians, consists of students from different departments:

• Sufiyanu Ibrahim: Department of Computer Engineering.
• Hadiza Mohammed: Department of Computer Science.
• Salim Babangida: Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering.
• Lawal Uzairu: Department of Electrical Engineering.
• Abubakar Taufik: Faculty of Agriculture.
• Abdulfattah Omisanya: Department of Agricultural and Bio-resources Engineering.

This diverse group brought together skills from engineering, agriculture and computing to create a well-rounded solution for agricultural challenges in Nigeria.

Focus of FCMB Agrictech Hackathon

The FCMB Agrictech Hackathon aims to tackle various challenges in agriculture.

These challenges include lack of funding for agricultural research, poor infrastructure for storage and transportation, limited access to credit for small-scale farmers and low adoption of technology in agriculture.

The competition had over 1,400 entries from businesses, developers and teams across more than 20 countries.

This highlights the wide reach and importance of the event in addressing agricultural issues.

The AgroGuardians have made their mark by not only winning the second position but also contributing to improving agriculture in Nigeria through their creative use of technology.

Their CropDiseaseDetector could be a game-changer for farmers, ensuring healthier crops and more productive farming.

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