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Democratised agriculture hackathon

We are a tri-national consortium bringing together Imperial College London, IIT Kanpur, Techno India University, TRACE Sri Lanka, and Hatch Sri Lanka to explore how robotics, sensing, and artificial intelligence can transform the future of agriculture.

Our vision is to make farming transparent, data-driven, and scalable—so that agricultural operations can be professionally managed, remotely monitored, and open to distributed participation by investors and expert communities.

Across South Asia, agriculture faces growing challenges. Rural labour shortages, underutilised farmland, climate pressures, and limited investment are constraining productivity and long-term sustainability. At the same time, advances in precision agriculture technologies—including multispectral imaging, crop sensing, automated intervention, and AI-driven decision systems—offer new opportunities to address these challenges.

Through this initiative, we aim to build a climate-resilient innovation network connecting the UK, India, and Sri Lanka. Our goal is to explore how shared robotics, digital monitoring systems, and transparent decision platforms can enable new models of democratised precision agriculture, where farms are professionally operated while ownership and participation can be distributed among multiple stakeholders.

As the first step, this seed project launches a distributed UK–India–Sri Lanka hackathon inviting students, innovators, and entrepreneurs to develop new concepts that combine:

robotics and sensing technologies
AI-assisted agronomic decision systems
transparent farm monitoring platforms
scalable agricultural business models

The most promising ideas will be further developed through an enterprise workshop, and consolidated into a joint white paper and enterprise prospectus to support future pilot deployments, investment opportunities, and follow-on research funding.

Join the Hackathon

We invite teams from the UK, India, and Sri Lanka to participate in this collaborative hackathon and contribute innovative technological and business solutions that can help democratise precision agriculture.

Together, we aim to shape the next generation of transparent, climate-resilient, and investable farming systems.

This is a tri-National attempt to solve the labour shortages and investment gaps that currently constrain agricultural growth in South Asia.

What We Expect in a Good Submission

To ensure your proposal is technically credible and economically viable, a good submission must include the following (please note these specific requirements are from your query and not the provided source material):

Experimental Farmland: Your team must be able to commit at least 1 acre of experimental land for at least one type of crop.
Precision Agriculture Tech Partner: You must partner with a technical entity, such as a university research group or a private company, specialized in precision agriculture technologies.
Agronomic Expertise: Your team must include an agronomist with at least one year of field experience.
Business Plan: You must submit a 3-year business plan developed by individuals with private-sector business experience.

What will each team submit

Each team will make two submissions:

Interim submission – due 20 June 2026
Teams must submit a link to an unlisted YouTube video (maximum 10 minutes). The video should introduce the team members and present the vision and proposed approach for a viable democratised precision agriculture business concept.

Final submission – due 15 July 2026
Teams must submit a 10-minute pitch slide deck together with a link to an unlisted YouTube video presenting the slides. The presentation should clearly explain the vision, technical approach, and business model, including projected cash flow estimates for the first three years.

What we expect in a good submission

Experimental Farmland: Your team must be able to commit at least 1 acre of experimental land for at least one type of crop.
Precision Agriculture Tech Partner: You must partner with a technical entity, such as a university research group or a private company, specialized in precision agriculture technologies.
Agronomic Expertise: Your team must include an agronomist with at least one year of field experience.
Business Plan: You must submit a 3-year business plan developed by individuals with private-sector business experience.

The Assessment Process

We have established a clear timeline for evaluating and promoting the best concepts (dates and portal details provided in your query):

Registration: Teams must register through this form by 30th May 2026.

Mid-term Review: An online review of all participating teams will be conducted in late June 2026. We will announce the exact date.Final Pitch Event: The final evaluation will take place in late July 2026.

Shortlisting & Promotion: At most, five teams will be shortlisted. We will make their pitch videos available to potential investors for follow-up opportunities.

The seed phase of this project will officially conclude on 30th July 2026, positioning the strongest teams for future pilot deployment and commercial development. We look forward to seeing how you help us build a more transparent and resilient agricultural future.