KRITAGYA 3.0 Hackathon 2022: KRITAGYA 3.0 - A National level Hackathon was recently launched by ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research).

Note: The word KRITAGYA is comprised of three words

1. KRI for Krishi, which means agriculture;
2. TA for Taknik, meaning technology; and
3. GYA for Gyan meaning knowledge.

ICAR, with its National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), in collaboration with the Division of Crop Science, is organizing Hackathon 3.0 "KRITAGYA" to promote 'Accelerated Breeding for Crop Improvement'.

Key Points:

• This initiative will provide opportunities for students, faculties, entrepreneurs, innovators and others to showcase cutting-edge methods innovative approaches and technological solutions for the crop improvement.
• Besides achieving desired solutions in the crop sector, it would also encourage wider adoption of technology-enabled solutions in agriculture sector.
• It was launched in line with the National Education Policy, 2020.

Participation:

• Students, faculty members, entrepreneurs, and innovators from any university or technological institute in the nation are eligible to apply for and take part in this hackathon.
• In this competition, participating students can collaborate with local startup-ups, students from technology institutions and can win a maximum of Rs.5 lakhs.
• It will provide an opportunity to learn, innovate and solve problems faced in the crop sector and boost employability and entrepreneurship in the country.

Previous KRITAGYA Hackathons:

• During 2020-21 and 2021-22, Hackathon 1.0 and 2.0 was organized with NAHEP in association with Agricultural Engineering and Animal Science Divisions of ICAR.
• The earlier hackathons focused on innovation in farm mechanization and animal science.
• These events witnessed immense participation of more than 3,000 individuals.
• More than 269 teams participated in Hackathon 2.0.
• At national level, 4 teams were awarded by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Tomar with a cash prize of Rs.9 lakhs.
• They extended support for the winners to expand their concept propositions, their scalability and future plan to collaborate with Agri Business Incubators, MSMEs and other investors through support of ICAR.

About NAHEP:

• The National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP)was launched in 2017 by ICAR with the help of the World Bank.
• It was set up with a total outlay of 165 million USD for five years from 2017-18.
• The cost of this project is equally shared between the World Bank and the Indian Government.
• It is implemented by the Education Division of the ICAR.
• Its main objective of NAHEP is to assist participating Agricultural Universities (AUs) and ICAR in helping students receive a more pertinent and superior education.