Young Innovators Paving the Way for a Resilient Future in Cambodia’s Agriculture Sector

50 young people from 11 different institutions joined forces to develop innovative ideas to strengthen Cambodia’s agriculture sector.

Tithamatak Chhim

April 8, 2024

What happens when you bring together 50 brilliant young people to tackle a big challenge?

Over a dozen inspiring, innovative new ideas for improving agriculture in Cambodia.

That’s exactly what happened on April 25, 2024, when Impact Hub Phnom Penh hosted a three-day hackathon for more than 50 young people from 11 different institutions. The hackathon is part of our DakDam Innovators for Resilient Agriculture program, a startup ideation program for aspiring entrepreneurs eager to strengthen Cambodia’s agricultural industry through innovative and climate-resilient practices. We’re excited to bring back the DakDam program this year, with a reframed focus. Whereas our past DakDam programs focused on supporting existing startups, this program, we’re trying to launch the next generation of startups!

The hackathon is just the start. After the hackathon, we’ll move into an incubation phase and ongoing support. The program is supported by the International Rice Research Institute and implemented under the CGIAR initiative on Asian Mega-Delta.

Anyway, enough background information. Are you ready to head behind-the-scenes of the hackathon?

The Dak Dam Hackathon was the exciting and essential first phase of our program. Over three intense days, young people from various fields like agriculture, technology, and business came together to collaborate. The 14 teams dove into Cambodia’s agricultural challenges, gaining insights from expert speakers. Using our fun gamified methodology, participants worked through the process of validating and developing their ideas. They brainstormed concepts, developed business models, and practiced pitching their ideas. Each team had a dedicated mentor with expertise in agriculture, tech, creativity, and business to help them fine-tune their solutions.

“What I like the most about the DakDam Hackathon is how supportive and helpful all the mentors and the teamworks behind this successful program. Not to mention the awesome refreshments, t-shirts, and gifts that deserve a chef kiss. For me, the three days of this hackathon have been an eye-opening experience. I will always be proud of completing this hackathon and going from knowing nothing about pitching business ideas to coming up with one. Now I notice myself dreaming about making an ideal business happen someday.”

- Sreyneang Yung, Oy-Spei Team

On the last day of the hackathon, 14 amazing teams showed off their incredible skills and creativity. They were all vying for a spot in the top five, to each get $500 in seed funding to bring their ideas to life and build their prototypes. The ideas ranged from precision agriculture technology to processing agricultural byproducts, climate-resilient training, climate-smart pest management, water-efficient irrigation systems, and organic agriculture. It was inspiring to see so much innovation in one place!

Ultimately, our judges selected five winning teams to move on to the incubation phase: ZeroCarbon, Chiv-Cheat, បន្សាំ-Bansam, CamboGreens and Her Agri. They will receive training to further develop their business ideas and prototypes, mentoring and coaching, and exposure sessions to meet local successful entrepreneurs. In a few months, they’ll have the change to showcase their evolved solutions on the Demo Day, where three top teams will win an additional $1,500 for post-program support.

Meet the Finalists!

CamboGreens

CamboGreens produces green powder supplements, processed carefully under food quality and safety control from vegetables that have almost gone bad, to prevent food waste, support local farmers, and promote convenient vegetable consumption.

Zero Carbon

Zero Carbon is a precise tech provider that addresses land degradation in Cambodia by providing soil condition analysis and sensors, treatment, and consultancy services with their farming expertise.

Chiv-Cheat

Chiv-Cheat is an ICT solution that prevents losses of cashew yield due to lack of techniques and diseases control through Chiv-Cheat Telegram Chatbot that detects, connects and provides resources to cashew nut farmers in Cambodia.

Her Agri

Her Agri is an innovative pest management solution that replaces harmful chemical cabbage pesticides with local and organic cabbage baits. Cabbage baits help farmers eliminate unwanted pests and maximize cabbage yield without harming microorganisms in the soil, soil quality and consumers’ health.

បន្សាំ – Bansam

បន្សាំ – Bansam is an advanced climate-resilient vegetable propagation provider that not only maximizes vegetable yield with guaranteed quality but also saves farmers time during harvesting.