Winners Announced for "Technological and Innovative Solutions in Agriculture" Awards

Women in Technology Association (WTECH) has announced winners of the "Technological and Innovative Solutions in Agriculture" competition, which aims to promote ideas and projects that contribute to agricultural sustainability. In the competition, which also received support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, early-stage agricultural venture Nanomik won the TRY 100,000 prize, while the Confarm team, first place in the university category, secured a TRY 30,000 award. The competition was held online on 7 April 2021. Speakers at the event included Hakan Yurdakul, Member of the Presidency Economic Policies Council, Zehra Öney, Founding Board Chair of Women in Technology Association, and Ahmet Dördüncü, Board Chair of Global Compact Turkey and CEO of Akkök Holding. Women in Technology Association (WTECH) announced winners of the "Technological and Innovative Solutions in Agriculture" competition, organized to encourage new ideas, projects, products and services from women entrepreneurs that will contribute to and strengthen agricultural sustainability, with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The competition, aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurs to focus on sustainable agricultural technologies, was designed within the framework of UNDP's Global Goals under the "Zero Hunger" heading. The "Technological and Innovative Solutions in Agriculture" competition, which supports women engineers, veterinarians and entrepreneurs with innovative solutions that will create transformation in agriculture, also aimed to develop awareness among young people of sustainability, teamwork, project development, problem-solving, leadership and responsibility. The competition, brought to life with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), Amazon Web Service, Tekfen, Cargill, Yemek Sepeti, Credit Bureau, SAS and ADColony, drew strong interest.

University Students and Early-Stage Ventures Participated

The competition was organized in two separate categories: "University" and "Entrepreneur". Ventures that passed the preliminary selection received development support through an entrepreneurship camp organized before jury evaluation. At the competition held online on 7 April 2021, applicants made presentations to the jury. The competition jury consisted of: Student Competition Jury: Başak Kural Uslu (eLogo), Dr. Nevzat Birişik (TAGEM), Nurcan Bıçakçı Arcan (SAS), Sonat Akat (Cargill), Emre Özmen (FMO Bank), Tunç Berkman (TBS Investments), Entrepreneur Jury: Zehra Öney (WTECH), Elif Dağdeviren (EDGE All-In-One), Tunç Özgül (AWS), Barış Öney (Globalturk Capital), Emre Alaman (HP Turkey), Mehmet Uvez (EBRD), Koray Kaya (KKB), Altan Küçükçınar (DCP), Mustafa Tercan (Esas Holding)

Total Prizes of TRY 145,000 Awarded

Among the 10 university teams and 10 early-stage venture teams that passed the preliminary selection, the early-stage entrepreneur award winner was determined following jury evaluation: Nanomik, a biotechnology firm developing 100% natural solutions for food and agricultural products, and its founder Buse Berber Örçen. In the university category, Confarm team was selected first, Engineer Brains second, and Kybele's Garden team third. The first-place venture in the entrepreneur category received TRY 100,000, first place in the university category received TRY 30,000, second place TRY 10,000, and third place TRY 5,000.

Award-winning projects in the competition:

Early-Stage Entrepreneur Award: NANOMİK Nanomik, founded by Buse Berber Örçen, is a biotechnology firm developing 100% natural solutions for food and agricultural products. The venture's motto is "Protection from Nature, from Field to Table". Nanomik has developed microencapsulation technology for the biopesticide market, the most important synthetic pesticide alternative of the future, which increases the resistance of plant molecules to environmental conditions and makes them as stable and effective as synthetic protectants. Products developed with patented microencapsulation technology are user-friendly solutions that can be applied without changing the systems users are accustomed to. Moreover, they are produced from domestic sources at rates exceeding 90%.

University Category

First Place Award: Confarm Confarm, led by Elif Nisa Güler, works with the goal of conducting future agriculture everywhere from the concrete squares of developed cities to remote villages in Africa using hydroponic farming methods in containers. With ConFarm's transparent containers, we produce using 8 times less water in a much narrower area, generating 10 times more yield. Confarm does not use pesticides. Second Place Award: Engineer Brains Engineer Brains, led by Betül Demir, developed a project that detects the presence of disease in fields based on data obtained from satellites and drones, obtains images of diseased areas through drone flights, and provides information flow to producers. Third Place Award: Kybele's Garden Kybele's Garden, led by Aygen Savaş Alkan, developed a project to establish a hydroponic smart vertical farming system as a second simultaneous production layer on production platforms to be implemented for microalgae cultivation and to enable production of agricultural products compatible with algae growth media.