Farm of the Future Ideation Day at Farm Zero C to Address Challenges in the Agricultural Sector

The Ludgate Hub, AgTechUCD and Munster Technological University’s (MTU) AgriTech cluster are hosting a Farm of the Future Ideation Day on Wednesday, 26 October, at Carbery’s newly renovated visitor centre at Farm Zero C, outside Bandon, Co. Cork.

The purpose of the day-long event is to bring together people working in the agri-food sector to identify challenges currently facing the agriculture sector and to identify potential solutions which could form the basis of new businesses.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/farm-of-the-future-ideation-day-26th-oct-tickets-377399139987

Identified challenges will be discussed, and methodologies applied, with the support of a trained facilitator, to create robust solutions to address the challenges. The identified solutions will then be pitched to a team of judges and a prize will be awarded to an overall winner.

Niamh Collins, Director, AgTechUCD, said, “We look forward to welcoming participants to our Farm of the Future ideation day event at the end of the month. This event is open to those working in the agri-food sector, the farming community, second and third-level students, academics and anyone who has an interest in innovation, sustainability and problem solving, especially in the agriculture sector. We hope that some of the solutions which emerge during the day to solve the identified challenges will evolve into businesses in the future.”

Fiona Ryan, Start-Up and Entrepreneurship Manager, The Ludgate Hub, said, “You don’t need to have identified a challenge to attend this event, we will match you with other participants on the day to form a team to address a challenge. The day will involve some team-building activities before the team works through various steps to mature/re-evaluate your team challenge with the support of facilitators.”

Kieran O’Donoghue, Educational Outreach Manager, AgriTech Ireland, said, “During the day each team will address issues such as which challenge is your idea solving and why does this problem exist. They will analyse existing solutions to help rephrase the problem before identifying a new potential solution and building a compelling pitch to present to the judges.”

Farm Zero C (Shinagh Farm, outside Bandon, Co. Cork), which last year won the SFI Future Innovator Prize of €2 million in funding, is a collaboration between Carbery, BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre, UCD and others to create a climate-neutral, economically-viable dairy farm. The project is taking a holistic approach, combining a range of technologies and practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the productivity and resilience of the farm.

The Farm of the Future Ideation Day is taking place on 26 October and registration is now open via https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/farm-of-the-future-ideation-day-26th-oct-tickets-377399139987

The Farm of the Future Ideation Day is supported by AIB, Carbery Group and Drinagh Co-op.