Magherafelt students launch app to save farmers billions

Two students have created a pioneering app, designed to save farmers billions of pounds.

John McElhone and Micheal McLaughlin, both 18 and from Saint Mary's Grammar School in Magherafelt, designed the concept at tech giant Kainos’ popular coding event for teens, 'Kainos CodeCamp.'

The boys also took the opportunity to develop it further through different programmes and hackathons hosted by the company.

The app has the potential to safeguard the global agri-food industry and also save farmers billions of pounds in lost revenue each year.

CropSafe uses satellite technology to track crops and alert farmers and landowners about the spread of contamination and disease, a problem currently causes losses of around £5 billion globally, with wheat, barley and potatoes the hardest hit.

John McElhone said: "Coming from a rural background, we were well aware of the devastating loss of income to farmers when crops are diseased and contamination is allowed to spread. Our solution is to provide farmers with accurate satellite imagery clearly detailing information about the location of disease and its severity, therefore enabling them to quickly take steps to mitigate the problem.

"Last November we were invited along to San Francisco by a number of Silicon Valley Tech gurus, to pitch our app to interested investors.

"Since then we have completed the first working prototype of the app and we already have a waiting list of customers in Ireland, the UK and as far afield as Australia and France, who want to subscribe as soon as product roll-out begins later this year."

"We’d like to thank Kainos for all their support to help us get to this point; from presentation pitch practice at CodeCamp, inspiring speakers at BelTech EDU and learning how to build a web app on Kainos’ work experience programme.

"Without their support, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to bring it to a wider audience and pitch for investment, almost certainly we would not be at the point where we’re at today.”

After presenting the idea at Kainos CodeCamp, the team attended BelTech EDU, where they pitched their model to a Dragons’ Den style panel, winning first place and a cash prize of £1,000.

They then pitched the product demo at Google HQ in Dublin and were again awarded first place in the county category and a space on the Angel Hack accelerator programme in Silicon Valley.

Gemma Crothers, CSR Manager at Kainos said: "We are delighted to have been a catalyst in bringing this commercially viable app to fruition and congratulate the boys on their considerable success since completing the CodeCamp programme.

"It’s what the Kainos Academy, which includes CodeCamp, is all about. It offers young people a very unique opportunity; giving both technical guidance and helping to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit with practical business advice."