The winner of the best agricultural mobile device application for 2019 is HYDRA Farm Awareness. This award, sponsored by Pioneer, is one of 12 app winners announced at the MTN Business App of the Year awards ceremony held last week in Sandton, Johannesburg. This year saw 600 entries into these awards, 54 of which were agricultural solution submissions.

HYDRA Farm Awareness is an app designed by The Awareness Company which makes technology that is easy to use, gives insight where needed and that allows clients to share and collaborate with others.
“We are super thrilled with this award for Hydra Farm Awareness. Thank you to MTN and Pioneer. With our team’s passion, purpose and partners, we can create solutions that create impact,” says Priaash Ramadeen from The Awareness Company.
Their winning app is a solution that has been built to benefit the entire agriculture community and which transforms data into value across farm security, livestock and crops management, asset management, capability management, finance, risk management and sensors.
HYDRA Farm Awareness allows users to efficiently and effectively leverage data to gain a competitive edge against threats, to gain information awareness and to allow agriculture to grow and thrive. This leads to informed planning, strategic level decision making and sustainment.
In a nutshell, HYDRA Farm Awareness makes use of sensors, AI and IoT technologies and combines information from a range of sensors including livestock trackers, asset trackers, motion sensors, gate and fence sensors, environmental sensors (temperature / humidity / soil moisture) and camera traps into a single view. This allows users to manage and monitor farm operations such as livestock management, grading, births, scheduling of vaccinations, tracking of scheduled farm worker jobs, water monitoring, invasive species monitoring, equipment maintenance, tracking of wildfires, illnesses and diseases, fence and road maintenance, vehicle refuels and trips, rainfall, and track, log and optimize use of feed, pesticides and fertilizer.
Pioneer, sponsor of the Best Agricultural Solution at this year’s MTN Business App of the Year Awards, is a world leader in the development and provision of advanced plant genetics, a fitting sponsor for this award which is also committed to provide only the best services to farmers.
”At Pioneer, our slogan is: Science with service, delivering success. Congratulations to HYDRA Farm Awareness – thank you for making agriculture better” says Tharien Hendrikse, Marketing and Communications Specialist for Pioneer
Award entries in this category were all judged according to strict criteria, assessing whether they were a solution that focuses on solving the growing agricultural challenges in Africa.
The MTN Business App of the Year Awards also announced last week included the best consumer solution, best enterprise solution, best incubated solution, most innovative solution, best health solution, best gaming solution, best educational solution, best financial solution as well as best breakthrough developer, best “South African” app and Best Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) solution.
These awards play a vital role in elevating local entrepreneurs and showcasing exciting new innovations within the ICT industry in South Africa, providing a platform that celebrates local talent, rewards out-of-the-box thinking and continues to enable new technology start-ups to build innovative applications.
Some of the apps which have been discovered through this platform over the last 8 years and which are now household names include Snapscan, Khula! Stokfella and Domestly. With only 50 entries in the inaugural competition in 2011, this year saw over 600 entries, a clear indication of both the popularity of these Awards as well as the growing pool of talented app developers locally.
About PIONEER
PIONEER is an international company and the world leader in the development and provision of advanced plant genetics. Since Henry Wallis established the PIONEER Hi-Bred Corn Company in 1926, we have provided high quality seed to farmers in more than 90 countries worldwide. Since then our business and clients has changed dramatically, but our philosophy and way of doing business is still the same:
We try to produce the best products on the market, we strive to deal honestly and fairly with our employees, sales representatives, business associates, customers and stockholders, we advertise and sell our products vigorously but without misrepresentation and we give helpful management suggestions to our customers to assist them in making the greatest possible profit from our products. In 2019 PIONEER South Africa operates nationally, with a product portfolio of more than 40 registered maize, soybean and sunflower hybrids. The PIONEER team consists of more than 100 agents and agronomists who are committed to provide only the best services to farmers. We work with stakeholders throughout the food chain, to ensure that the lives of farmers and consumers are bettered and ensuring progress for generations to come.
For more information contact info.rsa@pioneer.com
Go to https://awarenesscompany.co.za/pages/solutions/agri.html for more information