Reboot the Earth Rome at the Science and Innovation Forum 2025: Youth-Led Innovation Driving Open-Source Solutions for Sustainable Agrifood Systems

Launched in 2019 by the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), Reboot the Earth began as a global call for youth-driven digital solutions to climate change. Over the years, the initiative expanded across regions—with editions in New York, India, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Rwanda—building a diverse community of young innovators using open data and digital public goods to address sustainability challenges. FAO joined the initiative as a co-organizer in 2023, aligning Reboot the Earth with its work on digital agriculture and innovation for agrifood systems transformation.

Reboot the Earth returned with its fifth global edition and its first ever at FAO Headquarters in Rome. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), Salesforce, and the Digital Public Goods Alliance, the 48-hour hackathon brought together students, young professionals, researchers, and innovators to co-create open-source digital solutions that strengthen the transformation of agrifood systems.

Co-creating solutions for global challenges for two days:

• Day 1 – Framing, Team Formation, and Concept Design
  Participants gathered in the FAO Acceleration Zone to explore challenge themes around food security, sustainability, and climate resilience. After reviewing datasets and digital tools, they formed multidisciplinary teams and began framing their problem statements. Mentors supported teams in translating ideas into feasible solution concepts grounded in open data, AI, digital public goods, and user-centered design.
• Day 2 – Building, Testing, and Preparing Prototypes
  Teams moved into rapid prototyping mode, developing early-stage open-source solutions—ranging from Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and proofs of concept (PoCs) to sketched prototypes. They engaged in iterative mentorship sessions, refined system logic, integrated user insights, and prepared their final presentations for the jury.

Participants came from diverse backgrounds, supported by behavioral science students, technologists, agronomists, designers, and mentors who contributed technical and strategic guidance throughout the hackathon. The event emphasized not only creativity and rapid problem-solving, but also inclusion, practical usability, and impact for communities on the ground.

Guidance from global experts:

A distinguished panel of speakers, mentors, and jurors accompanied participants throughout the hackathon, providing insight into innovation, digital transformation, and sustainable development. The panel included:

• Beth Crawford, Chief Scientist ad interim, FAO
• Vincent Martin, Director, Office of Innovation, FAO
• Henry van Burgsteden, Senior Innovation Officer, FAO
• Bassel Daher, Assistant Director for Sustainable Development, Texas A&M Energy Institute
• Michael Duggan, Director of Solution Engineering, Salesforce Solutions Team for the UN and World Bank Group
• Giuseppina Miuli, Open Innovation Consultant, CIHEAM Bari
• Longbao Wei, Chair Professor of Applied Economics and Agribusiness, Zhejiang University
• Harinda Katugaha, Senior Strategy Advisor, Office of Innovation, FAO

Their guidance reinforced a core message: youth-led, open-source innovation is essential for accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 13 (Climate Action).

Winning innovation: AgriSnapp by Hackriculture

This year’s winning team, Hackriculture, impressed the jury with AgriSnapp, an open-source, AI-powered platform designed to help farmers detect crop pests and diseases—particularly in olives, vines, and citrus—by simply taking a photo with their mobile device.

AgriSnapp provides farmers with:

• Real-time pest and disease diagnosis
• Localized treatment recommendations
• Geo-tagged alerts that help communities prevent outbreaks
• A user-friendly design tailored for accessibility and field use

The solution demonstrated how AI and open data can deliver concrete benefits to smallholder farmers, strengthening resilience and reducing crop losses through faster, data-driven decision-making.

As part of their award, Hackriculture earned a place in the Seed to Scale: Agrifood Pitch Battle held on 16 October, giving the team an opportunity to showcase their innovation to investors, mentors, and experts supporting early-stage agrifood technology.

Key takeaways and the road ahead

Reboot the Earth Rome 2025 highlighted three core lessons: youth-led innovation can deliver tangible impact; user-centered design is essential for ensuring solutions meet farmers’ real needs; and scaling requires more than technology—it depends on mentorship, networks, and sustained institutional support.

The hackathon demonstrated how open-source, collaborative innovation can connect global talent with local challenges. By bringing together young developers, researchers, and practitioners, FAO and its partners are strengthening a growing international community working to advance digital public goods and build more resilient agrifood systems.