Students compete for chance to win precision agriculture scholarship

Jul 30, 2020

Scholarship contest asks how precision ag can have a positive impact on the environment

There are many reasons that farmers may want to adopt precision agriculture, such as reducing costs, reducing waste, increasing profits, and reducing farming’s impact on the environment. For today’s students, the motivation may lean more towards the last reason: environmental benefits to protecting the planet. Farms.com is pleased to announce a contest for a chance to win one of three US$2,000 scholarships for students who have a precision agriculture idea that will have a positive impact on the environment.

Students will be invited to submit their idea, via a social media video (Twitter and Facebook). The video should describe the student’s research/thesis or new idea regarding precision agriculture and its potential positive impact on the environment. Students can be studying in any field, not just agriculture, including robotics, AI, engineering, environmental science, etc. However, the ideas will need to be practical and appealing to farmers, as farmers will be voting on the concepts they believe are the most worthy and practical for farmers in North America and the United Kingdom.

“We believe combining students with cutting edge technology leads to innovation,” says Graham Dyer, President and CEO of Farms.com. “For many years now, we have been committed to innovative ways to engage students at our in-person Precision Agriculture Conference and Ag Technology trade shows. This year, we decided to take it a step further.”

The contest is open to students in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and a scholarship will be awarded in each country. Deadline for submissions via social media is 11:59 pm, Friday, September 25, 2020 (Eastern Time, North America). To be eligible to win, students must be enrolled full-time in a college or university program either as an undergraduate or as a graduate student.

A panel of judges, composed of sponsors, industry leaders, and Farms.com staff members, will then determine the top submissions in each country, and post these on Farms.com, AgCareers.com, and DeLacyExecutive.co.uk. Farmers and producers will then be invited to vote on the best submissions.

The winners, as determined by voting in each country, will be asked to participate in a Student Panel as part of Farms.com Precision Ag Virtual Conference in November 2020, where they will have the opportunity to present their thesis idea in more detail to farmers attending the Farms.com Virtual Precision Agriculture Conference and Trade Show.

For Canadian Students, Farms.com is pleased to welcome Canada’s farm accounting software AgExpert as the Scholarship contest sponsor. To learn more about becoming the scholarship sponsor in the United States or the United Kingdom, please contact precisionag@farms.com.

Presenting sponsors include Farms.com and AgCareers.com in the United States and Canada, and Farms.com and De Lacy Executive Recruitment in the United Kingdom.

Scholarship value: the equivalent of US$2000/country

Deadline for student Video submission: September 25, 2020

Scholarship entry submission videos should be less than 2-minutes in length, include the student or students first name(s), and should include the hashtag #PAG20scholarship, entries should also tag the following social media accounts:

Twitter:
- @FarmsNews,
- @OntAg, and
- @Agriville
Facebook: @Farmscom

For privacy reasons, video submissions should not include student’s full name, email, or telephone number in the submission. Once Farms.com has received the contest entry, we will direct message students to obtain your full name, email address, street address, and telephone number. If you win the contest, Farms.com will require proof that you are enrolled in and attending the course of studies as outline in your submission.

For more information or detailed contest eligibility rules, https://www.farms.com/precision-agriculture/conferences/virtual-precision-ag-conference-2020/scholarship-contest/

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