Young innovators from across Zimbabwe will present Raspberry Pi-powered solutions to transform smallholder agriculture at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music, 20–24 April 2026.

Organisers of TEXPO 26 have announced the ten student teams selected to compete in this year’s flagship hackathon challenge, “Move! Farm to Market.” The challenge tasks young innovators with designing a low-cost, Raspberry Pi-based digital traceability system to help smallholder farmers prove the origin, quality, and handling of their agricultural produce as well as access regional markets that have long been out of reach.

The selected teams will present their prototypes at TEXPO 26, taking place from 20 to 24 April 2026 at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music in Bulawayo. The event brings together student technologists, educators, mentors, and industry stakeholders in a celebration of youth-led innovation.

This year’s challenge centres on a scenario familiar to millions of rural farming households. Farmers like the fictional Temba Moyo grow high-quality avocados, groundnuts, and small grains, yet cannot access premium regional markets because they lack verifiable documentation of where and how their produce was grown. At border crossings such as Chirundu and Beitbridge, trucks are routinely delayed or turned away for missing paperwork. Individual farmers also struggle to meet the 5–30-tonne minimum orders that large buyers require, forcing them to sell locally at prices sometimes 20% below regional market value.

Teams were challenged to build a “Digital Trade Passport” system using Raspberry Pi hardware and affordable sensors, with secure, low-bandwidth integration into the Google Ecosystem. Solutions needed to be simple enough for farmers with limited digital literacy, durable enough for rural environments, and capable of aggregating produce from multiple farms into a single verified export batch.

Submissions were received from student teams spanning Zimbabwe’s major provinces, representing a wide range of schools, backgrounds, and grade levels. The pre-selection panel reviewed each entry against criteria covering problem understanding, technical feasibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability, user experience, and quality of proof-of-concept testing. Only teams demonstrating a genuinely farmer-centred approach, sound use of Raspberry Pi hardware, and a credible plan for demonstration at the hackathon were advanced.

“The selection process for this year’s TEXPO hackathon was particularly challenging. The quality of the submissions was of such a high standard that the organising team had to arrange for ten teams to participate rather than the six that were originally planned for. We are excited to see what the teams come up with,” said Simbirirai Solomon Maramba, Head of Communications, TEXPO Africa.

The following ten teams with students from the highlighted areas have been selected to compete at TEXPO 26:

Aarlazi  |  Roosevelt Girls High / St Dominics Chishawasha  |  Harare
Aura-Farmers |  USAP Community Schools |  Bulawayo, Manicaland, Gweru
BroCode  |  St Ignatius College  |  Manicaland
Code Commandos  |  Mpopoma High School  |  Bulawayo
GMV Star Coders  |  Gaza High School  |  Chipinge, Manicaland
Talons.exe  |  Wise Owl High School  |  Marondera
Tech Pirates  |  Sciency  |  Bulawayo
Tech Titans  |  USAP Community School  |  Chiredzi / Masvingo
TechNexus  |  First Choice Private School  |  Harare Waterfalls
The Dream Team  |  Amazon Christian Academy  |  Matabeleland South

The five-day event at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music will feature a rich programme running alongside the hackathon competition, bringing together industry leaders, logistics experts, and financiers to engage directly with students and educators.

A high-level panel discussion will bring together representatives from the World Food Programme (WFP), DHL Go-Trade, farmers and others in the industry  to examine the agricultural value chain in Southern Africa, covering market access, cross-border trade, cold chain logistics, and the role of technology in connecting smallholder farmers to regional and international buyers.

A series of practical workshops will run throughout the week, including dedicated sessions on logistics for agricultural goods, addressing the movement, storage, and documentation of produce across borders and a workshop on financing, exploring the funding mechanisms and financial tools available to farmers, agribusinesses, and agritech innovators in the region.

The week culminates on Friday 24 April 2026 with the final adjudication of hackathon prototypes and a prize-giving ceremony. Competing teams will present their working solutions to a panel of adjudicators drawn from the technology, agriculture, and education sectors, with teams scored on problem analysis, technical rigour, cost-effectiveness, scalability, user accessibility, and live proof-of-concept performance.

The geographic spread of selected teams, from Bulawayo and Matabeleland South to Manicaland, Harare, and Mashonaland East, reflects the national reach of the competition and the widespread recognition among Zimbabwe’s young people that technology has a vital role to play in transforming the agricultural sector.

About TEXPO 26
TEXPO is Zimbabwe’s annual student technology exposition and hackathon, bringing together secondary and tertiary students to tackle real-world challenges through hands-on innovation. TEXPO 26 takes place from 20 to 24 April 2026 at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music, Bulawayo.

Media Enquiries
Simbirirai Solomon Maramba
Head of Communications- Texpo Africa
simbirirai@gmail.com
+263772381997