Rural background helps lads devise CropSafe device

Three teenage entrepreneurs, who used their rural background to devise an app to help farmers combat crop contamination, have their eyes on a very special prize in the USA's Silicon Valley.
John, Michael and Rory who invented CropSafe.John, Michael and Rory who invented CropSafe.
John, Michael and Rory who invented CropSafe.

During a ‘Hackathon’ at Queen’s University, Belfast, earlier this year, the boys noticed that crop disease and contamination was the biggest factor in the reduction of crop yields.

The team consists of John McElhone from Drumenagh (St. Mary’s Grammar, Magherafelt); Micheál McLaughlin from Draperstown (St. Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt) and Rory McMullan from Randalstown (St. Louis Grammar).

They explained: “CropSafe was born, the simple solution to allow any farmer or cultivator to survey their land with the simple touch of a button.” Entering their creation into a series of competitions, they were eventually awarded first place in an Accelerator Program with an American company called AngelHack with the possibility of being flown to San Francisco for the opportunity to pitch their start-up idea to over 150 investors and venture capital firms.

Anyone interested in the device can check out www.cropsafe.io/waitinglist

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