EcoNodos, rural innovation finalist in hackathon

The SIA incubator at the Facatativá Extension Center stood out at the 2025 Youth Hackathon with EcoNodos, a project that converts waste into energy and fertilizer.

By: Alejandro García Suárez – Advisory Office for Communications.

The SIA (Agro-environmental Innovation System) research incubator of the Facatativá Extension stood out at the 2025 Cundinamarca Youth Hackathon, where it was selected as a finalist in the Agro-peasantry category thanks to its project “EcoNodos: warm your home”.

According to Genie Lorena Velázquez Díaz, Knowledge and Learning Manager for the Environmental Engineering program in Facatativá, the proposal seeks to utilize agricultural, domestic, and organic waste generated in the 15 provinces of the department of Cundinamarca. The initiative aims to close the loop on this waste, which, when improperly managed, generates pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The process begins with the daily collection of organic waste on farms and in communities. These are transported to rural nodes where biodigesters, tailored to local needs, are designed and installed. There, through an anaerobic process, they are transformed into three main products:

• Biogas, useful for heating and cooking.
• Biol, a liquid fertilizer that improves soil quality.
• Compost, a solid fertilizer that boosts agricultural productivity.

The impact is threefold: economic, thanks to savings on fertilizers and income generation; environmental, by reducing emissions and improving soils; and social, as farmers are trained to operate and maintain their own biodigesters.

Velázquez Díaz highlighted the talent and commitment of the student team made up of Juan Carlos León Ramos, Leydy Andrea Salinas Díaz, Dayan Camila Cortés Barbosa, and Laura Sofía Bolívar Jiménez. For them, the Hackathon was a challenge that boosted creativity and the design of solutions that strengthen the rural economy and the food security of the department.

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