This week, the Food and Water group continued with its momentum in arriving at a finalized technological solution and fully integrated business model. Having secured a partnership with Edyn, the soil sensor company that has already provided us the first of ten sensors we will be prototyping in Vizag, we progressed further in developing the second half of our solution. We set out to bridge the gap in the value chain that connects the farmers and their soil to the plate of city residents.
From the start of our research in the deficiencies of the food and water systems in Vizag, all signs have pointed to the major issue of middle men disrupting the fair and equitable flow of products to and from the city. In most cases, the number of hands through which a unit of produce is exchanged before it reaches the city markets is obscene, draining profit at each step of the way. As a result, farmers are left with only a smidgeon of the profit produced from their crops and the lack of transparency in the system prevents them from having the power to seek better offers.
Now that we have a valuable product informing farmers about how to manage their soil and crop yields, we have a direct channel through which to facilitate an efficient and transparent agrimarket. In using the Edyn sensors and application, the farmers will be opening their eyes to new opportunities made possible by fertilizer and seed recommendations in addition to education and assistance in expertly managing their cropped land. An e-marketplace directly integrated with the Edyn app would then open the doors to those opportunities through a system which will promote free flow of market information and fair trading practices. We are looking forward to concretizing these plans and presenting our completed solution during our presentation this Thursday.
The Food and Water Group
Dhruv Singhal, Jessica Lazarus, Jean Choo, Valeria Yermakova, Sidney Lee
Good
Great consolidation of ideas but this report seems more of a summary than an explanation of your progress