One-line solution summary:
Vegetables and other crops production under controlled or protected environment
Pitch your solution.
One of the most important sector the world decision makers need to invest in at this crucial moment of COVID 19 pandemic is the Agriculture sector. Food is what kept up alive while we were on complete or partial lock down. Nothing else mattered.
Open field vegetable farming in hot and humid tropic countries like Ghana comes with a lot of challenges. These includes among other things, low yields, erratic rainfall patterns, food safety challenges, rejection of export produces due to the presence of harmful organism, little know how in farming technologies etc...
Our solution to these challenges is call the Controlled Environment of Protected Agriculture.
Controlled Environment Agriculture can be defined as an integrated Science and Engineering based approach to establish the most favorable environmental conditions for plant productivity while optimizing resources such as water, energy, space, capital and labor, thereby providing the desired plant product under controlled conditions.
What specific problem are you solving?
Our project comes as a multi solution to challenges such, extreme poverty in the community, youth unemployment, negative effects of climate change on today open field vegetable production.
Women and the youth of my community are faced with unemployment and challenges and we want to use new farming technologies to solve these pressing need and empower them to overcome these challenges.
There are other serious problem that revenue from our farming activities could help solve. We intend to support adolescent girls between the ages of 9-14 years in our communities that absent themselves from school when menstruating. Due to extreme poverty, their parents can not afford to purchase Sanitary pads for them. They have no choice but to stay at home during their menses and miss important lessons.
Sharing sanitary pads to poor adolescent girls in the community remain one of our core priorities in addition to empowering women and the youth through Agriculture.
What is your solution?
Our solution will consist of building Greenhouses call EnviroDomes to grow some of the most consumed vegetables in Ghana.
Special greenhouses are built with new integrated new technologies such, automatic irrigation systems, temperature control, artificial intelligence, speaking plant approach, micro precision technique and other smart Agriculture systems used in today modern farming.
Vegetable seeds are nursed in a special Greenhouse and transplanted within 14days.
The plant are monitored through the fruiting stage where fertilizers are applied when necessary to obtain excellent result.
Most vegetables mature for harvest within 55 to 90 days.
They are then harvest and packaged for distribution on various local, regional and international markets.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Project will first be beneficial to women and the youth in the community. Product will be made available on the local and surrounding markets.
Project will also train women and the youth in new farming technologies so that they are able to put up their own farms.
Most of the women and the youth will be engaged by working with us on the project. They will be offered decent employments ranging from farm managers to vegetables whole sales marketing agent.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Enable small and new businesses, especially in untapped communities, to prosper and create good jobs through access to capital, networks, and technologyExplain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.
Project will be implemented in a rural community where it is needed most to help solve some the most pressing needs of the vulnerable in the community.
Our solution solves many challenges. It does not only empower women and the youth but also makes available quality and healthier vegetables all year round without interruption.
Who is the primary delegate for your solution?
DAVID WILSON PARKU
What is your solution’s stage of development?
Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business modelIn what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Accra, GhanaIf you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new application of an existing technologyDescribe what makes your solution innovative.
Protected environment Agriculture is an innovation that makes possible for today modern farmer to produce high quality and quantity vegetables compared to any other methods of farming. There are several vegetables farmers but only controlled environment produces can be considered as the most healthier vegetable for human consumption their are grown in protected environment where little or no pesticides are used. No harmful organism can be found on the vegetables and they can pass all food safety tests.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
New farming technology involved in Controlled environment agriculture include the following:
-Sensing and understanding plant microclimate interactions used in developing energy efficient resources, conserving, control and management strategies in Controlled Environment Agriculture,
- Micro precision techniques (Need, how much and when)
- Speaking plant approach
-Artificial intelligence and Biorobotics
- Automatic irrigation systems are among the various technologies application in today modern Greenhouses.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
What is your theory of change?
Using modern technologies in the service of agriculture to produce high quantity and quality vegetables all year round without depending on natural rainfall.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
currently serving 10 people
Next year at least 45 people
and more than 100 people in the next 5 years
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
To empower many women and young people, by providing jobs , training many in sustainable agriculture and food production, promoting economic growth through agriculture and eliminating extreme poverty in the community.
What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?
Only necessary funding sources are unavailable at the moment, there are no other barriers.
How do you plan to overcome these barriers?
Yes, we keep on looking for possible funding sources.
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofitHow many people work on your solution team?
3 Full time staff
7 Part time staff
1 Contractor
How many years have you worked on your solution?
3 years
Why are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
We have spent many years working on our solution and have attending many workshops and seminars to acquire the experience necessary for a successful implementation of our project.
What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?
No partner
What is your business model?
Our project is a multi jobs creation avenue that will generate revenue from wholesale of vegetables to local and international markets. Our targeted customers are mainly, boarding schools, restaurants, super markets, local communities and cities market and possibilities of export to neighboring countries.
We are mainly into the production of vegetables such as tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, sweet pepper and chilli pepper.These are the most consumed vegetables in our part of the world that are on extreme high demand especially in this time COVID-19 outbreak. The entire world depends heavily on farmers to produce more vegetables.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, or to other organizations?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your path to financial sustainability?
We are starting small with our own savings and little grant we used to purchase land for our project. We are trying very hard to raise more capital to enable us fully implement project.
Once project is fully implemented, invested capital can be quickly recovered within a year of activity through direct sales of harvested products.
Why are you applying to Solve?
We are applying to solve to empower women and the youth through modern agriculture. We are trying to make agriculture and agriculture look attractive to the youth through the application of modern technologies in farming.
Other reason of applying to Solve is the find lasting solution solution to challenges faced by today open field vegetable producer and these challenges includes, low crop yields, erratic rainfall pattern or over dependency on natural rainfalls, food safety problem caused by the presence of harmful organism of farm produce, little know how in new farming technologies among other challenges.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?
Any Solve member or other organization available to partner with us is highly welcome.
Please explain in more detail here.
We need potential funding partners on this project to help us raise necessary capital for a successful implementation of project.
Solution Team
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Mr DAVID PARKU CEO, DISPARK Ghana Ltd
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Solution Name:
Controlled environment farming