E-FLOWS

• Based on Food Agriculture Organization, World Hunger is on the rise; yet, an estimated 1/3 of all food produced globally is lost or goes to waste.

• We offer the solutions to reduce food loss and food waste is an Edible coating to extend the shelf life of agricultural products such as fruit and vegetables. Besides, we can control the maturation of fruits and vegetables with E-container technology. And to process the food loss and food waste, we make it to Eco-enzyme products that can be used as an organic fertilizer and/or organic cleanser. 
  

• As we know that food loss and food waste is global problem. So if we solve these, we can reduce environmental pollution caused by organic waste. And at the same time, we can increase global food security and reduce world hunger cases. 

According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at least 1,3 trillion tons of foodstuffs wasted, became food loss and food waste. The wastes are produced by many countries in the world and various types of sectors, such as agricultural sectors and household sectors. Even the household sectors contributed around 78% organic waste and mostly are fruits and vegetables. Of course, It is parallel with the increase in environmental pollution. 

More than 7 billion people (everyone) in the world can be affected by food loss and food waste.

As the fourth most populous country, Indonesia ranks second in terms of total waste production worldwide. Every person in Indonesia produces around 300 kg of waste annually and mostly is organic waste such as fruits and vegetables. However, the utilization of the wastes is still limited. On the other hand, Indonesia can not guarantee food security for every citizen. Around 24,97 billion people are still living under poverty, so they can not fulfill their primary needs properly, such as food needs. Therefore, it would be better if we also prevent food loss and food waste.

E-FLOWS offers solutions to solve food loss and food waste problems by using biotechnology that will be connected to the system in our mobile platform. We process agricultural products from traditional farmers with biotechnology. The products will be coated with Edible coating and save the products with the E-container system. That will extend the product’s shelf life and maintain the product’s quality until it reaches the customer. Besides processing and selling the products in our marketplace, E-FLOWS educates the traditional farmers to apply agricultural biotechnology through the articles about agricultural technology in our platform. And then E-FLOWS provides training programs for the traditional farmers that we offer in our platform. 

E-FLOWS also can be an intermediary for food donations. We will accept fruits and vegetables from the donors and donate it to people in need or we can sell them at low prices. But if it is not good for consumption, we will process it into Eco-enzyme products. Besides, we will buy organic waste at low prices or receive organic waste donations to be processed into eco-enzyme products. These eco-enzyme products will be sold in our marketplace and can be used for organic fertilizer and organic cleanser.

E-FLOWS solutions are for everyone. Everyone can feel the impacts, directly or indirectly. E-FLOWS provides agricultural products with high quality. We help urban people to fulfill their fruits and vegetable needs through our marketplace. Besides, E-FLOWS helps traditional farmers to improve their knowledge and skill in farming by educating them to use agricultural technology. We provide articles and several programs on our mobile platform to educate and train them, like educating about Edible coating and E-container. So, it can be more cost-effective in plant care and at the same time improve their profit. Also, we help them to sell their products that we have processed to a wider market in our marketplace.

Besides, E-FLOWS helps people who have excessive fruits and vegetables to be donated to people who need it more. We mediate the distributions of the foods from donors to recipients. Also, we receive sales of organic waste which will be processed using Eco-enzyme technology. So it can help people in need while reducing environmental pollution.

E-FLOWS offers several solutions to solve problems related to food today by using biotechnology, such as Edible coating, E-container, and biorefinery concept with Eco-enzyme. We prevent food loss and food waste since postharvest. Then we educate and train the traditional farmers to use that biotechnology in farming. Besides, we process food loss and food waste to reduce environmental pollution by using the biorefinery concept with Eco-enzyme. The Eco-enzyme products can be utilized again by traditional farmers as organic fertilizer. Also, eco-enzyme products can be utilized for organic cleansers. So, we hoped the E-FLOWS system can create a sustainable food system.

In Indonesia, no one has developed a mobile platform with the same concept as E-FLOWS. Several mobile platforms regarding foods and agriculture that have existed in Indonesia, provide services and features that focus on the planting periods. They provide features to find out the right time to plant, the efficiency of nutrition, how to deal with pests, and monitor plant conditions. For the service, they provide service to consult with experts. Another platform creates a marketplace for agricultural products and mediates transactions between farmers and buyers. 

What makes E-FLOWS difference and unique ?

1. Integrate the education platform for farmers, especially traditional farmers and the marketplace for their products. We educate and train traditional farmers with articles and programs about the application of biotechnology in agriculture, such as Edible coating and E-containers that we also use, through on platform to improve their knowledge and skill in farming. We provide a marketplace to help them to expand their market. 

2. Help urban people to fulfill their agricultural product needs with a high-quality product by our online marketplace. 

3. Mediate food sharing through the food donation features with people who are more in need. 

4. Make eco-enzyme products from organic waste to reduce environmental pollution.

5. Use Blockchain technology in the food donation feature with the aim of being more transparent, trusted and easily tracked. And AI technology to automation food maturation control.

All of that will be integrated in our mobile platform. E-FLOWS hopes the system that we created can realize a sustainable food system.

The technology used to build our mobile platform is Progressive Web Apps where web applications can run on Android and IOS platforms with Javascript, HTML, and CSS programming languages for user interfaces with the Ionic and Angular JS frameworks. The technology is used for the backend and to form RestAPI is Composer Rest Server from Hyperledger Composer. To give trust to donors and eco-enzyme buyers, we use blockchain technology with Hyperledger Fabric so they can find out the origin, location, and status of products quickly and transparently. 

Besides, we use biotechnology to process fruits and vegetables. We start from the post harvest process, we use Edible coating technology, this innovation is made from shrimp waste and seaweed. Edible Coating is a method of giving a thin layer to the surface of a fruit to prevent the release of gas, air vapor and avoid contact with oxygen, so that the maturation process can be slowed down. And that we use E-Container as an automation container to regulate fruit ripening. And for the organic waste, we process it into Eco-enzyme products. E-FLOWS makes a bioreactor to produce eco-enzyme with large scale.

The technology we use has been proven to work and has been used before. Here are some of the evidence:

1. Edible Coating

1. Edible coating from seaweed

Various studies have been focused on seaweeds derived polysaccharides based composites because of its renewability and sustainability for food packaging : https://fahutan.unmul.ac.id/dosen/enih_rosamah/assets/upload/image/publikasi/8__Seaweed_based_sustainable_films_and_composites_for_food_and_pharmaceutical_applications-A_review.pdf

 2. Edible coating from shrimp

Edible coating from shrimp waste Chitosan as the edible coating isolated from of waste skin shrimp can use for food coating : http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jfs/article/view/9087

2. E-Container

1. Ionic Framework
   

Ionic is amongst the most popular frameworks to exist today to build hybrid apps [1]. 

One of our members has made an application with Ionic and AngularJS for the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries: 

https://play.google.com/store/... 

[1] https://www.mobileappdaily.com/best-hybrid-app-frameworks

2. Blockchain

One example for blockchain technologies, DLT.sg is built for collaborative ecommerce with Hyperledger Fabric business platform, in large supply-chain organizations. It enables trade finance, end-to-end product flow tracks and delivers a model for unlocking inventory and freeing up cash [2].  

http://dlt.sg/ 

[2] https://www.computerworld.com/article/3510457/10-top-distributed-apps-dapps-for-blockchain.html

 3. Eco-enzyme

Eco-enzyme is developed and introduced by Dr. Rosukon from Thailand. Eco-enzyme produced by fermentation of fresh kitchen waste (fruit and vegetable dregs), sugar (brown sugar, jaggery or molasses sugar) and water. [3]

[3] https://www.enzymesos.com/what-is-eco-enzyme

1. Activities (inputs):

1. Educate and train traditional farmers to using biotechnology in agricultural by articles and programs in E-FLOWS mobile platform

2. Coating food with Edible Coating

3. Processing the food loss and food waste to eco-enzyme with bioreactor

4. Automation and precision control for distribution food (fruits and vegetables) with E-Container

1. Outputs:

1. The improvement of traditional farmers knowledge and skill in farming

1. Long term outcomes:

1. The using of biotechnology in agricultural industry

E-FLOWS is currently still in the development stage, so it has not been able to provide services to our targets. But we have planned our targets in the next 1 year and 5 years.

1. Targets in the next year: At least 250,000 people in Indonesia can use E-FLOWS

2. Targets in the next 5 years: E-FLOWS can be used by 3 million people in Indonesia and can reach remote areas

1. In the next year: 

• E-FLOWS has been introduced to traditional farmers and several programs have begun to be implemented even in certain regions.

• E-FLOWS has managed organic waste at least from the area where our headquarter is located, which is Bandung.  And then we processed it into Eco-enzyme products in the small-scale.

• E-FLOWS provides an online marketplace for selling high-quality agricultural products that are easily accessible.

• E-FLOWS have succeeded in helping distribute food donations from donors to people in need.

1. In the next 5 years:

• Improvement of traditional farmers' knowledge and skill about biotechnology in agriculture. And so many more traditional farmers who are using biotechnology in farming.

• Reduction of food loss and food waste or organic waste. Expanding the coverage area of E-FLOWS in managing and processing organic waste into eco-enzyme products. Besides, many people use eco-enzyme products.

• Many people are helped by food donations from donors and help people with low income fulfill their nutritional needs from fruits and vegetables.

• Market expansion for agricultural products from traditional farmers.

Our plan to achieve the targets: collaborate with governments and social communities, campaigns to introduce and educate people about eco-enzyme, socialization about using biotechnology in agriculture to traditional farmers, and advertise through social media to increase public exposure about E-FLOWS.

In an effort to achieve our goals in the next year and the next five years, we have several barriers, which are:

1. Financial barriers. This is one of the biggest barriers that we have. We need a lot of funds for the development of our mobile platform. But as an undergraduate students, we don’t have any income resource yet .

2. Technical barriers. Our team only consists of 3 people. Moreover, there is only 1 team member who understands how to develop a mobile platform technically. So, the lack of human resources for technology development become a barriers for E-FLOWS development.

3. Legal barriers. Getting legality in Indonesia has a fairly complicated procedure and a long process. So, this has its own difficult and becomes a barriers for us.

4. Cultural barriers. On of the main targets of E-FLOW is traditional farmers. But unfortunately, many traditional farmers in Indonesia don’t have the ability to access the internet and use smartphones.

5. Market barriers. The competitive market can be barrier for us. Many marketplaces and mobile platforms in Indonesia that sell agricultural products, such as fruits and vegetables. 

6. Other barriers. Our team members come from 3 different universities in different cities. So, distance can be our barriers to develop E-FLOWS optimally.

The existing barriers certainly don’t prevent us to continue the development of E-FLOWS. We have several strategies to overcome these barriers, which are:

1. Financial barriers. We will try to apply E-FLOWS to several idea challenges in the hope of getting funding to develop a fully functional application. Besides, we will try to collaborate with other stakeholders to support us financially for the development of E-FLOWS.

2. Technical barriers. We will hire additional human resources, especially for technology development. Also, we will collaborate and build a partnership with other parties.

3. Legal barriers. We will try to follow the existing procedures and processes to obtain the legality from the Indonesian government.

4. Cultural barriers. We will try to do direct socialization to traditional farmers about E-FLOWS programs and collaborate with the local government. So, E-FLOWS still can educate and train traditional farmers about using biotechnology in farming. And then later, we will suggest them to use our programs through the mobile platform.

5. Market barriers. We will try to produce high-quality products with a longer shelf life, but at an affordable prices that can compete in the market. We will also use social media to promote and increase public exposure to E-FLOWS, so we can reach a wider market.

6. Other barriers. We will try to work on developing E-FLOWS remotely and hold regular meetings to discuss the development of E-FLOWS. 

For now there are 3 full-time staffs in my team, me and my 2 teammates.

Our team is well-positioned to deliver this problem because our team consists of students with a different educational background who complement each other. Our team members are:

1. Faisal is a student of Post Harvest Technology ITB and so related to the Sustainable Food System. He has many achievements from paper and chemistry olympiad national competition. He experienced in leadership on campus. He has become Vice Chairman MEGABITE, PIC (temporary) SITH-R ITB, Chief Executive of Ganesha Cup, and PIC (temporary) Games Wilayah SITH-R ITB. Besides that, he experiences on Start-Up: Bogabook and Pateron Indonesia.

2. Muhamad Fahriza Novriansyah is a final year student in Computer Engineering Universitas Indonesia. Experienced in App Developer, Currently Research on Blockchain technology using Hyperledger. Having experienced building App For Ministry of Marine Affairs and the Fisheries Republic of Indonesia and Have Internship experience from multinational company Grab.

3. Syifa Athia Zainun Faqiha is a third years Pharmacy student at Universitas Gadjah Mada. Experienced in research became a team leader in PKM (Student Creativity Program) with topics on the development of plant compounds for cancer treatment.

We have not partnered with any organization

As we know food loss and food waste are a global problem. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at least 1,3 trillion tons of foodstuffs wasted, became food loss and food waste. On the other hand, some countries can not guarantee food security for every citizen. And of course, Indonesia faces the same problems. Every person in Indonesia produces around 300 kg of waste annually and mostly is organic waste such as fruits and vegetables. Whereas 24.97 billion people in Indonesia live under poverty and have difficulty fulfilling their food needs properly.

E-FLOWS is a potential solution to solve these problems. We try to solve food loss and food waste by using biotechnology, such as eco-enzyme. Also, we prevent food loss and food waste by using edible coating and e-containers. However, we have several barriers to the development of our mobile platform. The lack of human resources that experts in technology, business, and biotechnology are the biggest barriers for us. Due to the barriers, we apply our solution to Solve’s 2020 Global Challenges. We hope that we can build a connection and partner with solve members and other stakeholders that can help us to develop our mobile platform. We need partners that can give us some advice, being a mentor, and being a partner to support our work, including financial support. And we believe that MIT Solve can help us to realize those solutions.