Universal Basic Food

Problem:  As per the Global Hunger Index of 2019 India is ranked a lowly 102 amongst 117 nations with nearly 200 million hungry mouths. Of this 120 million are the rural poor who work in India’s farmlands.

Opportunity: The Indian Food Banking Network says that nearly 40 percent of  fruits and vegetables are lost as they do not reach the consumer markets. Could minimising waste reduce hunger?

Solution:  To help create small scale food processing plants that produce potato flakes, tomato purée etc. at the village level so that waste is minimized, and the farmer creates enough surplus to support his family during the offseason months.

Scalability:  Additionally, technology for processing plants will be available as open source mobile data on a platform for scientists, engineers, manufacturers, farmers, philanthropists ‘in different languages‘ so that Universal Basic Food becomes do-able without Govt. subsidies for over 300 million needy farmhands globally.

The specific problem “30% of food lost or wasted, a third of the food system’s environmental impact happens without feeding anyone” is highlighted in the MIT Solve Sustainable Food Challenge

The scale  of problem is substantiated by this  data - Global Hunger Index shows India slipped from 83 to 102 in the period 2000 to 2019   even as its GDP grew by 4 .5 times and food grain production doubled. The number of hungry mouths in India jumped by 40% to around 200 million of which 120 million were farm hands.  As per the current data the twin problems of hunger and food wastage affect around 300 million farmhands worldwide. 

Two factors contributing to the problem are addressed in the solution. The  problem of food wastage and farm hunger. Studies by Indian Food Banking Network shows that nearly 40 percent of fruits and vegetables, are lost as they do not reach consumer markets. My own research shows that this occurs largely due to volatile food prices that are dictated by trading cartels. The farmers resort to distress selling and dump their produce on the streets leading to high wastage, and subsequent hunger during off seasons.

My solution is to reduce wastage in farmlands and thereby ensure better resource utilization, lower carbon footprint and fewer hungry mouths. To reduce environmental impact the solution addresses ‘what has been produced will feed someone and not be wasted’.

Potato, Onion and Tomato account for 50% of the vegetables consumed in India. All these crops have been subject to recurrent price volatility in the past decade resulting in dumping of vegetables on the streets and acute farmer distress. My solution is to process and preserve for self-consumption, what cannot be sold.

It is to produce potato flakes; tomato purée and onion paste at the village level. The process is possible today largely because we have low cost solar energy at farms. without grid connectivity. Potato is washed, cleaned, steamed, dehydrated, rolled flat and cut to form potato flakes. These potato flakes are preserved, packed and used by the potato chips and fingers industry and are also consumed as a snack or meal. Similarly, tomato purée and onion paste can be stored and used as vegetable substitutes with six months shelf life. The challenge is to implement these solutions and proliferate the technologies as open source for others to use globally.

The target population is the small and ‘marginal farmer’. He is either a sharecropper or a farmer with land holdings below 1 hectare. Nearly 100 to 200 million in number, they feed the nation but often must sleep without food. Though India’s farm output doubled during the last vicennial these hungry mouths grew by 40%.

I tried to understand why this was happening. Speaking to farmers in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal two large agricultural states, I found that though output of potato crop was high, farmers grew poorer as they were unable to sell their produce at right prices due to price volatility. Same was the case for other fruits and vegetables where traders’ cartels dictated the markets. The farmer was often a victim of bad weather, weak finances, price volatility and though a food producer had to often go hungry.

So, my solution revolves around converting unsold vegetables into potato flakes, tomato purée and onion paste, so that even if the farmer cannot sell it, he can preserve it and consume it during the lean months and never stay hungry. Also with more options, he can face price pressures confidently and reduce the environmental impact of food wastage.

The twin challenge is primarily to reduce food wastage and reduce hungry mouths. 
The solution involves more than one dimension. One is developing a small scale batch production food processing plant for rural entrepreneurs to operate. It will help reduce potato wastage and create potato flakes that have a long shelf life and could help the farmer avoid hunger during lean months. The second is replicating the development and the success story on a web and mobile platform and increase scalability for the solution, and reach out across the globe.

The solution is not new. But the application is innovative as it uses modern day tools to make existing manufacturing technologies scalable and globally accessible.  The existing technology is agro-processing of vegetables like potato, onion and tomato POT that account for half of the horticulture produce of India. This  is done in large scale by PepsiCo, Haldiram, Nestle, Unilever and many others.  The opportunity is to utilize 30% of the crop wasted in the farms, that cannot reach the marketplace or cannot fetch attractive prices for processing at farms. The innovation is the use of two modern day tools that make this change possible, namely solar power and mobile technology.

The solution has no competitors. It does not need patents to be successful. Rather it is supposed to be a collaborative platform and its success will be measured on the duplication of the model.

Once, news was pricey and encyclopedias expensive and there was high value to sell exclusive information. Once, cab rides were expensive and fashion was haute couture. But then arrived Google, Uber and street fashion to make things affordable for all.

I have been in the manufacturing industry for 22 years and can see it at an inflection point. We can turn complex mass production into simple batch production in remote locations now and reduce exclusivity and benefit the masses by duplicating the processes. This makes this solution unique, as it gives small profits and importantly food to millions instead of large profit to one producer.

The technology involves setting up a food processing plant which is a core manufacturing technology, but at a small-scale level. Once we break down the process from automatic mass production to semi-automatic batch production it becomes simple and infinitely inexpensive. Power it through solar energy and you do not need grid power to back you, so you can go deep into the hinterland instead of setting up plants at industrial towns.

In a mass-produced potato flakes plant, the washing process involves several conveyors and pressurized water tanks, the steaming and the pealing process medium pressure boilers and scrubbers and segregation process and finally dehydration, cutting, sieving and packaging needs a lot of sophisticated automation. In a batch produced semi-automatic plant it is much simpler and low cost because of manual intervention. So, the contribution of farm hands can make the complex automatic food processing plants much simpler and cost effective and very eco- friendly.

There is further technology use in scaling up the technology, building a web and mobile collaborative platform for farmers, agriculturists, scientists, engineers, social workers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists to come together. The technology and outcomes from successful projects shall be displayed on this portal as open source technology and engineers net worked across geographies to help implement solutions and reduce farm wastage globally. 

Food processing plants across the world including some by the top brands like PepsiCo, Unilever and Nestle use potato flakes as an input to snacks. The technology works and creates wealth for all stakeholders.

Potato flakes are used by all wafer and snack makers globally. The only difference here is the simplification of technology from automatic central processing unit to semi-automatic batch processing units to make it cost effective as a small-scale village enterprise.

Once the process becomes batch production you can choose which part of the plant you want to put up first. For example, a farmer with a large family can start with the drying and dehydration unit only and choose to do the rest manually.

The second part of technology in use is solar power. A decade back its use would be challenged as an experimental technology. Today everyone knows the solar technology works and is competitive. It is this use of solar energy instead of generators and grid power that enables the factory to move to the farm instead of the farm products coming to the factory.

The third part of the technology in play is the web and mobile technology. The last decade has seen several transformational changes due to the advent and use of this technology which works.  Information has flowed faster, and video usage has made explaining things easier on how things work. That dissemination of knowledge is critical to the scalability and success of this project.

The goal of Universal Basic Food  is to create twin changes. It is to bring about a sustainable and profitable solution for reducing food wastage and hunger at the farms on a scalable basis. Besides unlike Universal Basic Income, Universal Basic Food would address a major shortcoming in the lives of the rural poor without state subsidies.

The FAO estimates that the  environment impact or carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated to 3.3 Gtonnes of CO2 equivalent: The Global Hunger Index data shows that India had 200 million hungry people in 2019.

The action to bring changes is in 2 phases.

Phase 1 Input

The first action includes manufacturing a small-scale potato flakes processing plant.  

The second action is finding an rural entrepreneur to own and operate the plant.

The third action is to devise a profitable deal for the farmer, the operator and the technology provider for sharing the spinoffs for the unsold  potato ( Waste utilisation )

The fourth action is to replicate the model in 3 locations and record the outcomes 

Outputs

The total time frame for phase 1 of action is 18 months starting from Jan 2021  

The quality of potato flakes produced has to be approved by the FSSAI the food regulator. 

The cost incurred during the phase 1 project is estimated to be  Rs 1million. 

The output is conversion of the unsold potato’s at the three locations into potato flakes.  .

Phase 2  Input

The second phase of inputs will showcase the outputs of the plant on a website through videos and mobile interface. The plan is to replicate model in the states of UP, Bihar and West Bengal where 70% of India’s potato grows and the farmers suffer from price volatility.

Outcomes 

The idea is to help set up 300 such plants in this vast region and help 15,000 farmers to reduce crop wastage and fight poverty and hunger in a five year period. The outcome will also replicate the model with other vegetables and proliferate the technology globally to reduce wastage and hunger along with carbon footprint. 

None, right now. Though I am working on several other solutions in the banking sector and other areas of the economy, this solution was devised only after I saw the MIT Solve challenge in the first week of June. 

I believe 3 processing plants can be set up in the first 18 months to benefit at least 150 individuals. In 5 years, the number of plants can be 300 and number of beneficiaries can reach 15,000 

The above numbers may look unreal because scaling up is never easy as it looks. But the business model we adopt is to help rural entrepreneurs set up 3 small scale potato flake plants and transfer the technology and success story online to reach hundreds of other entrepreneurs. We act as the germinator and set up the initial plants during the first year of operation.

Thereafter we step back and act as a mentor who creates a knowledge bank of the process and how it can be duplicated worldwide. We also network to find rural entrepreneurs to own and operate the facility. In the first five years We focus on the duplication of our first prototype. Thereafter  we take up the next vegetable for processing once the first potato flakes experiment is stabilized and succeeds.

I don’t see any major barrier, but yes there are some challenges that need to be taken up and work that needs to be executed. 
The first step is building a team. I must dig into my Pan IIT network to create a team. The second is finding the right rural entrepreneurs who would set up these projects at the right sites. The third is finding resources to set up these projects. The fourth is creating a digital team to showcase the technology on a web platform. The fifth is to have a social media team to popularize and spread the content worldwide.

These are not actually not insurmountable barriers but rather steps we must follow in every business venture.

Let us assume we succeed in the Solve Challenge 2020 and get core funding of USD 10,000 . This is the seed capital 

Team building : Creating  a team of 3 engineers thru my Pan IIT Network

Site and entrepreneur selection : selection through my journalism network

Setting up plants : Finding the right vendors to manufacture which is not difficult as I have been an entrepreneur for 22 years and have my contacts

Finding resources : The seed capital recd  is adequate. Balance resources will be raised through priority sector loans by the entrepreneurs if need be.

Creating a digital team is also not difficult. I have worked as New Media Editor in major national magazines like Woman’s Era and national newspapers  like Indian Express and know how to set up a portal and it’s social media platforms. 

Not selected

Just me for now.

This is only a concept today. But i have worked out a Rough  feasibility And hence defined the cost, quality and time frame for achieving the desired solution

We don’t partner with any organisation currently 

The business goal of the project is to create a sustainable and profitable solution for reducing food wastage and hunger at the farms on a scalable basis.  

Let us assume that a farmer produces 10,000 kgs of potatoes. As per the current data 30% of the potato or 3000 kgs is wasted. So this waste is our raw material or resource input. I am the technology provider who gives input and technical and marketing guidance for processing and packaging this waste into potato flakes. I also am responsible for finding a rural entrepreneur to build and operate the potato flake processing plant. The farmer provides 3000 kgs potato and he gets back potato flakes from 1800 kgs potato. The rural entrepreneur gets to keep potato flakes from 900 kgs of potato and the technology provider gets potato flakes from 300 kgs of potato. No cash payment is made to any party as this is purely an organic low cost barter trade. The quality of potato flakes have to be approved by FSSAI the regulator of food products in India, 

Whereas the farmer can use the potato flakes as food in the lean months the technology producer or the rural entrepreneur does not have any incentive  to do that. So they would be forced to sell it through any existing supply chain that exists in the market, so the integration with a supply chain becomes automatic. With zero raw material costs it is a win win situation for all.

I am applying for the Solve Challenge because it provides a global platform for something I have been doing for over a decade. I never knew such that global platforms existed - so I am thrilled to be here. 
For me it expands the horizon of building solutions greatly. So far I was talking to stakeholders and writing about possible solutions as an author. Now   after finding Solve, I felt that I could get into building solutions.

But first I had to start learning from you. I quickly went through the MIT Solve course to just understand the format. There are quite a few areas that I would like to seek guidance in my solution.

The first is technology guidance to build an world class product. I would know how to create an FSSAI ( Indian regulator)  approved solution. You could guide me to create a product that maybe an US regulator would approve.
Secondly, I would know of a conventional revenue model. You could guide me to an aspirational revenue model.
Then again, I would know how to create a modest local talent team. You could guide me how to get the best global talent.
Finally, I would know how to do local marketing and get reasonable media coverage, but you would help leverage things faster and globally. So I believe your platform would help me immensely to make the solution successful and scalable. 

There are three technologies involved in this solution. Food processing, solar energy and mobile software. All these technologies are locally available in India. What is needed it further brainstorming to make the solutions more innovative, efficient, full proof and cost effective. This because alternate technologies exist in each field and the most efficient one would be the best to adopt. So here collaboration with the Professors of MIT would be useful. 

Once MIT offers the seed funding, we would know how to get additional funds through banks and other conventional means  to get the project rolling. But we don’t have any idea of VC funding or NGO funding and collaborative effort would indeed be helpful. 

Talent recruitment is no big barrier but maybe to scale a project globally we would need guidance

Marketing tie ups with global brands would be the biggest asset and help would definitely be welcome.

MIT faculty surely.

Organisation  tie up could be explored based on Terms and Conditions offered. One brand for each vegetable for example PepsiCo for Potato flakes, Unilever for Tomato purée,  Amul for fruits and Mother Dairy or ITC for Onion paste 

I am not sure about Solve teams, as I have not interacted with anyone and do not know what they have to offer. 

The Universal Basic Food solution is at the concept stage. So I will not at this stage want to give a detailed reply to this question. Instead I will repeat what I have said before in a few words. 

The Universal Basic Food unlike the Universal Basic Income will provide food without state subsidies. It will not only benefit 300 million small farmers but also reduce agricultural wastage and hence have a lower carbon footprint.  
I have been in the manufacturing industry for 22 years and can see it at an inflection point. We can turn complex mass production into simple batch production in remote locations now and reduce exclusivity and benefit the masses by duplicating the processes. This makes this solution unique, as it gives small profits and importantly food to millions instead of large profit to one producer. Maybe this would be worth the Future Planet Capital Prize. 

The prize money would be used to provide food processing technology across India and the globe to small farms, so that wastage is minimised and the farmer does not go hungry during off season.