MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Food4Good

One-line solution summary:

Ensure producers to sell their food productions & consumers to buy quality products thanks to an app linking shareholders

Pitch your solution.

The number of human beings to feed doesn't stop increasing. In the same time, many people owning fields don't have financial capacities or skills to grow food. Finally, 30 percent of food is lost or wasted. To match food demand with food production, the solution enables farmers to display their field capacity, and buyers to pre-command specific products on specified areas grown with defined technics. Thus, people could become farmers, they would be able to invest for their production and to receive technical advices (from basics to intercropping etc.), if they are not experts. The food production system would be consumer-driven and locally based, polluting food production mechanisms would progressively disappear. Jobs would be created, food wastes would be reduced, quality food production would be increased and then would become easier to access.

What specific problem are you solving?

On a local point of view, the problem is poor people without any job but with an ability to grow food.

On a global point of view, the problem is a mismatch between food production and food consumption which implies long transportation and waste.

Many fields are available, nobody is working on them because it needs financial investment that people don't have.

Figures and statistics are not known because measures don't really exist in a country as Madagascar.

Consumer wish to find good quality products and companies would like to retail this kind of products, but it needs a third-part to link them. It is why the solution help them to match.

What is your solution?

The solution is an app designed for all types of farmers :

the ones who know how to grow food and need to be sure to sell their products, without waste ;

the ones who need money to invest in the development of their production and work, to produce value ;

the ones who need production technics, plan help and advice, to produce good products.

The farmer registers on the app, fill the available fields and wait for a buyer to pre-order a production. He can precise which producing technics he uses, or if he accepts constraints from the buyer.

The buyer sees all the available fields in a specific area and pre-order some quantities of products with a given growing method.

The farmer receive the financial investment linked to the pre-order which enables him to start his production.

The production is delivered and the buyer evaluates its quality.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The target population is people seeking for a job without any skills and financial investment capacity.

To engage them in the solution development, we are prototyping the solution with them. We meet people who don't have a job and are interested in growing food, we meet people who own fields and don't use them, and we arrange all together to experiment the solution.

The solution adress their needs because they are financial helped with the pre-order, and is it appears to be really working, the app will also help to make the match between people with unused fields and people interested in becoming farmers.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Support small-scale producers with access to inputs, capital, and knowledge to improve yields while sustaining productivity of land and seas

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

The problem, solution and target population are well-aligned to the Challenge and the dimension. We are speaking about poor people who would like to become small-scale farmers but who can't because of a lack of financial investment. They need financial help that we are bringing thanks to pre-orders and propositions of fields owners. They also need knowledge inputs that we are bringing thanks to plans, growing management tools and advices from the buyer. The global solution takes part in sustaining productivity of land, increasing surfaces and reducing loss.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Antsirabé, Madagascar

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Emilie Confais, CEO