Project Bountiful Harvest

Due to COVID-19 & global recession, fresh graduates will have a difficult time securing decent jobs. Additionally, thousands of repatriated migrant workers will not be employed by foreign employers over the next few years. The result will be massive unemployment and underemployment. 

We want to target this relatively educated young group and turn them into tech-based agro-entrepreneurs under the banner of 'Bountiful'. Bountiful members will each work with a cluster of farmers. Contrary to typical courtyard meetings, we will provide an ed-tech platform solely catered for agribusiness. Our solution also includes an inventory management and communication platform where superstores or e- and f-commerce platforms will post demands and 'Bountiful members' will supply at regular intervals. 

The content in our ed-tech platform can be modified for global demands. While farming practices might differ, but agribusiness principle, best practices around food production could easily be replicated elsewhere. 

According to a survey by the ILO, 85% of the Bangladeshi workforce are engaged in the casual labour where 38.6 million are from rural settings. Due to the current pandemic, most of the job vacancies will be gone for a few years, which makes the future bleak for the 37 million youths studying in higher education institutes now and 20 million young adults without job prospects. 

The rural educated youth or migrant workers, although having access to land resources and relationship with farmers community, have typically been avoiding agriculture and leaning towards jobs. This is because farming practices in developing countries are still very traditional, and hence back-breaking. And as most farmers (their father-generation) lack education, there is an imbalance of power between farmers and traders. 

On the demand side, a report by CARE suggests, 75% of citizens do not have access to varied food and this is mainly due to the imbalance of demand & supply as well as a disrupted value chain system.

This is becoming a global issue. A system must be introduced to promote and optimize production and distribution of agri-produce into the market. 

We envisage educated young people from rural areas will be responsible for their own income generation as well as looking after their community consisting of hundreds of small-scale farmers. 

We will provide an ed-tech platform, as well as a mentoring program to become agro-entrepreneurs. On the demand side, we will partner with superstores and e- and f-commerce businesses, create a communication platform for coordinating demand in advance, and work with our agro-entrepreneurs so they can supply produce under 'Bountiful' banner, which should be a benchmark for quality and good agricultural practices. 

Our solution is facilitating e-learning modules centered around agri-business creation with both free and paid contents. The process begins through a number of professionally equipped trainers who, through the use of e-learning modules, impart knowledge to local incumbents; these incumbents then put their knowledge to practice and guide hundreds of traditional small-scale farmers. We will coordinate the demand and supply, arrange collection and transportation of produce and of course, ensure quality. 

Odoo software will be the base for all our solutions - e-learning to inventory management, communication and coordination to accounting and customer management. 

The immediate target group would be fresh graduates from agri-based universities and diploma colleges. They will receive training that will allow them freedom to pursue entrepreneurial solutions through the use of land assets and modern tools and technology. Fortunately, many of these constituents have access to land resources in their villages and rural homes, who however, have been neglecting farming because of perception and use of traditional tools and technologies, which automatically make it a labor-intensive and back-breaking work.

Unfortunately, in most agri-universities and colleges, agribusiness or business management is not covered, for which, most graduates join government jobs or large agro-companies. That they can also have a good life by farming needs to be showcased to them, and this is the best time to pivot since jobs will be scarce. 

Indirect beneficiaries are hundreds of small-scale farmers because each 'Bountiful member' will work with a cluster of them, manage and guide them better. Indirect beneficiaries also include urban market constituents who will have better and regular supply of fresh produce due to an efficient and educated supply chain who understand the changing demands in diet, food habits and lifestyle on the demand side. 

Our solution touches upon two challenges - sustainable food systems and inclusive entrepreneurship, but tilts more towards the latter. It is more about an ed-tech platform and agribusiness training paired with mentoring that creates agro-entrepreneurs instead of finding the resources to produce low-carbon, resilient food because we feel we need educated people to join agriculture first. 

Our solution falls under the first dimension because it creates hundreds of small entrepreneurs under 'Bountiful' banner, who in turn works with hundreds of small-scale farmers. We not only train, but create a network of new entrepreneurs and link them with large B2B players. 

The solution is unique for three reasons. One is the ed-tech platform solely around agribusiness. Ed-tech platforms are very new concept in Bangladesh, with only Udemy, Coursera being popular with employees of multinational companies. On the other hand, we would like to focus more on local solutions first and provide local context. 

Secondly, that we are guiding a population, who preferred jobs in spite of having agri-background and technical knowledge, to discover their untapped potential and move from job market to entrepreneurship is quite unique. This group of people is usually not targeted by anybody. Business incubators  usually target urban graduates with business or engineering degrees, whereas development partners target farmers residing in the bottom-of-pyramid who sit too below in the power structure to make a significant change in demand and supply. 

And finally, the process we will have to follow to create 'Bountiful members' (who will be small agro-producers/entrepreneurs) will create a unique standard of operations and code of conduct.  In a few years, 'Bountiful' member or supplier tag will be a benchmark. This will drive further demand among newcomers for a full-fledged paid course. 

Our solution involve quite a few elements, from e-Learning to effective communication platform, from inventory management to marketing, from CRM to website - all of which are available with Odoo -(https://www.odoo.com/). Odoo is open-sourced, low cost, web and app based and provide standard application. 

Odoo is a collection of open source business applications that are used in managing businesses and organizations. The e-learning module of Odoo will be used for ed-tech platform which will be cost-effective and will help us use it off-the-shelf. The learners will be able to self-learn, evaluate themselves through this easy-to-use platform. Recorded course content can easily be managed since this platform supports multimedia. Features like forum will help participants communicate among them.

In the back-end, there is no expensive database. PostgreSQL, the open-source equivalent of Oracle is being used to store all the data. Moreover, Odoo follows an ORM (object-relational mapping) technique which is a smart way of designing the system. The hosting can be done on any cloud platform like Digital Ocean or AWS.

Odoo has already gained trust in different industries. Notable customers of Odoo include Toyota, Hyundai, SoftIron, Lumos Solar, Nordika to name a few. The E-learning module of Odoo is a versatile solution for web-based learning. One can add as many courses he wishes. All kinds of content like videos, PDF presentations, infographics, web pages, quizzes, or certifications can be added.

One can add video content for free by uploading it directly to Google Drive folder or YouTube, and then embedding it in the course. Quizzes can be added at the end of the content so that the participant can check his/her learning. Keeping track of course participation is also easy with the help of and progress indicators. The learning platform can be translated into as many languages as one wishes, which will help to replicate this in future. Also, it can be sold in an online store. 

The course participants can communicate among themselves through the forum. They can rate any course on the platform. In addition, we will use Odoo for internal and external communication, which has worked well for a number of clients. The easy-to-use features of Odoo are the reasons why we think this will be easily accepted by our target audience. 

Odoo also has AI-driven demand forecast and smart inventory management, which will help us coordinate between B2B players and hundreds of agro-producers, who are suppliers in this case.  

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An ed-tech platform has more chance of being successful if it leads to either jobs or entrepreneurship. Graduating from our e-Learning platform gives the participants entry to the exclusive network of 'Bountiful', who can supply to large B2B players. Similarly, in order to ensure quality products at regular interval, the suppliers needs to have good understanding of product demands, business management practices and ethical practices, which will be taught through the e-Learning module. Both the solutions of ours complement each other. 

The big problem we want to address through our project is the imminent unemployment wave and currently prevalent agro goods supply chain vacuum affecting the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well shocks from the global recession. Our primary solution is two fold:

1. Create an online B2B marketplace that connects urban superstores with our agro-business entrepreneurs; meeting steadily increasing urban demand and facilitating large scale supply of agro-goods sourced from multiple farmers under the "Bountiful Harvest" umbrella
2. Creating an e-learning platform to provide business management and capacity building training to agriculture university graduates as well as migrant workers, both of whom are under threat of unemployment in the immediate economy. Our training module will teach the skills required to run a successful agribusiness, utilizing the power of the internet.

In Bangladesh, starting a business or working in agriculture are mostly viewed as less-than-ideal career choices. Changing this is a behavioral issue, and one that can only be brought about through practice and displayed success. Our work with education would begin at a grassroots level advocating the income potential of becoming an entrepreneur. For small-scale farmers, it becomes lucrative to work under a single banner because of the access to regular demands and potential availability of high capital or machinery that would otherwise be impossible to afford.

On the market side, our platform also facilitates B2B partnerships with superstores in urban areas. As of April 30th, 2020 retail e-commerce orders for groceries & medicines increased 300% in the country. There is significant demand. Once our brand is established, more customers will lead to more entrepreneurs joining our network. 

Right now, this is a concept. But previously, we have worked with 3,000 agri-input retailers with each having a loyal customer of at least 200 farmers. In total, we have had experience of training 600,000 farmers.

Through this Bountiful project, in one year, we plan to have 100 'Bountiful' members/entrepreneurs, who in turn will work with 150 farmers on an average, helping us to reach 15,000 farmers in a year. Their produce will reach at least 20 superstore chains and e-and f-commerce businesses, and ultimately reaching thousands of urban households.

In five years, we aim to reach the following target: 

1. 2,000 Bountiful entrepreneurs working with 250 farmers on an average, which allows us to procure from 500,000 farmers 

2. Due to academic collaboration with universities, 20,000+ students will finish courses in our ed-tech platform by paying fees. There are about 7 agri-universities in Bangladesh with each having 4,000 students on an average. 

3. Due to collaboration with government, 50,000+ government extension service agents across agriculture, aquaculture and livestock will have access to our ed-tech platform. 

3. Directly working with 5 superstore chains or relevant ministry in neighboring countries to implement the model that will in turn positively change lives of hundreds and thousands of people in those countries. 

Since we are in the concept stage, within the next year, we aim to have 100 young 'Bountiful' members/entrepreneurs who will choose 150 small-scale farmers within their community as well as start farming on their own. Before the year ends, we hope to create a supply chain that allows their quality produce to reach B2B players on a regular basis, from which thousands of consumers will benefit. The process will allow us to have a decent library of audio-visuals on agribusiness practices and solutions, and a two-way communication between B2B players and 'Bountiful' platform, and between the platform and its member-entrepreneurs. 

Within the next five years, we foresee number of developments:

1. A rich ed-tech platform with content from both 'Bountiful' management and its accredited/successful graduates/members.

2. A paid model, where people will pay in full to learn our curriculum. This can take up different modalities with universities partnering with us and paying us on behalf of their students. 

3. Hundreds of small-scale agro-entrepreneurs supplying under 'Bountiful' banner to large superstores and B2C e-and f-commerce businesses. These agro-entrepreneurs will in turn work with thousands of small-scale farmers. 

4. A 'Bountiful' standard in place that can be replicated in similar agrarian countries that has small-scale farmers. Standardization can be worked with large superstores in different countries.  

5. Better agricultural practices being implemented throughout the value chain because of the involvement of educated young responsible businessmen. This will gradually open doors for introducing new technology such as low-carbon, energy efficient agricultural practices. 

Financial -Unfortunately, this is such an initiative where small pilots do not work. To reach economies of scale, we need to be working with a large number of small entrepreneurs. A contract with a superstore or retail businesses will require regular supply of tonnes of produce. This means we need to have the financial and logistical strength to be working with hundreds of suppliers who can provide quality produce. On the side of our 'Bountiful' entrepreneurs and suppliers, lack of capital could be a problem to start operations. 

Technical - Business skills are hardly taught to rural and peri-urban population. Even in cities, business degrees produced corporate job holders and bankers more than it created entrepreneurs. People become traders, but not responsible businessmen. So, we need to orient people on the vision and the pathway to achieve that.

Cultural - The typical mindset of young people in Bangladesh is to secure a government job or a corporate job. Only after they fail to land a job, they start running small businesses. The impact that businesses can bring to their lives and those of their community is not that visible to them. Businesses are  perceived as 'dirty'.  

Market barriers - Usually farming is done by small-scale poor, uneducated farmers who sit in the lower-rung of the power structure. This is why traders and middlemen can exert influence and undue pressure. Existing players can also exert pressure on us because it will disrupt their age-old supply chain. 

Financial - While grants from government subsidiaries are an option, we would like to focus more on independent and private foundations. We are also open to investment in the form of equity and debt, and would like to apply to a few early-stage VC firm like Sequoia Capital.

Our members - rural youth usually can invest minimum $5,000 to kick-start a business. If needed, through our existing relationships with banks, we will facilitate loans. Models exist in the market where superstores guarantee the payment of the banks. 

Technical - We are going to rely less on theory and assignments, but more on short audio-visuals similar to Khan Academy but for agribusiness. Our 'Bountiful' members will work with their own community, which will make them more responsible and empathetic. 

Cultural - Current situation favors creation of entrepreneurs because jobs will be scarce in the post-COVID world. In our platform, as trainers and as case-studies, we will highlight agri-businesses from mid to large size to show the trainees the dream they need to keep going. We will also have a virtual tour of large agro-factories, farms and companies. 

Market - The plus point for working with young, educated people is that they are change-makers by nature. Most of them are better empowered, socially and technologically compared to their fathers' generation and are relatively sensitized on the demands of modern era. By working with them, we are automatically minimizing the chance of negative external influence from traders and existing market actors. 

We did not select "Other."

Currently, we have a total of ten people who work in the field. We are in the plans to bring in additional resources specially for creating e-Learning platform and managing field activation. But the majority of the tech-based work will be done through partnership with tech-firm, possibly Ergo Ventures (https://ergo-ventures.com/), which is one and only silver partner of Odoo in Bangladesh. 

The team leader, Mr. Zunaed Rabbani has 5+ years of experience in the field of agro-business, machineries, financing and capacity building. He has also worked with management consulting engagements, principally facilitating workshops and training sessions with clients such as Chemonics International, Siemens Bangladesh and UNDP. He has worked extensively with actors within the agriculture value chain, from traders to farmers, through funding from USAID grants. 

Business consultant Shahran Ahmed is an Accounting major from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University and a Marketing major from the Institute of Business Administration at Dhaka University. He brings a fresh pair of eyes into the project, having worked at logistics solutions startup, Shohoz Limited in Dhaka; working as a senior executive of Growth, his strengths include research & planning, business model development and data collection & analysis.

And they are backed by ten field staff where each of them has more than ten years of experience in running training batches for farmers, agro-retailers and working in rural community. The field team, because of their previous engagement, has a very good rapport with rural stakeholders. 

We believe that this team, with its inherent knowledge and market expertise, can work together with third party advisors and technology solutions providers to create the conceptualized B2B market and e-learning platform to onboard and train agriculture graduates under the "Bountiful Harvest" umbrella to create long lasting and sustainable change to the agro-business environment in Bangladesh.

Currently we are working with two private partners on two separate projects, all centered around facilitating greater inclusion and promoting service quality of poor & uneducated farmers in remote Bangladesh.

Bank Asia is our partner to increase the financial inclusion of poor farmers in rural areas, principally those who have little by way of collateral and economic assets, but would like to scale their production and efficiency.

iFarmer is our partner in trying to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic through rebuilding the currently broken supply/value chain of fish farming to market in rural and urban Bangladesh. Currently market players prey on information asymmetry and exponential demand in urban markets to exploit poor farmers with perishable supply and swindle urban customers with ever increasing demand. Our work aims to fortify the platform between supplier and buyer without relying on logistical actors.

We also co-create and implement sub-grants from projects funded by USAID and the Gates Foundation, which takes the form of partnership as well. 

We provide a pathway towards solvency and entrepreneurship. This includes access to knowledge in the beginning followed by a set of standards which, if they comply, give them a broader and socially accepted identity - 'Bountiful members' - that speaks of compliance and quality. As Bountiful members, they can access agro-machinery and agro-input at favorable rate because we will order in bulk. But most importantly, being Bountiful members, they become part of the supply chain. All their supplies add up to a larger volume for which it is possible to provide regular supply to superstores and e-commerce based grocery businesses. Regular transactions which will be done digitally will create an alternate credit scoring method for banks to provide loans. We can also partner with banks to facilitate loan provision to hundreds of small-scale entrepreneurs. This can open doors for multiple other streams such as accounting support to our network of entrepreneurs. 

As entrepreneurs, they will need these services because it is not possible for small and mid-sized entrepreneurs to achieve all the above on their own. They need to be part of a bigger family to provide the volume needed by large businesses. And if these are taken care of, they can focus more on their operations and business. 

Although we will have to rely on grants and investment in the beginning to reach an economies of scale, but there are number of revenue streams that can help it to sustain and grow on its own in the long run. 

There can be revenue from using the ed-tech platform. Initially, it could be subsidized, or have a mix of free and paid contents. Once 'Bountiful' member is a standard that B2B players look for, hopefully in 3-4 years, the e-learning platform which is a gateway to becoming 'Bountiful' member could be a solid revenue generating streams. There are about seven agri-universities in Bangladesh alone with each having an average of 4,000 students. Currently, agribusiness is hardly covered in their curriculum. Partnership with academia could bring in thousands of students into our platform. 

And we can maximize the power of a network - when hundreds of entrepreneurs will be under ‘Bountiful’, we can buy agro-machinery, agro-input such as fertilizer in larger volume and enjoy a better rate. We can also broker a fee from the bank to facilitate loans for our members. Already the banks are reducing their employees and are looking for third party to provide them with potential customers. We can also provide management support such as accounting, operations to our members on a retainer-basis.

And last but not the least, our income will come from the margin we will make from coordinating the demand and supply of agro-produce between large businesses and our members of small-scale agro-entrepreneurs. 

As proposed in our section to overcome barriers, we are looking to generate financial support to scale our enterprise to levels complimenting economies of scale without having to adhere to stringent reporting standards and excessive red tape (as is the case with development funding). If selected as a Solver, we could put the base $10,000 prize money as well as apply for the Gulbenkian Award for Adult Literacy to catapult our concept into a working business model within a quarter.

Speaking to the technical expertise of panelists and coaches at MIT's Solve team, we hope to glean insightful direction on educational content, creation of an effective B2B marketplace - optimizing both channels within existing and upcoming digital platforms.

Regarding cultural & market challenges, Bangladesh is certainly unique, but in many ways, still as much a part of global trends and ideals. The Solve team has worked with similar solutions around the South East Asian region and could help fortify our program with ideas that would engage local commitment (buy in from community members), dissuade feelings of apprehension (entrepreneurship being viewed negatively) and help foster business ethics in constituents (existing system preys on poor farmers and uninformed urban buyers using information asymmetry and unethical leveraging of demand/supply mechanics).

Limited experience is an unavoidable crutch, but through Partnerships strengths overcome weakness and opportunities leverage existing threats.

Technology is ever changing at a rapid pace. Pinpointing & developing an optimal technological solution: easy-to-use, cost-effective, scaleable and one that addresses current and potential future issues is key to sustainability.

Although we have a model in mind, a streamlined funding & revenue scheme could help stretch funds over longer periods, reach more graduates & workers and create further successes to attract private funding.

Lastly, as previously stated, MIT's Solve team can open doors and create connections with pioneers in the education, digital marketplace, agri-entrepreneurship, community engagement and business sustainability & scaling dimensions. We need such like-minded individuals on board to provide advice and steer the program towards success; the program could become a model for agrarian regions of economies all over the world. 

We are looking forward to partnering with Odoo (https://www.odoo.com) first and foremost; as an open source enterprise resource planning platform, we believe that Odoo can help us create a digital marketplace to facilitate & track B2B transactions between superstores and our agri-business entrepreneurs, whilst also helping us maintain our trajectory of fund allocation & disbursement.

Odoo has helped the Belgian based Exki chain of restaurants digitize the demand and supple of fresh, organic produce & meats, streamlining their inventory and ensuring fair value between farmers and the restaurant; similarly the Odoo Education Program, which has sourced and taught business management/consultancy (among others) courses through 300 teachers on their platform would be as asset to designing our own platform.

We are also looking into Bangladesh based iFarmer (https://ifarmer.asia/pages/about_us) to expedite our entry into the market. iFarmer already has a B2B channel set up to facilitate agri-products supply and demand in the market.

For education, we can partner with 10 Minutes School (https://10minuteschool.com/), a platform with proven success and a trusted brand in Bangladesh. We are quite hopeful to see whether MIT "Open Learning's" J-WEL program and it's constituents could aid our project in an advisory capacity; working with instructors at the forefront of the educational revolution can help better flesh out our own objectives and help create an impactful solution. Lastly we'd like to work with MIT Solver and veteran Dost Education (https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/early-childhood-development/solutions/6451) using similar technology solutions to deliver peer led content, reaching as many relevant constituents.

Roughly 85% of Bangladeshis are involved in the casual/informal market for employment and, according to the ILO, most of these people will become unemployed following the COVID & global recession crises. 38 million rural workers will be affected and the poverty rate in the country may increase to 40%.

Our platform aims to penetrate and create an industry in an as yet untapped market: digital agri-business. Agriculture has never been an exciting industry for young adults or businessmen to invest in, due to the seasonality and volatility of returns. However, based on exponentially increasing urban demand through e-commerce, for fresh produce, the digital market for agri-products may become a new commercial hub for the contactless economy.

Our project would create entrepreneurs out of agricultural university graduates as well as migrant workers with some management skills. Each entrepreneur rallying a modest number of farmers behind them (~100) could then leverage the agribusiness value chain to generate income for themselves first and eventually, as they scale and create job opportunities, for their employees as well.

The GM Fund could help expedite the creation of our B2B platform and enlist the expertise of professionals or partners who could optimize the ease of use & scalability as per the average digital literacy level of users across the country.

The funding would also help us scale operations at a quicker pace (provided the model is working effectively) to train more entrepreneurs and onboard even more farmers from marginalized and remote communities.

Agricultural University students do not receive an adequate education on business management, financing, inventory management, etc. and so many are forced to settle for niche, technical jobs around the agro-industry.

Migrant workers are generally high school graduates who mortgage land and migrate to foreign countries to pursue jobs in the casual/informal sector to earn a (comparatively) handsome salary to remit back home. Most of these workers cannot afford the time or money to learn the skills required to establish them in the economy.

Our platform aims to provide an open-learning program under the "Bountiful Harvest" brand to teach the skills required to start up a small agro supply business that leverages market demand within urban & peri-urban regions of the country to generate income for themselves and a fair price for farmers. The goal is to create a brand through these ambassador entrepreneurs who were graduates and migrant workers before, but are now able to not only take hold of their own futures, but potentially, through the success of their businesses, create employment for others in their respective regions as well.

After the first few cycles of training, our Alumni, or program graduates, can then, themselves mentor/train future candidates on best business practices, lessons to learn from market volatility and how to ethically source, transport and distribute products that further increase the goodwill of the "Bountiful Harvest" brand.

Our technology partner Odoo utilizes Artificial Intelligence and machine learning protocols to streamline and optimize their inventory management solutions. We would be looking to replicate or even incorporate such a system into our business model.

Using machine learning tools to make inventory management more efficient can help our project remain lean and operationally deft. With the appearance of computerized reasoning, it is becoming increasingly easier to gauge market demand with smaller and smaller margins of error through multiple regression modelling and of course, actual industry data.

The AI for Humanity prize can help visibly reduce spoilage and ensure food security in supplying regions. Often farmers may produce too much or too little based on market demand or seasonal implications. Hopefully with funding from this category, we can separate and optimize our own demand & supply models to account for trends in seasonality, customer demand and fluctuations in market price; this will ensure farmers always get a fair price for their work and are able to stock a larger portion of the yield for themselves so that their families and local communities can also enjoy the benefits of nutritious produce.