MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

Providing a marketplace to famers.

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Providing a Digital Hybrid-Marketplace platform for farmers, consumers, and stakeholders.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

The specific problem that the project is trying to solve is to create a digital hybrid market platform for farmers, consumers, and stakeholders in the agricultural industry.

The problem that this platform aims to solve is the lack of direct connection and transparency between farmers, consumers, and other stakeholders in the agricultural industry, which can lead to inefficiencies, lack of trust, and difficulties for farmers to sell their products. The proposed solution is to create a digital platform that connects farmers with consumers and other stakeholders, such as distributors and retailers, in a more efficient and transparent way. This platform can also help in reducing intermediaries, increase the profit margin for farmers, and help consumers to have access to fresh and organic products.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

Agromindz came up with a solution to implement a project on Covid Recovery. Profit from insights collected from stakeholders and project staff and help to design a technical solution for specific real-life problems of Gambian farmers.

Rural horticultural farmers need a way to reach potential customers as they currently lack access to market information, limiting their sales and productivity. At the same time, buyers (hotels, hospitals, etc.) need a new way to source qualitative and affordable horticultural produce because they currently cannot get enough domestic supplies.

The government of The Gambia needs a sustainable way to collect horticultural data (production & prices) for planning and policy because their current approach of collecting data through extension workers is under-collecting and too costly.

We used power apps to build the application since it is a cloud base application. Access to the application can be anywhere so you are connected to the internet.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The solution serves farmers, consumers, and stakeholders in the agricultural industry. Providing a digital hybrid market platform will make it easier for farmers to connect with consumers and other stakeholders, such as distributors and retailers. This will likely have a number of positive impacts on their lives, including:

Making it easier for farmers to sell their products directly to consumers, which could increase their income
Making it easier for consumers to access fresh, locally-sourced produce
Improving transparency and traceability in the food supply chain could increase trust in the system
Facilitating communication and collaboration between farmers, consumers, and other stakeholders could lead to more sustainable and efficient agricultural practices.

It will also help in reducing intermediaries and increase the profit margin for farmers and also help consumers to have access to fresh and organic products.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

I and the team went for 15 days of data collection in a rural area to understand the needs of the farmers and how this solution may impact their life.

Ebrima Konteh(Team Leader) is a google certified in digital marketing and e-commerce.

I and my teammates are well-experience developers. From data analytics, Front-end developers, and back-end developers.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

We identified all the key stakeholders who are affected by the solution including farmers, consumers, distributors, and retailers.

We understand the pain points of the stakeholders by studying the current challenges faced by them.

For farmers, some of the pain points include difficulties in finding buyers for their products, low-profit margins, and lack of access to information about market trends and consumer preferences. This platform will connect them directly with consumers and other stakeholders, farmers will have a more efficient way of selling their products and potentially increase their income.
Consumers face challenges such as limited access to fresh, locally-sourced produce, lack of transparency in the food supply chain, and difficulties in finding information about the origin and quality of the products they are buying. This platform can provide a solution for these pain points by connecting them directly with farmers, providing them with access to fresh, locally-sourced produce, and increasing transparency and traceability in the food supply chain.
Distributors and retailers face challenges such as a lack of access to reliable suppliers, difficulties in tracking the origin and quality of products, and difficulties in forecasting demand. By connecting them directly with farmers through the platform, they will have a more efficient way of sourcing products and will have access to more information about the origin and quality of the products they are buying.
The platform also helps to improve collaboration and communication between all stakeholders, which can lead to more sustainable and efficient agricultural practices.

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

Improving financial and economic opportunities for all (Economic Prosperity)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

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

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

Serrekunda, The Gambia

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Ebrima Konteh