AGRODOME

Agodome is a social enterprise that produces and sells special tents providing farmers with a standalone storage space that extends the shelf life of their products. This innovative technology is based on conserving the moisture of fruits and vegetables by creating a microclimate inside the tent without using cooling. Powered by a small solar panel, no extra care is needed.

Agrodome enables farmers to minimize losses by 50% that is to say a profit of 2,000$ per year; increasing the income of farmers by 41.67% which allows these families to improve their livelihood.

By reducing the postharvest losses, especially in developing countries, we boost farmers’ incomes, improve their livelihood, we increase food availability, reduce pressure on natural resources, and eliminate hunger.

Up to one third of all food is spoiled before t is consumed. It is an excess when almost a billion people go hungry, and represents a waste of water, energy, land and other inputs that went into producing that food. According to U.N. data, 45% of all fruits and vegetables is wasted before reaching the market. It is also the case in Morocco where agriculture faces various problems, knowing that it is employing four out of ten people, and it is family farming that forms the bulk of this workforce with more than 750,000 small producers throughout the kingdom. Unfortunately, 40% of production is lost after 2 to 3 weeks at the farm level, and does not even exceed 3 days at market level, which affects not only farmers’ income but also the quality of the crops. Farmers find themselves forced to liquidate their products with low prices that do not even cover production cost. A loss of 320 USD per month.

At the same time, this wastage affects levels of poverty, and contributes to the degradation of the land causing depletion, unnecessary labor and famine. Whiche leads to dramatical impacts on our planet. 

Our main target are smallholder farmers and fruits and veg merchants, that is to say a targeted market of 100M $ only in morocco. Further more, we aim to collaborate with NGOs and community partners in order to scale our product in all africa where the need is more alarming. Giving poor farmers  then access to a sustainable post-harvest storage that is affordable and easy to use.

Agodome is a social enterprise that produces and sells special tents providing farmers with a standalone storage space with a capacity up to 300kg, that extends the shelf life of their products. This innovative technology is based on conserving the moisture of fruits and vegetables by creating a microclimate inside the tent without using cooling. With only a small quantity of water, and a fan, it can extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables up to 40 days giving farmers more time to sell their produces and earn more money. Powered by a small solar panel, no extra care is needed.

Agrodome is a sustainable post-havest storage solution that helps keeping products in use, products that would be thrown into the wild, thereby wasting energy water and all the resources used to produce these goods. This will help to feed people in need instead of landfills, minimizing the production of methan, a gas that is 23x deadlier than carbon dioxide.

Based on the principales of circular economy, Agrodome is a low-cost, low-energy alternative to conventional refrigeration. Underpinned by a transition to a renewable energy source,  Agrodome builds economic, natural, social capital and prosperity longterm. 

Agrodome is an affordable and low-energy on-farm fruits & vegetables storage for smallholder farmers in developing countries, without using cooling.
Smallholder farmers can store there produce on farm by a protective microclimate inside a tent with a storage of 300 kg. 

Comparing to traditional storage methods, our system is :

- More affordable

- Tailored to customers needs

- Does not acquire a lot of experience

- Not limited in specific areas

- Uses less energy

The protective microclimate of Agrodome works by 

1) Increasing the humidity to keep cell structure in tact 

2) Controling the humidity so that it will be in a specific interval

3) Reducing ethylene production

This small tent produces a sterilized microclimate that keeps agricultural produce fresh for a week without the need for energy-intensive refrigeration.
Agrodome is a solar-powered, easy-to-use and portable solution that can help smallholder farmers improve their incomes by extending the shelf life of crops. A ventilator powered by a solar panel gradually evaporates a small quantity of water per week, generating a humid environment within the storage tent (pop-up tent) that keeps crops healthier for longer and prevents mold and fungi from growing.

The main reason for the absence of proper storage is because 20% of the world population does not has access to the power grid and/or lacks the sufficient financial means to invest in an expensive cold chain. Our Agrodome units create a humid and self-sterilising microclimate that extends the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables. As our tent-shaped storage unit runs on solar power, it can reach the 2 billion of people that don't have access to electricity. Agrodome is an affordable solution for the developing countries as it needs very small amounts of electricity, generated by its own solar panel.

Actually, our product is the only alternative available for small holders with limited revenue. We designed the product so that it perfectly answers their needs while they can’t have access to refrigeration units because of their high price.

Currently, we are in the prototyping phase and we are working with 3 farmers in 3 different regions with whome we launched a pilot test period in order to validate the results. After Two months, we are satisfied of the results and look to more develope the prototype based on farmers feedbacks and recommandations. 

Within the next year, we will have worked with more than 120 farmers across these 3 regions. Ready to scale up within the next four years by working with more than 2500 farmers across many region in Marocoo but also in some African countries like Uganda, Nigeria and others countries where the need is more alarming. 

We want to reinvent the supply chain of fruits and vegetables in developing and emerging markets to eliminate food losses and lift millions of people out of poverty. 

We aim at first to complete our pilot test plan, then to create the company and starts selling our first units. 

Within the next 5 years, our aim is to fight poverty by reducing food losses in developing countries. By providing post-harvest storage solutions, Agrodome helps transforming societies by increasing food security and securing farmer incomes. We aim to deliver innovative solutions for the elimination of post-harvest food losses in the global food supply chain. And that's by collaborating with NGOs and Community partners in order to scale our product and to reach the people in need. 

- Having a strong business model

- Having a product that our costumets love and trust

- Ensuring sustainability and scalability of the product

- Winning trust of investors to garantee the ensure that the project is financialy sustained

- Keep developing the product based on the evolution of the market

We first need to have full-fledged business model. It’s the first and most important business milestone that we must reach. And since Marketing is the lifeblood of your business, we aim to create a scalable marketing strategy, by thinking of innovative concepts and by working with the right people. One of our milestones is also to hire and train a great team, a team that will include both skilled people with diplomat but also farmers with low knowledge to empower them and make them able to help scaling the business. And that’s in order to reach a significant number of sales, and automatically contributes in impacting the life of thousands of farmers. We first going to work in the Moroccan market, and then it is going to be as a traction of success to convince other community partners to help us scaling our project in all Africa. And that's is also a challenge for us to manage convincing these organizations to join our cause. 

5 part time staff

We are 3 engineering student with complementary profiles besides a manufacturer of tents and an advisor. We are a group of persons that have the same motivation to the field, and the same passion for entrepreneurship. Each member of the team represents an essential element in our business success. Each one of us had lived many experiences and occupied many responsibilities. We also have a high sense of entrepreneurship and we know how to manage a business and we invest all our time, effort but also heart in the development of our project in order to make one of the companies that helps changing the world by improving the livelihoods of those in need.

We have currently two groups of partners : 

- Enactus which is a non profit organization where the project was born

- Khouribga skills, a center that helps us on prototyping, markets studies, and networking

We make money by selling our storage unit with a price of 200$ per unit. With a net profit of 25%.
This amount will guaranty sustainability while we expand.
Our main target are smallholder farmers and fruits and veg merchants that is to say a targeted market of 100M $ only in morocco.

- We first identify the community with the high need of the product.

- Identify community partners and local association to get in contact with the community and to better understand their needs.

- Organize awareness campaign to show them how our product is affordable, efficient. And to also teach them how to use it and maintain it.

- We'll also keep promoting our product in weekly souks, and agriculture expositions and events.

- And focusing also on puching farmers to share their experiences and help us make even better products. Together we engage in what will become the biggest farmer community in the world.

To ensure the economic and financial sustainability of our project, we rely mainly on profits from the sale of tents. These profits will guarantee the sustainability of our project during the expansion into new markets.

We also plan to bring money through partnerships and fundraising but also through participation in numerous competitions and support program.

We will also focus both on selling to NGO's and retailers. In the short-term we expect to create the biggest impact together with strong partnerships with foundations and NGO's. On the long-term though, we want to set up direct sales channels with local distributors. Only in that way we can create a sustainable company with a sustainable impact.

We are passionate about what we do, and we seize every opportunity that will allow us to develop in advantage what we do. Indeed, MIT has always been a catalyst for innovation, and by participating in this competition, we hope to connect with a network of professionals, entrepreneurs from all over the world for a fruitful exchange. This opportunity will also allow us to meet investors to build partnerships. Solve will give us also the chance to get more advices about strategies, business plan, marketing... but also to grow our exposure. 

Agrodome is a great and sustainable product for NGO’s. Since it

is easy to implement and cost-effective for it’s users it is highly scalable. We provide verry commited services to help your organisation implementing this stepping stone technology.

Our ultimate goal is to fix the agricultural supply chain in developing and emerging markets. We want to reach every farmer in Africa, Latin-America and Asia that does not has access to the power grid. For this we will do twe things. Firstly, we need to partner with strong international and local organisations like NGO's, wholesalers, food producers and agricultural dealers. Secondly, we will stet up local production units in developing countries to more efficiently supply our markets. With Agrodome we will be able to lift millions of people out of poverty by reducing their food losses. 

While big ideas can sometimes come in a flash, the best ideas take time to develop into successful products and solutions. We believe that innovation gives the solution to almost anything. Even challenges like foodsecurity

can be tackled in efficient ways. Our mission is to contribute to infrastructural improvements that provide humanity with essential resources in a sustainable way. The prize will help us make our goal a reality by perfecting our solution to meet the needs of small farmers, launching the company will recquire money, and we hope to win in ordre to start our business and build our first production line, recrute more passionated people to work with us and start changing lives of low income farmers.