Giving Farmers a Fighting Chance:
Transforming
g the Rural Economy
y in Zacatecas
through Mobille Technology
MIT NextL
Lab Team
Luke Einsiedle
er (Emerson)
Scot Fran
nk (EECS)
M Ehsan Hoqu
M.
ue (Media Lab)
ue
Paul Moore (Emerson)
& two anonymous MIT students
1
THE PITCH
"Fig
ghting
g for Farmers" is an information aggreg
gg gation
system that will provide rura
al farmers access to interding crop supply, buyer
farm communication regard
demand, and market price heuristics.
Our solution will empower tthe
he farmers and facilitate
equitable trade leading to a sustainable livelihood.
2
Need Id
dentified
Map: Wikipedia.
Zacatecas State - A major supplier of agricultural produce which is its key
economic driver.
•
•
•
•
•
Lack of communication betwee
en the rural communities.
No access to distribution and storage centers
No Government price support mechanisms.
At the mercyy of middlemen who
o pay
p y next to nothing
g for produce.
Communities remain locked in a perpetual cycle of poverty.
3
Sy
ystem Overview
Communication tools and databases will be built
utilizing already-present te
echnologies.
The information and logic in the system will ide th
them with
ith reall, cu
urrent,
t and
d quantitati
ti
t tive
provid
m with the necessary
indicators and equip them
t l to succeed
tools
d.
4
Project
Country
Start Year
Run Byy
Media
Content
Tech
Partner
2005
WOUGNET
T
SMS
- Agri Tech Info
- Agri Market Info
Hivos IICD
SMS S
Sokoni
k i Kenya
K
2003
KACE
SMS
-Commodity
C
dit price
i
- offers to sell/buy
S f i
Safaricom
X M
Xam
Morse Senegal
S
l
2001
M bi
Manobi
SMS
- Agri
A i market
k inf.
i f
- Offer to sell
S
Sonatel
l
T d N t
TradeNet
Gh
Ghana
2004
T d N t
TradeNet
SMS
- Fair
F i P
Price
i
- Offers to sell/buy
B L b
BusyLab
AMIS
Bangladesh
2007
Ministry of
o
Agriculture
SMS
ITC
Web
EAAI
eChoupal
Uganda
India
1999
5
- Commodity price
- Online trade
- Agri market inf.
g tech inf.
- Agri
Grameen
phone
BRAC
System
ys
Arcchitecture
Database
b
Update
Make query
S t
System
M
Managger
6
F
Farmers
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu
MAS.965
/ 6.976 / ES.S06 NextLab I: Designing Mobile Technologies for the Next Billion Users
��
Fall 2008
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