Farm on Wheels

IMPROVED FARM PRACTICES CHALLENGE; NIGERIA

 PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Quality seeds and fertilizer as well as transportation of farm produce to market. 

Learn more about the Improved Farm Practices Challenge and why increasing the effective use of fertilizer has the potential to unlock significant crop yield for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.  

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Major distribution problems for smallholder farmers in Nigeria include: the high cost of transportation due to bad roads, limited farm resources, low yield even with increased fertilizer application and quality seeds due to improper application, low profit margin due to increased fertilizer use which discourages farmers from investing. 

Farm on Wheels is a direct distribution line that will bring quality seeds and fertilizers to farmers, then transport farm produce to urban areas via large trucks at harvest time. Short seminars will be facilitated with small holder farmers on utilizing quality seeds, microdosing technique, and how to purchase these quality inputs on credit with Farm on Wheels. To do this, Farm on Wheels will partner with small holder rural farmers cooperatives. Farm produce will be transported to urban areas and sold to Farm on Wheels partners. Farmers can use produce to cover costs of quality inputs taken on credit. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Teach microdosing technique with 5 farmer cooperatives during the pilot 

• Increase the effective use of fertilizer and scale up distribution of quality seeds with 75 small holder farmers during the pilot 

• Teach microdosing technique with 20 farmer cooperatives by the end of year 1 

• Increase the effective use of fertilizer and scale up distribution of quality seeds with 300 smallholder farmers by the end of year 1

FOUNDING TEAM

Jocelyne Agbo - Founder and Chief Executive Officer 

Stanley Arinze - Finance and Distribution Lead

Sehak

PATIENT IDENTIFICATION CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Free, SMS service that provides accessible diagnosis for for easily correctable health conditions and connects users to vetted health facilities.

Learn more about the Patient Identification Challenge and why identifying individuals in need of medical treatment and finding ways to make that treatment accessible reduces poverty.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

In Mumbai, a dynamic metropolis and the entertainment and financial capital of India, 41.3% of the population of 19 million reside in slums. The largest of these slums is Dharavi, a locality in the heart of Mumbai, with a staggering 2000 people residing per acre. Many of the public hospitals in the area are overcrowded and unreliable in their services , leading residents of the slums to face a lack of access to affordable, quality healthcare, despite their proximity to world-renowned health infrastructure - echoing a theme seen in many urban slums across India. This leads to residents contracting diseases that are left undiagnosed and untreated in spite the fact that some of these conditions are easily-correctable, easily-identifiable and cheap to treat.

88% of Indian households now have mobile phones, including 77% of households in the bottom quintile. Due to the widespread presence of mobile phones, India is predicted to have the highest adoption rate for mobile health or “mHealth” technologies

Sehak has created creating a free, call-based service that provides an accessible
diagnosis for the 4 easily correctable health conditions targeted, connects users to vetted health facilities that can treat the diagnosed condition, and regularly engages with the users.

The service will target 4 pecific easily-correctable, identifiable and cheap-to-treat health conditions: obstetric fistula, cataracts, clubfoot and cervical cancer.

Users will sign up for our service by placing an initial missed call to our number. They will then receive an immediate automatic call back, and the automated response system (IVR) will prompt the first-time caller to provide their basic demographic information, including their gender, age, location, and preferred language, as well as whether they are married and/or have young children. We will then store this information in our subscriber database and the subscriber will start receiving our regular text messages via SMS to dispense essential and timely health information. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 5,000 users during the pilot

• Reach 50,000 users by the end of year 1  

• Send 1,500 diagnostic calls during the pilot 

• Send 15,000 diagnostic calls by the end of year 1 

FOUNDING TEAM

Sanya Sareen - Partnerships and Finance Lead

Nishchala Bhandari - Strategy and Human Capital Lead

Arushi Gupta - Technology and Research Lead