Hacking Ideas for Solutions: the Agromovil Hackathon
Imagine yourself in the shoes of a small farmer in Colombia trying to get more crops to market, or in the shoes of transporters trying to determine what crops to pick up and when. Imagine trying to create a new ecosystem that could provide just in time transportation, insurance, and the ability to pay online – while being simple enough for farmers, truckers, and consumers to use. Now imagine working with some of Washington’s sharpest and most creative minds – fueled well into the night by pizza and soda – all for the sake of tackling one of the greatest challenges facing our planet.
That's precisely what happened on the night of April 26th, 2017, when AMGlobal Consulting hosted a very successful hackathon to define the minimum viable product (MVP) for its new venture – Agromovil. Agromovil aims to tackle head-on the 30-50% of crops that are harvested and lost every year, goods that are produced, but never make it to consumers – a major risk to people around the world and a lost value of $150 billion annually.
The exciting event brought together a diverse group of experts with wide experiences from ag economics to coding, development finance to entrepreneurship – from the World Bank and IDB, to the world of apps, microinsurance, and a mango processing factory in Sierra Leone.
Many of these catalytic participants have been early supporters of Agromovil and have seen the project advance from a simple idea to real visibility. Now the challenge: to make it real. What is insurable? What is the simplest way to create a match?
For 4 hours we shared insights, explored ways forward and occasional dead ends, facilitated by AMGlobal partner Disruptica. The end result was very positive, with a clearer process flow, and understanding of the drivers that help us build the app.
What’s next? Building our platform and our first field test in Coastal Colombia at the end of May. Until then, the Agromovil team is hard at work developing and coding the MVP in order to ensure a great product that will improve many lives and reduce post-harvest loss.
We can capture significant lost value for small farmers and other partners, bringing more food to the tables of a growing, hungry world. Learn more at www.agromovil.co and check out Andrew Mack's blog post on Agromovil's Story. Help Agromovil grow by following the team on twitter!
