Hunger and poverty are in fact the most threatening and jeopardizing factors against any economic progress and social development. In essence, it requires to employ and implement a wide-ranging approach and complex of multidimensional methods of collaborative efforts in order to be able overcome these particular global challenges.
Yet, from the standpoint of a mere individual, a member of the global society, we could bring about our personal contribution to ease the associated risks, or even to completely diminish this problem and change the lives of millions. One of the fundamental points of innovative approach is to maintain an exponential focus on technological approach.
Thus, I believe that solution must be adapted to deploy as soon as possible after the onset of a crisis, and also to ensure a sustainable source of food as soon as possible. Consequently, these solutions should help vulnerable families maintain their own households and reduce their dependence on external assistance.
In this regard, my idea implies to design a mobile application that would allow to trade
or rather to exchange
agricultural products, goods, and services within the local populace. Furthermore, the supplementary innovative feature of this application is to have a “localized” digital wallet, which would ultimately gives an opportunity for people to make their payments and any financial transactions with each other without “cash” money. In fact, digital wallets should be integrated to any commercial entity so that people could buy or sell using their money. Besides, NGOs, charity organizations, multinational companies, funds, states, or even ordinary people would have an opportunity to donate directly to these digital wallets, with no external intermediaries included.
Roughly describing, the mobile application would represent a kind of marketplace, auction and/or trading/bartering platform, like “I would exchange 2kg of potatoes for 3kg of onions or sell for 10$” ($ to be replaced with local currency). Although, the challenges of this idea is twofold a) the lack of proper mobile phones (smartphones) to use the application; b) the absence of proper network connection. But it is possible to develop a local network with no implication of the Internet (like E-pay, or credit card payments) and create specific outlets so that farmers (and people) could log in to their accounts and have an access to their digital wallets. However, the expected advantage from the integration of such a mobile application is to leverage demand and supply, market mechanisms, incentive for people to involve in farming, to develop infrastructure, to obtain and have entrepreneurial skills, to refine logistics (for urban-rural delivery of products between the engaged parties).
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