Optimum temperature and environmental conditions are essential to nurturing prawn and fish culture in a pond. The high sensitivity of surroundings and constant monitoring requirement call for a new methodology to keep the development of cultures in check. This in turn increases the safety and productivity of these cultures by reducing the cost of the operation. Can sensors and novel data processing methods help us in solving this challenge?

Challenge Statement: How might we increase the productivity and efficiency of aquaculture for farmers while maintaining sustainability in the environment?

Region: Andhra Pradesh, India. (Implementation partner: Byrraju Foundation and Dr. Srinivas Thumalapenta, IBM)

Background: The world needs to produce at least 50% more food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. But climate change could cut crop yields by more than 25%. The land, biodiversity, oceans, forests, and other forms of natural capital are being depleted at unprecedented rates. Unless we change how we grow our food and manage our natural capital, food security—especially for the world’s poorest—will be at risk.

It is well known that prawn and fish culture is a highly sensitive system that needs a lot of precision to know about the pond environment. During the past one and half-decade, the shrimp culture got doubled in terms of its area under cultivation, with a lot of vagaries in production as well as the quality of the produce. Having high sensitivity in the life forms with its associated mortality, it needs integrated pond management systems to get adapted. Due to the nature of creatures living in aquatic environments with a lot of mobility, intensely changing environment, and dynamic nature of enabling weather conditions that prevail, continuous monitoring of various physical, chemical, and biological elements is essential.

The monitoring of ponds as a continuum, remotely and knowing, getting alerts is felt essential to track the productivity, process steps, and increase the safety of creatures. Some of the automation processes would also lead to the optimization of resources, thus reducing the cost of inputs/operations as well as increased productivity. Any semi-automation or full automation reduces the drudgery of farmers, farm labor, and keeps the mortality rate low and reduces the risk for farmers, advancing them to increased profitability.
Any kind of continuous and real-time monitoring, automated operations, artificial intelligence that would fetch for timely decision making will help to understand the nitty-gritty, creating sustainability in the system and increase profitability for aquafarmers.

Possible intervention areas: Provide a solution package consisting of Sensors, Communication methods, Data processing, message dissemination to farmers. Providing Agriculture specialty resources to help with business logic needed in processing the data.

Tools like AI and IoT can be put to use along with data analytics taking into account factors like water quality, feed management, creature mobility, mortality, live population count, and many others, to ensure a precision system is set in place to indicate and monitor in its continuum.

Reference links:

• https://www.journals.elsevier.com/aquaculture
• https://icar.org.in/files/state-specific/chapter/29.htm
• https://actascientific.com/ASAG/pdf/ASAG-03-0487.pdf
• http://www.worldbank.org
• https://www.agrifarming.in/prawn-farming-project-report-cost-profits-guide

Climate change is a pressing concern for all today, especially for the farmers. Being unprepared for droughts and heavy rains is a recipe for disaster in the fields. To predict the occurrence pattern of such calamities, extensive technology can be utilized to aid the farmers to protect their products and establish food security in East Java, Indonesia. 

Challenge statement: How might we enable farmers to deal with uncertainties of Climate change like untimely heavy rainfalls and droughts so it doesn’t lead to harvest failures and cause food security issues?

Region: Maharashtra, India, and East Java, Indonesia.

Background:
Harvesting is a time-sensitive operation. What that means is that a farmer has about 2 weeks to harvest his crops. Sooner or later and the crop would either be too raw or too ripe. However, in this window of time, the farmer tries to optimize the harvest so that the crop has the maximum moisture content, so that it looks the fresher, weighs more and consequently fetches better prices. However, due to seasonal shifts because of climate change, untimely rainfalls have been observed in the last few years.

A similar case was in Maharashtra in October – November 2019, when untimely rainfalls caused a total area crop damage of 33% of crops such as soybean, cotton, rice, and vegetables, amounting to 94.53 lakh hectares and affecting more than 1 crore farmers. Since this was sudden and unexpected, crops that were almost ready to be harvested got wasted as well. If the rainfalls could have been predicted even 3 days in advance and an advisory issued to the farmers, a lot of the crop damage would have been saved.   

 Indonesia is a tropical and agrarian country located on the center of the equatorial line making it prone to drought. Drought is a routine disaster in several places in Indonesia including East Java. As one of the biggest vegetable producers in Indonesia, East Java’s drought can trigger food security issues in Indonesia.

In 2019, 34.006 hectares of farmland in East Java was hit by drought mainly that of rice-producing areas, 5.069 hectares of which were declared harvest failed due to water scarcity. Drought hits East Java once a year, but however, the farmers are always unprepared to take proper and preventive actions.

If the rainfall patterns can be determined significantly in advance, taking into account historical data, weather pattern shifts, and the current year’s projections, we can suggest a better cropping window so that a significant portion of the crop can be harvested before the rains.

Potential Intervention areas: The above-mentioned challenges offer opportunities for innovators from different fields of studies such as Design, Agriculture, Electronics, and Information Technology to use Futures Thinking and suitable technology interventions.

The collected data can be used later on to fuel a Machine Learning (ML) system to produce easily digestible information providing insights to the farmers about the prediction of precipitation, incoming signals of drought, and its occurrence patterns. Based on the accuracy of the forecast and the number of days the rainfall is expected, the advisory could be either a General advisory or a Severe one. This data-backed prediction will not only enable farmers to take preventive and proper actions to save their farms before the drought or heavy rainfall happens, but also provides certainty for insurance companies to be able to guarantee the farmland making a win-win solution for the two entities. 

Reference Link: 

• https://reliefweb.int/report/india/damage-crops-maharashtra-due-unseasonal-rains.
• https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/11/22/climate-change-brings-worst-drought-to-indonesia-since-2015.html
• https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/untimely-rains-hit-india-s-summer-crops-delay-rural-economy-recovery-1619510-2019-11-16

Covid-19 paves the way to the dark tunnel of recession. With unemployment rates high in Indonesia, it creates a peculiar problem for the country as it manages to address the huge market gaps. However, a ray of hope for young and budding entrepreneurs can be seen at the end of the tunnel as they build a foundation with the help of tools like cloud computing and data analytics.  

Challenge: How should the community use technology to transform the new wave of unemployment into a new stream of entrepreneurs?
Region: Indonesia 

Background:
Coronavirus leads the economy to a worldwide recession. The recession is foreseen to be the greatest in the 21st century and it has taken a toll with the ever-increasing unemployment rate. In April alone, Indonesia has experienced 2.8 million unemployment as a result of halting business operations. The concerning unemployment rate is addressed by the government through the unemployment benefit, namely, the pre-employment card program. 

The program seeks to reskill/upskill the workforce with up to 3.5million pay for the first 4-month until the workers may shift to the new employment opportunities or to start their own business. The effort will not be as easy as expected with constraints derived from the social and physical distancing. And to learn new / upgrading skills require time to master. The positive light is, there are huge market gaps emerging to be addressed by new business models. 

The negatively impacted industries are tourism, oil, and gas, construction, property, and are unique to the positively impacted industries, i.e: e-commerce, fast-moving consumer goods, logistics, and pharmaceuticals. The shifts will require significant lead time yet the economy needs to sustain buying power. Therefore, an ecosystem of disciplines is required to come together as solutions for the growing industries. In this case, imagine an ecosystem of unemployed people – a virtual start-up – emerging to fill in the market gap. But how would such effort be orchestrated in such a way that eventually recession leads to more entrepreneurial youths for the community livelihood?

Potential Intervention areas : 

A crowd-based web platform, cloud computing, data analytics, and future of work.

Innovators may use technology to drive the unemployed talents to establish a herd of enterprising workforce with controlled risk. Therefore, instead of competing with one another, they collaborate to utilize available talents with available information. This is not possible when the economy is growing and the demand for talents is high. 

Sample Solutions:

Virtual marketplace for virtual start-ups

Marketplace for talents that offer collaborations for business ideas that are not limited to freelance services, relevant training courses by tech vendors or governments, and industry practitioners, including venture capitalists. The idea is to “reorganize” the unemployed talents into the new future of the workforce. 

Resources:

www.virtualvocations.com 

The export and import of products are the foundation for any economy. The destruction in demand for fish and its products have negatively affected the uptake of fish production. As we move towards a modern economy integrated with technology, can new tools be developed to overcome this obstacle and generate demand?

Challenge: How to improve the livelihood in the fisherman community through efficient production and distribution in the fishing industry,

Region: Riau Province, Indonesia.

Background: After the global pandemic, Indonesia has followed the steps of other countries in the world to impose travel and trade restrictions in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. Fish exports to China, in particular, have declined significantly. This step has hit fishing communities in Jambi province on Sumatra, which is highly dependent on the Chinese market. 

People have begun to reduce activities outside the home, such as shopping for basic necessities at the market, eating in restaurants, or hanging out at the cafe. This causes a decrease in demand so that it will adversely affect the fish caught by fishermen and fish cultivators. If it continues for a long time, it is feared that it will have a negative impact on the uptake of fish production from fishers and fish farmers.

 Based on data from BPS(Badan Pusat Statistik) the income of small fishermen is lower than their expenses. The major effects seen due to the COVID-19 are :

1. Fishermen are reluctant to go to the sea because the people’s purchasing power is decreasing.
2. Export demand declined due to lockdown policy in the destination country.
3. Distribution of sales constrained: fish transport trucks that have departed cannot return due to local policies in some areas.

Possible intervention areas: 

The development of processing technology using IoT tools in the implementation of a fishery-based food industry downstream program in accordance with the Indonesian Fisheries Industry Plan (RIPIN).

Participants can explore the use of technology in the process of catching fish at sea by fishermen and fish farmers using GIS and weather forecasting,

Possible innovative solutions that can help in inter-state cooperation in terms of fish exports are required using GIS tools.

Participants can also work on technological solutions using GIS and AI  tools for the Ministry of Agriculture policy to collaborate with an online transportation platform in the process of distributing food needs.

References and  sources:

1. https://www.neliti.com/badan-pusat-statistik?per_page=100&page=12

Efficient land utilization is crucial to take a step forward in waste minimization. Overuse of natural resources and indiscriminate pesticide use can lead to increased production costs and reduced profitability. Waste processing devices applying the principles of green technology can be adopted to regulate residues and make the best out of waste.

Challenge: How might we help farmers towards waste utilization and residue management in sectors like grain production and Horticulture, for them to reap economic benefits as well as contribute to environmental sustainability?

Region:  Andhra Pradesh, India(Byrraju Foundation) and Indonesia.

Background: The farmers in the East and West Godavari districts, which are being termed as the Rice Bowl of India, in Andhra Pradesh have been cultivating Paddy since time immemorial. The Paddy crop is grown in about 70% of the farmlands in these regions in Kharif and Rabi seasons year after year.

This kind of mono-cropping system had contributed immensely to the stable food security and the production capacities of the farmers in these regions though, it led to the emergence of numerous complications such as soil health degradation, overuse, and degeneration of natural resources, indiscriminate use of chemicals, extraneous weed growth, increased drudgery, increased production cost, reduced profitability, etc. The quality of the crop produced is on the downhill and the access to the markets is shrinking by each season. As a result, the small and marginal farmers are becoming the hardest hit ones in this process. Therefore, it is felt that the possible solution could be bringing in technology solutions to the reach of farmers to enable them to make timely and appropriate decisions that may increase their qualitative crop productivity and thereby improve the quality of lives.

Horticulture is an agricultural commodities’ sub-sector that has an important role in the Indonesian economy. Its high economic value causes farmers to carry their livelihood in this sub-sector.

Yet, the growth of Indonesia’s fruit harvest area only grew 30% during the period (1990-2014), or less than 2% per year (Ministry of Agriculture-Directorate General of Horticulture  2018). This situation is exacerbated by the aging crisis in farmers. According to the Statistics Bureau of Indonesia, most of the Indonesian farmers are now aged 45 – 54 years old (BPS 2019) causing their productivity to decline.

Based on the WTO’s data in 2018, in the last 10 years Indonesia’s horticulture import value increased to 11.7% per year. In 2008, USD 282 million became USD 738 million in 2018, and in the same period the value of vegetable imports increased by 9.8%. The import value which continues to increase along with the growth of national consumption for vegetables reaches 45% per year and fruit consumption growth reaches 35% (FAO). 

This means Indonesia’s horticulture sub-sector has a production deficit. It also answers why it plays an important role in the rapid inflation due to the wide gap between demand and supply. The gap is due to the distance of production centers and consumption areas (urban) which are far apart. Low commodity shelf-life and broad distribution areas also have a high-risk impact on the commodity.

In addition, Indonesia’s horticulture production is constrained by resource-intensive activities with low added value in the supply chain, competition with imported commodities, highly-processed alternative products (Sinaga, 2017), and risks of weather uncertainty.

Possible intervention Areas: 

Increasing waste utilization to reduce production costs through the implementation of processing technology.

Sample proposed solution: Waste processing device that helps farmers to separate the inedible portion of fruits so it can be reused in the cultivation area as nutrients to improve production efficiency and reducing production costs.

For the inedible parts of fruits and vegetables that would usually be discarded, farmers can be assisted with selling those as livestock feed to certain locations.

An artificial intelligence assisted mechanism that could help segregate rotten fruits from the good ones could help immensely in reducing food wastage.

In the current status quo, algorithms are in place to grade and sort raw fruits and vegetables. However, they are inefficient to grade the smaller, dehydrated flakes in the produce. High rejection rates by the existing algorithms pose a problem to the entire sorting mechanism, Can deep learning algorithms and image processing used to elevate the performance of such separation techniques?

Challenge statement: How can we automate sorting and grading crop produce?

Region: India and Indonesia.

Background: A lot of dehydrated food is wasted today because of poor sorting mechanisms. Computer Vision and ML are being used today to grade and sort raw fruits and vegetables. We want to go a step beyond that and sort and grade dehydrated flakes, which are much smaller and harder to differentiate. The best machines in the market use colour sorters, which simply sort them on the basis of the colour difference between the flakes. This leads to high rejection rates due to very high Type 1 errors. The only alternative currently is manual sorting. Given a dataset of flakes of different grades as well as rejection material, we expect you to draw contours around the rejection material and give a percentage for each grade in the provided image.  

Potential Intervention Areas: By using deep learning classification algorithms and image processing, it is possible to get a much more accurate picture of the quality of the dehydrated products. Since the products are moving on a conveyor, it is important that the algorithm is able to identify and contour the rejects in real-time, as well as calculate an average grade of the material

Grading of vegetables post-harvest. Damaged vegetables to be analyzed and graded at farm location itself as one damaged vegetable may spoil the entire lot: Brinjal, tomatoes, green chilies,overgrown ladies’ fingers in particular.

The key to improving crop production and yield  is optimization. The current challenge for smallholder farmer’s is lack of expertise and knowledge on choice of crop for prevailing market and environmental conditions. IoT and GIS mapping prove to be an efficient tool to eradicate this problem in the state of Tamil Nadu, India

How might we enable smallholder farmers to make informed decisions on which crops they should produce in a given crop cycle keeping in mind external factors such as market demand, soil, and weather conditions?

Region: Tamil Nadu, India 

Background: Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India sharing its borders with the Bay of Bengal in the east and the Indian Ocean in the south. Agro-climatically the state is demarcated into three distinct regions. Region I consists of highly fertile areas of the Kaveri delta and includes three districts viz. Thanjavur, South Arcot, and Tiruchirapalli are predominantly rice-growing areas. Region II is less fertile and consists of four districts – North Arcot, Thiruvannamalai, Salem and Coimbatore – known for their commercial crops of sugar, cotton, and groundnut. Wells and tanks are the main sources of irrigation. Region III is a dry area spread over 14 districts with poor irrigation facilities, where coarse millets like jowar, ragi, bajra, and maize are grown.

Tamil Nadu receives an average annual rainfall of about 940 mm, of which 48% is through the North-east (October-December) monsoon, and 32% through the South-West monsoon (June-September). Since the state is entirely dependent on rains for recharging its water resources, monsoon failures lead to acute water scarcity and severe drought.

Agriculture is the principal source of livelihood for more than 40 percent of the population of this State. As per the last Agricultural Census, 2010-11, marginal and smallholdings of less than 2 hectares accounted for 92.0 percent of the total holdings and 61.0 percent of the total operated area under farming. The average size of landholding has been consistently decreasing and was recorded at 0.8 hectares in the last census.

The majority of the Smallholder farmers often make decisions on what kind of crops should be grown by looking at the previous year’s productivity of neighbors. This often results in massive production of one particular crop in a year and hence lower returns for the entire community in the subsequent harvest. Thus with crops being highly vulnerable to rainfall availability and farmers often lacking knowledge on strategic farming methods, the main challenge being faced by them is ensuring adequate productivity consistently season after season.

Potential Intervention areas: The above-mentioned challenges offer opportunities for tech innovators to use suitable interventions to facilitate the farmer in making timely and informed decisions.

Data collected by a network of IoT sensors and GIS mapping, along with inputs on average commodity prices in the market, can be used to fuel an ML system which can produce easily digestible information for the farmer.

Monitoring soil moisture provides valuable data on whether it impacts crop yield and cut down the cost of labour and power: Automate irrigation methods based on assessing soil moisture.

Farmers would need to understand soil quality and nutrient condition: monitor them over a period to see if they are lacking or whether nutrients improve by adding farm inputs.

Sources:
1. “United Nations, System of Organisations”. Unsystem.org. 2012. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
2. Chapter 4. Agriculture, Department of Evaluation & Applied Research, Tamil Nadu Government.

Pests find their way in a warm climate which is favorable and a safe environment for them. Most often, these are fields of rice and maize which are attacked by them. Overuse of pesticides has proved to be harmful to the beneficial bacteria and degradation of crop quality. Analysis of GIS data is advantageous to identify the pattern of attack by pests and nip the problem in the bud.

Challenge  Statement: How might we find the source and location of the spread of pests and wild animals and prepare farmers to tackle them?

Region: India, Indonesia, Bhutan.

Background: Pests love a warmer world. The crop losses due to insect pests in India are around 15.7 percent which accounts for the annual losses of US$ 36 billion. Some of the most affected crops are maize and rice, which are grown in India by smallholders because of the government offering MSP (Minimum Support Price) and thus these are the worst affected. Since the farmers are not well-educated enough to understand the differences between pests, they end up putting a lot of insecticides and pesticides to protect against any potential threat, which ends up killing beneficial insects for the soil and degrades the food quality. It also makes the pests more resistant, requiring a larger concentration of pesticides each time.

Most pests, once they attack, spread like a wildfire, infecting village after village and damaging crops in their wake. It is possible to identify patterns of spread because these pests cause visible changes to the crop. If the correct pesticides can reach the at-risk farmers in time and they can be advised on the quantity to be used, not only will it save their crops, but also stop the spread of pests, potentially saving millions of hectares of the crop area.

Wild animals destroying crops and killing animals is a widespread problem, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF), Bhutan. Around 70% of farmers reported wildlife damaging crops like potato and 12% reported the loss of livestock from wildlife attacks from animals like Elephants, wild bears, and others, according to the 2017 State of the Nation report. Most farmers in villages have lost around 40% of their potatoes to wild boars. 

Similar is the case with ‘Nilgai’ or Blue Bulls in Bihar, India where the state board has officially declared the species as vermin.

Potential Intervention Areas: 

• Tech innovators can use spatial and temporal data to determine the pattern of spread and the source. Then, at-risk farmers can be notified about the type of pesticides to use, while the origin point can be studied to understand the reason for infestation. Analyzing historical data can give more information on recurring infestations and steps can be designed to prevent that.

•  Most farmers fear the attack of wild birds entering the fields and damaging crops. Farmers in hills also complain that they dig and damage root vegetables. So, suitable tech to sense their presence and alert Farmers to reduce damage is required.

• Innovators can use this opportunity to develop solutions aimed at easing Human-wildlife conflict in areas like Bhutan.

Link for references: 

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282390119_Crop_Losses_due_to_insect_pests_Global_and_Indian_Scenario
2. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/insect-pest-management-in-organic-farming-system 
3. https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/03/02/wild-animals-become-major-menace-for-bhutans-farmers/

After harvesting, the vegetables must reach the retailer’s market to sell the produce to the consumers. It thus becomes important to preserve the yield during transportation to avoid damage. Refrigerated trucks benefit only to some extent. Tech-innovators from various fields of study are invited to use suitable technology intervention to collect the container’s actual environment data to make sure all food-grade parameters are met. 

Challenge Statement: How might we help farmers to efficiently and effectively minimize the quality degradation of farm produce during the distribution process so it can be transported far enough to supply distant regions?

Region: Karo, North Sumatera, Indonesia, and other locations. 

Background: Located around 66 kilometers to the south of Medan, Karo is very famous for its vegetables. Due to its elevation that reaches 1 to 3 kilometers above sea level, the cold temperature in Karo makes it a perfect environment for farming making it the largest producer of vegetables in North Sumatera and the main supplier of Medan. 

Due to its high elevation, road access from and to Karo is built on steep and narrow cliffs that are prone to traffic accidents and jam. To be able to maintain the quality of the vegetables from uncertain and overlong distribution time, refrigerated trucks are being used to transport the vegetables. The environment inside the container is controlled to a certain temperature and can be monitored from the driver compartment.

However, even though the temperature is controlled during transportation, wilting can still occur to some of the vegetables in some areas inside the container, raising doubts in fluctuations of the real temperature. 

Moreover transportation and refrigeration consumes more fossil fuels, which in turn emit various greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) which has a negative effect on the environment. This environmental pollution is mainly due to the transportation of food over long distances which can be captured by the distance and mode of transport, also known as “food miles”.

Potential Intervention areas: The above-mentioned challenges offer opportunities for tech innovators from various field of studies such as Design, Agriculture, Electronics, and Information Technology to use suitable technology interventions like the Internet of Things (IoT) prototypes and sensorization to monitor and collect actual container’s environment data making sure that all food-grade parameters are met.

Those data can be used to fuel a Machine Learning (ML) system to analyze and produce easily digestible information that enables farmers to identify possible anomaly occurrences during transportation.

Some suggested solutions are:

• Farm distribution information system to monitor and analyze the important parameters of distribution fleets in real-time.
• Using existing patterns and data to plan and suggest routes and market places for lesser food miles
• Implementation of post-harvest technology to extend the shelf-life of horticultural product
• Smart container that periodically sprays preservatives mist when certain parameters are reached.

Reference links:

1. https://www.epw.in/engage/article/farm-plate-why-you-should-worry-about

Tracing food movement through production, processing, and distribution is a step-by-step approach to minimize losses and improve the productivity of the farm produce. Perpetual monitoring systems go a long way to track environmental and supply chain variables through sophisticated technologies. Appropriate refined interventions to be used to eliminate uncertainty in all the stages of movement.

How might we provide accurate and timely traceability of farm produce coming to the market?

Region: Tamil Nadu, India (myHarvestFarm)

Background: For developing countries like India and Indonesia where marginal farmers contribute the most to the agricultural sector, ensuring standard quality norms becomes a challenge and a market entry barrier for the farmers. In recent times, the trend is leaning towards consumers demanding verifiable evidence of traceability as an important criterion of quality and safety.

Traceability is the ability to follow the movement of food through specified stages of production, processing, and distribution. The traceability or product tracking tool should be able to identify at any specified stage of the food chain (from production to distribution) from where the food came and to where the food went, as appropriate to the objectives of the food inspection and certification system.

For marginal farmers associated with horticulture and other fresh food produce, the challenge intensifies and can exclude small-scale agricultural producers who lack the resources to comply with increasingly strict standards, particularly requirements for tracking and monitoring environmental and supply chain variables through sophisticated technologies. With “myHarvestFarms” already having a network of farmers associated with organic farming and an ever-growing consumer base, it will be helpful to establish a quality standard/ rating system considering various factors in mind like but not limited to fertilizers, geographic locations, and storage time.

Potential Intervention areas: The above-mentioned challenges offer opportunities for tech innovators to use suitable interventions to facilitate marginal farmers in keeping detailed reports of the produce.
Geographic and rainfall data can be collected by GIS systems and IoT sensors can be used to keep track of fertilizer and pesticide addition and geographical locations of fields on which the particular crop is grown apart from real-time monitoring the flow of products through the supply chain.

Region: Indonesia
Background: Horticulture is an agricultural commodities’ sub-sector that has an important
role in the Indonesian economy. Its high economic value causes farmers to carry their
livelihood in this sub-sector.

Yet, the growth of Indonesia’s fruit harvest area only grew 30% during the period
(1990-2014), or less than 2% per year (Ministry of Agriculture-Directorate General of
Horticulture 2018). This situation is exacerbated by the ageing crisis in farmers. According
to the Statistics Bureau of Indonesia, most of Indonesian farmers are now aged 45 – 54
years old (BPS 2019) causing their productivity to decline.

Based on the WTO’s data in 2018, in the last 10 years Indonesia’s horticulture import value
increased to 11.7% per year. In 2008, USD 282 million became USD 738 million in 2018 and
in the same period the value of vegetable imports increased by 9.8%. The import value
which continues to increase along with the growth of national consumption for vegetables
reaches 45% per year and fruit consumption growth reaches 35% (FAO).

This means Indonesia’s horticulture sub-sector has a production deficit. It also answers why
it plays an important role in the rapid inflation due to the wide gap between demand and
supply. The gap is due to the distance of production centers and consumption areas (urban)
which are far apart. Low commodity shelf-life and broad distribution areas also have a high-risk impact to the commodity.

In addition, Indonesia’s horticulture production is constrained by resource-intensive activities
with low added value in the supply chain, competition with imported commodities,
highly-processed alternative products (Sinaga, 2017) and risks of weather uncertainty.

Potential Intervention Areas: The above mentioned challenges offer opportunities for tech
innovators from various field of studies such as Design, Agriculture, Electronics, and
Information Technology to use suitable technologies interventions such as:

1. 1. Implementation of precision farming to increase the productivity of horticulture

Sample Solution:

A decision support system that helps farmers to allocate precise amount of
resources to improve farm productivity
An IoT and GIS-powered information system that continuously observes the condition
of plants. The system will produce easily digestible information that enables farmers
to precisely identify the estimated amount of resources (e.g.: fertilizer, water, or other
nutrients) needed by the plants in certain locations.

1. 1. Increasing waste utilization to reduce production cost through the implementation of
      processing technology

Sample Solution:

Waste processing device that helps farmer to separate the inedible portion of
fruits so it can be reused in the cultivation area as nutrients to improve
production efficiency
A processing technology that helps to retain the inedible portion of fruits (e.g.: skin,
seeds, etc..) to stay at the cultivation area and be utilized for fertilizing purposes,
reducing production cost in fertilizing.

1. 1. Reducing risk, through the utilization of information systems and forecasting
      technology that can improve the ability of farmers to anticipate and adapt to climate
      change

Sample Solution:

Weather station that monitors and predicts the upcoming weather conditions
Internet of Things (IoT) prototypes and sensorization that continuously monitor and
collect weather data around the farm. The collected data then can be used to fuel a
Machine Learning (ML) system to produce a weather forecast that helps farmers
schedule planting and harvesting.

1. 1. Empower the farmers with technologies to have direct access to the market.

Sample Solution:

A marketplace that connects farmers directly to end-users

1. 1. Extending the shelf-life of horticultural products through the implementation of post
      harvest technology

Sample Solution:
Smart mist sprayer that periodically spray preservatives when certain
parameters are reached

Source:

1. https://www.bps.go.id/publication/2019/01/02/c7cb1c0a1db444e2cc726708/hasil-surv
   ei-pertanian-antar-sensus–sutas–2018.html
2. FAO Stat
3. Sinaga, 2019
4. Ministry of Agriculture-Directorate General of Horticulture 2018

The fact that special advertisements have to be released to wash hands and sanitize produce before consumption proves a lack of personal hygiene in the community as well as medical professionals. In these trying times, it becomes vital for us to use the latest innovation in the field of medicine to reduce the risk of contraction of infectious diseases for patients as well as doctors.

How Might We Question:

How might we reduce the risk of patients and medical workers from getting exposed to infectious diseases when doing medical examinations?

Region: Indonesia 

Background

Community health is built by the collective participation of many parties (e.g.: public health workers, local government, and citizens) in maintaining the physical and mental well-being of the people in a specific geographic region. This includes initiatives to help community members maintain and improve their health, prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and lengthen their life expectancy. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruptions for global health. As health facilities around the world are overwhelmed responding to COVID-19 cases, health workers and non-COVID-19 patients are both paranoid with getting exposed to the disease. 

In Indonesia, 44 health workers are reported to have died because of COVID-19 due to inappropriate PPE and dishonest patients who covered up their medical and travel history. This discourages regular patients from visiting hospitals for medical advice.

Potential Intervention areas

The above-mentioned challenges offer opportunities for innovators from different fields of studies (e.g.: Medical, Information Technology, Design, Electronics, and others) to use suitable technology interventions such as 

• Internet of Things (IoT) 
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

To invent a digital health technology or wearable that can help people to identify their health problems with high accuracy which will notify the nearest medical facility shall an emergency condition detected. This will trigger new medical inventions that will still be relevant and useful to the post-COVID situation.

Sample Solution:

The Tele-ECG initiative, a telemedicine service used to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of suspected myocardial infarction in patients not in the hospital. 

It has helped decrease call time to treatment time, resulting in faster treatment and better patient outcomes. Cardio patients’ outcomes have improved 15–20%. Having the ability to connect and consult with a cardiologist remotely has improved the quality of service and care from ambulances and paramedics. 

A wearable that can identify a user’s health condition and suggest medical advice to prevent further implications

A wearable that can keep track of a user’s vital parameters and give a warning when the user enters a pandemic red zone or when a medical emergency is about to happen.

Resources:

1. https://katadata.co.id/infografik/2020/04/18/wabah-phk-akibat-covid-19

Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) are encouraged for all medical professionals taking care of infected patients. The shortage of such basic equipment has lead to the spreading of the virus and the death of many medical workers. Lack of data on the availability of PPEs and distribution results in supply issues. Can deep technology address this issue? 

How might we effectively map out the availability of PPE and Personal Hygiene supplies to the community?
Region of Origin: Indonesia

Background:

Coronavirus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets sprayed when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks.1 The droplets can be inhaled by another person nearby or stick to any surface and are still infectious (until 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, less than 4 hours on copper and less than 24 hours on cardboard).2  

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as a world pandemic, good personal hygiene practices, social distancing, and wearing proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have become strongly encouraged. 

Ever since, people are starting to panic-buy hand sanitizers, medical-grade PPE, and masks in large quantities causing shortages, higher prices, and disrupting the supply chains. This leads to an uneven distribution that impacts the community and the health sector. 

In Indonesia, 44 health workers are reported to have died because of COVID-19. Health workers were bound to use inappropriate substitutes of PPE such as raincoats and plastic bottle gallons due to the shortage, putting their lives at risk. This is worsened by the low awareness of the patient which in some cases hides their medical and travel history, exposing the health workers to the disease3.

In response to this situation, The Indonesian Ministry of Industry (KEMENPERIN) urged Indonesian Garment Industries to start producing PPE for hospitals nation-wide. There are 28 companies involved with an estimated total capacity of 17,8 million units per month4 

However, until now, the government has not announced the exact numbers for PPE demands in Indonesia and the distribution is still considered very slow due to data inconsistency.5 

Potential Intervention areas : 

The above-mentioned challenges offer opportunities for innovators from different fields of studies to use Futures Thinking and suitable technology interventions such as Geographical Information System (GIS) and Web Platforms to help map out the availability of PPE and Personal Hygiene items within an area. 

Sample Solutions:

A crowd-based GIS web platform that will enable the community to find PPE and Personal Hygiene supplies faster

A web platform that allows shops to input stocks of relevant supplies which can be accessed by the public to query items. This platform will map out the nearest shops based on the users’ locations together with other information such as location, items availability, and point of contact as the feedback.

An online crowd-based GIS web platform for local communities to post scarce supplies

A web platform that allows the community to list down the resources that they can no longer source in their local market. Enabling government and private suppliers to effectively identify the needs based on locations.

Resources:

1 https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1

2 https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

3 https://katadata.co.id/berita/2020/04/12/44-dokter-dan-perawat-ri-meninggal-dunia-akibat-virus-corona 

4 https://kemenperin.go.id/artikel/21649/Kemenperin-Fokus-Genjot-Produktivitas-Industri-APD-Nasional

5 http://dpr.go.id/berita/detail/id/28544/t/javascript;

The ongoing pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. The fear of contracting diseases from poultry products has caused a decline in the demand for chicken and eggs. As the H5N1 spreads in farms of Karnataka and Kerala, farmers face huge losses. Can GIS mapping help the farmers tackle this problem? 

Challenge Statement: How might we find solutions to keep track of diseases that spread from livestock and poultry and help in eradicating them from the source?

Region: India, Global.

Background: After coronavirus lockdown hit consumption of chicken and eggs to a multi-year low, poultry farmers in Karnataka and Kerala are facing another problem — bird flu or, formally, the H5N1 virus.

The source is migratory birds from the east. Farmers in the two states have reportedly begun culling chickens, while the state governments have restricted supply of chicken across their borders.  Bird Flu indications are found in the Mysore region of Karnataka, among small farms with 3,000-4,000 birds. In fact, farmers had found some dead migratory birds which they carried into their farms, which was the major cause of the outbreak. The flu later spread throughout the farm and infected birds from other places as well.

Normally, farmers transport 1-1.5 million birds (cocks and hens) from Karnataka to Kerala. That is how it spread to Kerala, India.

A similar case is with the spread of other diseases like Swine Flu.

Possible Intervention areas: This challenge offers opportunities to the participants to explore innovative solutions that can keep track of the geographical location of the source of poultry and livestock products. 

A small chip or software can be designed that can track the movement of these animal products in each stage and can help in tracing the source in case of an outbreak so that action can be taken asap.

References https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/after-coronavirus-poultry-farmers-in-karnataka-and-kerala-hit-by-bird-flu-120032000043_1.html