INDUSTRY WATCH

This year ’ s regional winning solution is from a team of developers out of Nairobi , Kenya , who designed the Mavuno Link application to help tackle food waste and reduce the 5.2million tonnes of food lost every 12 months in the country . The application connects farmers , drivers and buyers on a common platform and aims to lessen the amount of food lost after harvest by saving time on the logistics and giving farmers direct access to traders .

Upon registration , the farmer can make their produce public . The buyer or customer then selects the product needed as well as the quantity and the date when the products should be delivered – initiating the process . This information is shared with the driver who , in addition to scheduling the pick-up and delivery , verifies the pick-up and delivery checklist for fulfilled orders .

“ One of the biggest challenges towards achieving zero hunger is food that is lost after harvest . According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations , the global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes of ‘ primary product equivalents .’ This is about 37 % of the total food supply . Total food wastage for the edible part of this amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes ,” said Sammy Oina of Mavuno Link . “ Our solution addresses this issue by directly connecting farmers to distributors like drivers and buyers or consumers , thus providing a digital marketplace for the exchange of farm produce , hence reducing waste . Participating in Call for Code has provided us at Qualis Labs with an opportunity to engage our community by building a solution that will make the community better as well as contribute towards achieving zero hunger globally .”

Designed to be used by the various users , the application has a farmer interface , a driver interface and a consumer interface . In addition to the application , Mavuno Link also has USSD and SMS platforms enabling users with no access to the Internet to connect on the digital marketplace . It also allows the final consumer to provide feedback on the quality of the produce , which farmers can use to ensure they are meeting user needs .

As the winner for the Middle East and Africa region , Mavuno Link joins Call for Code ’ s ecosystem , which unites the world ’ s millions of developers and data scientists to unleash the power of cloud , AI , Blockchain and IoT technologies to solve pressing global problems with sustainable and scalable open source-powered technologies .

Mavuno Link will be awarded a total of US $ 5,000 which will go towards future development and deployment of the application . They will also receive support from IBM ’ s technical experts .

For the 2021 Call for Code challenge , developers , innovators and problem solvers across the globe were invited to combat climate change with open sourcepowered technology . The three themes proposed this year among the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals were : Drinking water and sanitation ; World hunger ; Responsible production and consumption .

In addition to the winning team , the Call for Code Global Challenge had regional finalists from other African countries such as Botswana tackling the issue of providing safe drinking water .

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