UX for Rural India
Project
UX for rural India
Duration
3 Weeks
Project Type
Group
Deliverable
Research
Ideation
Ecosystem map
Service blueprint
High fidelity
Prototype
Idea Validation
Project overview
This project delves into India's agriculture, seeking opportunities and solutions to empower farmers, boost efficiency, and build resilience. It analyzes challenges and leverages data to drive sustainable growth.
Results
Designed a service that creates a temporary storage for the farmers to keep their produce before they sent it to cold storages.
Initial brainstorming
Problems Identified
Lack of Direct Market Access
Farmers often have to sell their produce at lower prices due to a lack of direct access to markets.
Lack of Technological Adoption
Slow adoption of modern agricultural technologies can hinder efficiency and productivity.
Proof
horticulture.punjab.gov.in Mentions that there is a lak of market linkage and cluster/ corporate approach under the Limitations
agri.punjab.gov.in Mentions that there is a need to spread The Latest Crop Production Technology To Bridge Knowledge Gap Between Farmers And Experts
manage.gov.in/ states that the pace of reforms and infrastructure development in the agricultural sector is not meeting the rate warranted by the rising production and diversification.
Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) revealed that there is a significant food loss across the supply chain due to factors like inadequate storage, inefficient processing, and poor transportation.
What Impact Do We Want?
Increased Crop Yields and Quality
Improved Quality and Freshness for Consumers
Optimized Resource Use and Cost Efficiency
Reduced Wastage and Improved Supply Chain Efficiency
Inclusivity and Empowerment
Risk Mitigation and Management
Is This Really The Impact We Need?
A fund was created in NABARD that focusses on promoting innovative and feasible concepts/projects and transfer of technology for enhancing production and productivity in agriculture and allied sectors and increasing farmers’ income.
Hence, our hypothesis that work needs to be done to achieve the impacts we identified was right.
Initial How Might We?
“How might we leverage technology for promoting innovative solutions in horticulture and facilitate technology transfer, boosting production, efficiency, and income, also establishing direct market linkage for enhanced productivity?”
Direct Market Linkage
The Farmers Pride International defines the term linkage as a physical connection between the producer and the ultimate consumer. Linkages also involve financial transactions - the selling and buying of goods.
Directions
1. Localized, vernacular content and services like personalized advisory through mobile platforms.
economictimes.indiatimes.com states there are complexity of agricultural supply chains, many stakeholders and unpredictable factors like the weather.
2. Too many middle man in the supply chain, leading to artificial price rise
A study by manage.gov.in states that a significant amount of the produce is wasted or spoiled before it reaches the consumer, transporting the produce is expensive, adding to the overall cost and complexity.
3. The distribution of storage capacity between states skewed.
A study by Ministry of Food Processing Industries states that huge quantities of harvested produce get wasted due to fragmented supply chains and inadequacy of post-harvest infrastructure.
Why Direction 3?
It is confirmed form the insights of our initial secondary research that :
Inadequate Support for Rising Agricultural Demands: Agricultural reforms and infrastructure are not keeping pace with the sector's growth, limiting market access for smallholders.
Supply Chain Inefficiencies Leading to Food Loss: High food loss in the supply chain is driven by inadequate storage, inefficient processing, and poor transportation.
Revised How Might We
"How might we develop and integrate smart technology solutions to optimize the distribution and utilization of storage capacity in horticulture, thereby enhancing production efficiency, reducing waste, and establishing direct market linkages to increase farmers' income?"
What We Wanted To Know From Primary
Farmers
Storage Needs Assessment
Understand farmers' methods for evaluating produce volume/type and determining specific storage conditions.
Storage Booking Preferences
Identify key digital platform features farmers seek for storage booking and ensuring facilities meet preservation requirements.
Logistics Coordination
Learn steps farmers take to prepare produce for transport and coordinate with transporters for timely delivery.
Storage Maintenance
Explore farmers' use of IoT for monitoring produce and essential measures for maintaining quality during storage.
Market Linkage Strategy
Understand how farmers use market insights for distribution planning and strategies for seamless storage-to-distribution transition.
Storage
Capacity Management
Understand how facility owners assess/manage capacity for different produce types and optimize storage space for diverse farmer needs.
Booking Management
Learn how facilities handle/confirm digital bookings and communicate with farmers/transporters about storage arrangements.
Logistics Coordination
Explore coordination with transporters for smooth receipt/storage of produce and protocols for managing large volume logistics.
Storage Maintenance
Understand technologies/methods used for monitoring/maintaining optimal conditions and ensuring produce quality during storage.
Market Linkage Support
Learn how facilities assist in the transition from storage to distribution and maintain produce quality during distribution.
Primary Research
Methods: Interviews, Observation, Visual Ethnography
Target audience: Farmers, Storage Facility owners
Sample Size: 9
Location: Village Thuha
Primary Research Insights
Supply Chain Inefficiencies
Farmers selling raw vegetables immediately due to lack of storage indicates a gap in post-harvest management.
Technology and Information Gaps
Farmers' fear of fraud and their perception that apps do not provide much profit indicate trust and value issues with digital platforms.
The reliance on social media and news for information suggests the potential for a centralized, reliable information system.
Storage Challenges
The distance to cold storage facilities and associated costs (100-120Rs per bag) highlight the need for decentralized storage solutions.
The risk of spoilage and the lack of complaint mechanisms for storage issues suggest a need for improved storage management and farmer support systems.
Market Access and Pricing
The observation that payment is made during pickup even after the produce is spoiled implies cash flow issues for farmers.
Personas
Persona (Farmer)
Persona (Storage owner)
How Might We?
"How might we design a localized, accessible, and efficient storage system that empowers farmers with strategic partnerships and technology, streamlines the supply chain, minimizes waste, and improves profitability for farmers and storage owners in Punjab?"
Ideation
Methods: Interviews, Observation, Visual Ethnography
Converging Ideas
It’s because temporary storage plays a critical role in the post-harvest process:
Congestion Management: It prevents the congestion of permanent storage facilities by regulating the flow of produce.
Quality Preservation: Allows produce to be gradually cooled or conditioned, reducing the shock from harvesting temperatures to storage temperatures.
Market Timing: Helps in timing the market for better prices, especially if the market is currently saturated.
Problems Identified
Ecosystem Mapping
Service Blueprint
UI Style Guide
Logo
Logo Concept
Final Screens
Koshrey
Koshrey, an application dedicated to bridge the gap between farmers and storage owners. Farmers can use this application to connect to the storage owners and can store their produce, also getting real time notifications about the health of stored items, and an option to transport.
Homepage
Homepage will provide you real time market analytics about the vegetable and fruit prices, Storages near you, a map where you can locate and check the facilities provided at the storage unit, and decide accordingly which storage unit suits best for your harvest.
Storage
You can Check the available facilities, capacity, price of the storage and then book the storage by adding the Harvest details
Search
You Can either search by Harvest name or Storage name
Location
Map where you can locate and check the facilities provided at the storage unit, and decide accordingly which storage unit suits best for your harvest and track your transportation.
Koshrey+
Koshrey+ for the storage owners where they can manage their earnings, spendings, stored item conditions and can receive more and more customers.
Home screen
Here you can Check the Financial Performance, Financial Analysis and also keep a track on the current orders.
Storage
Storage owners can add their storage to our app in which they can show The facilities available in the storage
Records
Storage owners can manage their records. They can check their income, expenses, stocks etc
Idea Validation
Local Farmers
“App taan vadiya lag reha chalaan vich”
“Dekhan nu app bada vadiya lag reha hai”
“Iss vich je saanu Storage vaaleya vallo jaankari mil rahi taan bohot vadiya hovega”
“Storage vaale v je naal di naal update karan taan app saath zaur devega”
“Storage vaale v kai vaar apne cooler nahi chalaunde, taan samaan paya paya kharaab ho janda hai”
Local Farmers
“Aalu nu vich vich paltauna painda hai taan je iss raahi pata lag jaave ki oho othe paye paye kharaab taan ni ho rahe taan vdiya rahega”(Real Time Info)
“Nede storage je hon taan vadiya hi hai”
“Transport taan appan khud hi kar lavaan ge”