Kenya-based team wins IBM award for developing solution to help reduce food waste

(3 minutes read)

• IBM and David Clark Cause have announced Mavuno Link as the Middle East and Africa Regional Winner of the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge.

• Mavuno Link is  a team of developers  from Nairobi, Kenya

•    The team  designed an application namely Mavuno Link to help tackle food waste and reduce the food wastage

•  It is reported that Kenya every year loses close to  5.2million tons of food   

•  The application empowered farmers, drivers of trucks carrying food articles and buyers to communicate easily on a common platform, leading to  lessening the quantum of  food lost after harvest by saving time on the logistics. It has also given farmers direct access to traders avoiding middlemen

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 IBM and David Clark Cause have announced Mavuno Link as the Middle East and Africa Regional Winner of the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge.

Mavuno Link is  a team of developers  from Nairobi, Kenya.   The team  designed an application namely Mavuno Link to help tackle food waste and reduce the food wastage. The app is very relevant to Africa, where food wastage is there amidst large scale impoverishment and poverty. It is reported that Kenya every year loses close to  5.2million tons of food.    The application empowered farmers, drivers of trucks carrying food articles and buyers to communicate easily on a common platform, leading to  lessening the quantum of  food lost after harvest by saving time on the logistics. It has also given farmers direct access to traders avoiding middlemen.

 By using the application, the farmer is able to 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.  This information then 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.  A lot of food harvested are lost or perished because of logistics reasons globally and in  particular  Africa, where supply chains are weak. The global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes of “primary product equivalents”, which is roughly about 37% of the total food supply. Total food wastage for the edible part of this amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes.

The application has a farmer interface, a driver interface and a consumer interface., Mavuno Link also has USSD and SMS platforms.  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.

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