Today that the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge 2020 winners have already been officially announced, you’ll desire to find out about each winning group and the complete story right behind each innovation. Year in its fourth, this online competitors awards money prizes to early-phase startups to develop a remedy that drives economic growth or solves a sociable or environmental problem.

We are excited so that you can find out more about the 2020 winning teams addressing a few of the biggest problems we encounter through technology-based options. I experienced the honor of seated with founder and CEO of Gramhal, Vikas Birhma, champion of one of the next Runner-Up $25,000 USD prizes.

What issue is Gramhal attempting to solve?

Vikas: Gramhal is wanting to solve the issue of distress selling confronted by the farmers in India. Round the harvesting season, the costs of the crops are in its lowest. Since farmers in exactly the same area grow exactly the same crops, the offer is greater than the demand – that leads to crash in marketplace prices. Simultaneously, the farmer’s want of money reaches its peak. From sowing to the harvesting time period, farmers invest everything they will have to their crops and go out of cash by the harvesting period. Thus, these multiple elements push farmers into distress offering. Farmers result in difficult financial circumstance plus they struggle to assistance their families, run houses, and prepare their areas for another season.

About 85 percent of farmers in India are smallholder. These farmers possess significantly less than five acres of property and grow small levels of create. Sixty-two million of the farmers are usually under a brutal financial debt cycle. All the cash they earn switches into repaying previous loan products. It’s a difficult life. Income is associated with mental health insurance and closely, amongst farmers, the toll of the circumstances has resulted in a lot more than 300,000 suicides during the last 20 years.

Imagine if the cycle could possibly be broken by us all of distress selling? If farmers possess the agency to carry their harvest for just a little longer just, a month to eight weeks probably, they can accessibility a more favorable selling price (around 40 percent much better) because because the harvesting period goes away completely, the prices increase.

You want to provide farmers [with] that company and help them create a more financially resilient upcoming. That’s where our post-harvest model makes living. If farmers can shop their generate at a warehouse, they are able to make use of their produce as security to access credit, and the budget shall provide them with the agency to hold back to sell. It’s like switching the harvest into digital foreign currency and farmers can market their crops at the press of a button once the price is favorable.

How will this prize cash help your organization advance?

Vikas: We’re still inside our earlier phases. We’re dealing with about 450 farmers and have to build our solutions into a scalable design. This prize cash shall assist us expand our function to 5,000 farmers. By the ultimate end of 2021, our aim would be to iterate and solidify our post-harvest design in a genuine way which can be scaled across India.

How gets the global pandemic impacted your projects?

Vikas: The pandemic amplified the issue that Gramhal aims to resolve – distress marketing. As COVID-19 strike, all agriculture marketplaces were closed, and offer chain broke across India. The costs of the produce transpired putting farmers under incredible stress and pressing them to an additional vulnerable position.

Nevertheless, during COVID, we discovered that Gramhal’s function of providing bundled post-harvest services of storage space, credit, and market linkage with a digital platform had are more relevant and urgent than it ever was.

The physical proximity of our warehouses to the villages allowed farmers to store the produce in a warehouse, take credit against it and sell it once the prices became favorable. Our electronic system allowed farmers to straight sell to end customer without going to us and by simply using the phone.

During COVID, we noticed an enormous spike in requirement for the services and within just a couple months, the true amount of farmers seeking our services doubled.

Exactly why did you choose to start your personal social enterprise?

Vikas: It is a really fascinating question for me personally because my children and my prolonged community still don’t know very well what I’m carrying out. Where I result from, performing a working job is a lot more preferred and acceptable.

I was raised in a village within Haryana within Northern India. The majority of my family’s livelihood would depend on agriculture. That’s where I developed an enthusiastic fascination with agriculture. I resided through the struggles of smallholder farmers. But I did so not need the courage to start out something of my very own until I got the sources I had a need to solve the issue. When I visited Harvard University in america, it gave me the courage and ecosystem to start out something of my very own. At Harvard, I had usage of the resources necessary to solve this nagging issue. I made a decision to bring these resources back again to my community immediately. I knew obviously that I must utilize the privilege from my schooling for the advantage of my community. I needed to cultivate with my community.

What is the greatest little bit of advice you received within starting Gramhal?

Vikas: Probably the most insightful bits of advice I’ve received is that beginning a for-revenue startup is really a marathon, not just a sprint. To bring change about, you have to believe in the long run. Things shall not really change within a couple of years, so don’t defeat yourself up if items aren’t going in the proper direction. With this entire pandemic, things will longer take. Therefore, stay in the overall game, think beyond 2 yrs. Understand your concentrate and seek clarity. Alleviating agricultural distress shall continually be our main concentrate – there is absolutely no doubt about that.

Do any advice will be acquired by you for next yr’s applicants?

Vikas: Cisco offers a lot of assets. One of many things I liked may be the feedback on the video program. I learned so a lot in those three hrs. Use every reference and possibility that Cisco provides you. Second, showcase the continuing work you do in the field.

In your free time, what perform you prefer to do?

Vikas: I love to spend time with my children. And I read a whole lot. Among the books that I’ve gained a tremendous quantity of brand new perspective [from] will be System Revolution, by Geoffrey Parker. It’s about how exactly systems have changed our entire society and developing a new platform. The majority of the applicants who will connect with Cisco will be building some type of platform. It is possible to gain so several insights.

Keep tuned in for more articles inside our blog series, featuring interviews with every Cisco Global Issue Solver Challenge 2020 successful team!

The post Meet Gramhal: ANOTHER Runner-Up of the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge 2020 appeared very first on Cisco Blogs.