AtoANI

If selected as a winner of the Elevate Prize, I will use the funding to expand AtoANI iCROP's Partnership Program to various locations in the Philippines helping farmers improve their incomes and have an assured market while helping customers have a steay supply of affordable and quality fresh produce.

I am passionate about sustainable solutions, entrepreneurship and innovation. I Co-founded the social ventures AtoANI that provides data-based solutions to enable sustainable agriculture and AtoANI BioPack that works on creating biodegradable packaging using agro-industrial by-products. These two ventures all seek to provide inclusive solutions to grassroots farming communities. With a Chemical Engineering and MBA Degree, I have a corporate experience working for multinational companies (e.g. Procter and Gamble, Lufthansa Technik) in the areas of Strategy, Digitalization, Innovation, Finance, Logistics, Quality Assurance, Program and Project Management. I also has a freelance experience in consulting, creating business plans and digital transformation strategies in the areas of e-commerce, tourism and mobile applications. 

I come from the Philippines, a primarily agricultural nation. My grandparents are farmers and I've observed firsthand how hard it is to be a farmer in our country. They have one of the lowest incomes and it requires a lot of work that the younger generations doesn't want to go into farming. That is why, through the social ventures that I've Co-founded, I hope to show that farming can be a lucrative career, and that the younger generation like myself can be part of it and help improve the system.

AtoANI seeks to address the following problems: (a) excessive supply wastage due to lack of market demand knowledge, (b) unmet demand of the customers, (c) multiple distribution layers from the farmers to the customers, (d) low income of the farmers due to crop wastage, (e) conventional farming which degrades the soil, (f) high cost of fresh produce due to inefficient logistics, and (g) disruption in the supply chain due to imposed transport restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To address these problems, AtoANI employs a produce-to-demand model whereby pre-orders from its  existing and potential customers dictates the type and quantity of crops that AtoANI grows in its farm  and partner farms and it delivers its products from the farmers straight to its customers. It uses AtoANI i-CROP analytics platform for the farmers that provides recommendations  on the type and amount of crop to be plant by the farmers with an assured demand. It also implements  sustainable agriculture whereby it produces its own fertilizers made of organic materials that are available  in its surroundings. With this solution, its customers are assured of getting quality produce at an affordable price and ensures zero crop wastage on the part of the farmers.

For AtoANI, it goes beyond being an e-commerce platform for farm products as it uses an analytics tool (AtoANI i-CROP) to provide recommendations on what crops to plant and identify expanse of land to be planted with these crops considering soil type, identified farm productivity and pre-orders (or demand) from existing and new customers. It enables the produce-to-demand sustainable agriculture model which allows for data-based matching of supply with demand through the AtoANI i-CROP platform thereby eliminating crop wastage and ensuring a ready market for their crops based on customer pre-orders and demand. A local-for-local model for logistics cost-efficiency is integrated in AtoANI i-CROP’s algorithm to ensure that recommendations given to farmers favor those farmers and customers that are in proximate locations. It also allows for data insight on which locations AtoANI can expand through the sign-ups from potential farmers and customers can drive decision for expansion to locations with the most number of interested partner farmers and customer.

The steps we are taking to achieved the planned impact include:

(a) Collaboration with organizations for expansion of the solution to grassroots farming communities such as our committed collaboration with World Vision Philippines with support from 3Zero this 2021 for extending the AtoANI i-CROP Partnership Program to initially 15 farmers in Cabalawan, Sogod, Cebu

(b) Collaboration with ISIP, PhilDev, UNDP and Australian Aid for developing the AtoANI i-CROP platform that made the AtoANI i-CROP Partnership Program (data-based sustainable agriculture model) possible.

(c) Leveraging on trying out firsthand sustainable farming practices and own fertilizer product to improve existing farming practicies to be taught to partner farmers for more cost-effective and productive farming.

(d) Continously improving available data in the AtoANI i-CROP Platform with the expansion to different locations and using it to identify potential locations where the AtoANI i-CROP Partnership Program can be expanded.

(e) Managing farmer and customer partnerships.

These steps are effective as enabled the need to involve more partner farmers and expand in new locations with the increasing demand for fresh produce from partner customers with repeat pre-orders and referrals to new customers from existing customers.