Founders commit to help local farmers through its innovative platform
When Plato pointed out in one of his writings that said, “our need will be the real creator”. He wanted to address some of the social issues such as justice, equity and education, and that is the reason the axiom, “Necessity is the mother of invention came into being.”
There is no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people’s lives and business activities nationally, regionally, and globally.
In the Philippines, the nationwide lockdown forced upon us by the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the lives of everyone we know. It has caused anxiety as health and safety concerns coupled with economic and income uncertainties weighed down every Filipino setting back a broad spectrum of businesses.
Apart from the concerns with health and safety, food security is also another key issue that needs to be addressed considering the fact that our local farmers have been struggling in upscaling their agribusiness by achieving high yield, loans or funding, distribution of their produce.
While the Philippine government recognizes this and has in fact implemented measures to ensure food is available and accessible, the imposed community quarantine has exacerbated problems already experienced by the agricultural sector. In addition to the limited working hours allowed because of the quarantine restrictions mandated per province, farmers face challenges in selling their produce due to movement controls and continue to have limited access to financing.
Knowing the struggles of the agricultural sector and the farmers being at the forefront of providing food security amid the pandemic, the lack of access to financial loans has been a problem for so many decades.
Farm Box, created a solution that enables any individual to invest in local farmers. Their project was recently chosen as the grand winner of Globe’s business Hack-it-On competition. Hack-it-On is Globe’s largest virtual hackathon, in celebration of the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) National ICT Month.
Globe Business announced the winners at a virtual awards ceremony together with their partners, the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), the Philippine Computer Society (PSC), and Globe’s innovation developer community Globe Labs.
Farm Box aims to support local farmers through its crowdfunding platform that allows anyone to purchase farm boxes that contain essentials that partner farmers need. The project was judged the most outstanding invention for its ease of use, market viability and social impact.
The team composed of John Lester Mendoza, John Christopher Francisco, Anjenette Lopez and Felix Veroya proposed an innovative business plan around the incorporation of API technology in the business model to increase investor engagement and retention.
Batangas as Pilot project
Speaking to the media during the Hack-It-On media virtual roundtable discussion this morning, John Lester Mendoza, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm Box answered if they have plans to expand Farm Box and he said yet. However, he pointed out that they are currently focusing first on Batangas being one of the agricultural provinces of the country.
‘We started here in Batangas,” Mendoza said. “But as we go along, we will be considering to expand to other provinces to help our other local farmers. But that will not be the immediate plan but definitely part of our strategic plan,” he added.
The technology behind Farmbox
Farm Box used Charging API to help expand its payment gateways, allowing more investors to invest in the platform. SMS API was also integrated into the business to notify its investors and partner farmers for payout advisories and promos. Lastly, the application of Rewards API allows investors to receive load credits or promo codes when they repurchase farm boxes.
“This competition has definitely helped us unlock a new level of creativity in coming up with solutions to uplift our local economy through Globe Business’ API Solutions. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to have worked with key leaders in the IT industry,” said John Lester Mendoza, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm Box.
With the theme “Hack-It-On. Own the Power of API Innovation,” Globe Business’ month-long event pitted 50 business start-ups from the IT sector in a friendly competition. In the month-long journey, participants confronted key pain points and critical challenges typically faced by our local MSMEs today as they devised groundbreaking solutions that leveraged Globe Labs’ APIs.
“We recognize the indispensable role that the IT industry plays in driving the competitiveness and continued digital evolution of our local businesses. Through this event, we hope that we have inspired more SMEs to leverage on technological solutions that can uplift their businesses and the lives of the communities they serve,” said Nicola Ebrada, InfoComm Industry Marketing Lead, Globe Business MSME Group.
The virtual event kicked off on June 18 with enablement workshops for participating teams to give them insights and the know-how for their proposed solutions. The teams were given until June 29 to submit their business plan development.
Farm Box, the grand winner in the virtual competition, walked away with P200,000 worth of prizes, including a P100,000 GCash, tickets to the PSIA Softcon 2021, 50% discount on the PCS Infosec certification training, GMovies vouchers, a Globe myBusiness prepaid internet kit, and a gift box from Globe Business. All the participants received e-certificates of participation.
To beef up its support to the IT-BPM industry, Globe Business launched special offers for customers who subscribed to Globe Labs API solutions with a minimum contract value.
To know more about Globe Business’ enabling offers for local SMEs, visit https://go.mybusinessacademy.ph/ICTMonthOffers.