Daniel Oulaï 

Generating rapid solutions to prevent the health crisis to turn into a food crisis

According to the FAO, we may be moving from a global health crisis to a global food crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting global food markets, which puts us in a Covid-19 survival situation and increases the risk of famine after the pandemic. This is why the Grainothèque organized an online hackathon with actors from local agricultural value chains to generate solutions to limit the repercussions of the health crisis on food security. 

Daniel Oulai

Entrepreneurs Name: Daniel Oulaï, Young Changemaker

Organization: Grainothèque 

Country: Cote D’Ivoire 

Website: porcivoir.com 

Field of action: Economic Resilience

Needs support to achieve greater impact in: Fundraising, Marketing and Communications 

The mission of the social enterprise before and after Coronavirus

The social mission of Grainothèque before the Corona was to provide many needy families with nutritious local foods at fair prices while avoiding the loss of cereals. Through a seed bank, the company mainly worked to preserve the disappearing traditional seeds and perpetuate them through its network of farmers. In addition, the seed bank also trains potential young people who are candidates for migration on how to use local seeds to create farming environments that are safer for their communities and capable of providing them with a decent income. 

Due to the health crisis which forced us to telework in an agricultural sector which requires human presence. The food production system is slowing down which will have repercussions on food security. The major change that has been made is the digitization of our processes and the reduction of the value chain. Grainothèque is digitizing the Ivorian pork sector and other farms from farm to fork to avoid contact with the supply and to assist farmers remotely in the composition of feed. 

In the aftermath of the online hackathon, it organized to prepare its food response to COVID-19, the Grainothèque chose to digitize the local pork industry through an integrated system to reduce crop losses at the same time. The objective of Grainothèque is to mitigate the blow this pandemic will have on peasant families, consumers and the agricultural industry in West Africa.

This digitization will make it possible to assist farmers in the composition of food through a mobile application. In addition, it will reduce physical contact, reduce the distribution chain to ensure no stock shortage of meat from farm breeding at fair prices.

Grainothèque has succeeded in achieving this by:

  • The complete digitization of the pork industry in Côte d’Ivoire, keeping pork products available to families in this time of turbulence. The digitization of food markets allows people stranded in their homes to have food delivered.
  • Support and capacity building training for 100 peasant families in multi-crop cereal production systems.
  • Providing technical assistance to 100 farmers for the use of the Digital Platform in assisting the composition of feeds to eliminate the loss of livestock by keeping them healthy and well nourished.

Grainothèque seeks to provide people with viable, healthy and nutritious food while bearing in mind the heavy responsibility of ensuring that the agricultural process is aware of COVID-19, in order to prevent the spread of the virus to vulnerable populations.

Create the post-COVID world. 

Help Daniel and his team develop their solution!

Grainothèque’s concrete needs facing Covid-19:

  • Digital expertise: to strengthen the skills of their developer in Data Analysis and coding to improve the versions of their platform; www.porcivoir.com by integrating digital payment.
  • Marketing and communications: to strengthen the skills of their Marketing and communication team in video production, digital communication in digital sales force to successfully develop an expansion strategy. Operationally, they need funding for media and non-media advertising campaigns (social, billboards and traditional media such as radio and television).
  • Legal expertise: to organize their start-up as a SARL company to prepare for venture capital financing and obtain a Bio Ecoser label.
  • Networking and connections: to engage supermarket players and large distribution companies for relay points.
  • Funding and Financing: to raise 380 000 USD to finance the scaling up of the company under 3 pillars: 1. the reinforcement of the precision production of organic pork under a collective label (see 2 000 tonnes per year to reduce importation of high-risk pork in the territory), 2. the deployment of the www.porcivoir.com platform with the opening of 20 relay points across the country, 3. the financing of a logistics fleet for delivery and supply.
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