Hassam Raja
Faculty Advisor: Murlikrishna Viswanathan

Title: Using Crowdsourcing for Better Governance
in Agricultural Supply Chain

   
     
Short
Bio
 

Hassam Raja is currently studying Masters of Science in Information Technology Management from Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon Adelaide Campus. He earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. He has almost two years' experience as a software engineer in a technical consulting firm in Pakistan and is currently employed as a Web Engineer in a media company in Adelaide, Australia. One of his primary interests is to use technology and innovation to solve problems in underdeveloped communities.

     
Project Synopsis
 

Governments in developing nations sometimes do not have a real picture about the food situation in their countries. There is a lack of information in the supply chain about demand, supply and price variations in different regions. There are intermediaries in the agricultural supply chain that exploit these vulnerabilities by distorting prices and creating artificial shortages. Farmers do not have adequate market information to get a fair price for their harvest. The purpose of this V-Unit is to measure the effectiveness of a system that leverages crowdsourcing to facilitate information flow to all the participants in the agricultural supply chain. Information collection from all participants would be done using SMS. Farmers can report their crop outputs using SMS. Retailers can report their stock requirements and consumers can report prices at which they bought those items in the market. Through interactive mapping government can get a real time picture of the food output, demand, supply and price variations in different regions and would also be able to bridge gaps in those regions.