KISII UNIVERSITY

COURSE: APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE (YEAR 4 SEMESTER 1)

NAME: GROUP I-SOLVERS
MEMBERS:
1. MAINA NGATIA- IN14/00001/19 –Group leader
2. KELVIN BARASA - IN14/00029/19
3. PETER OWITI- IN14/00035/19
4. IAN KIPNGENO IN14/00014/19

UNIT: HUMAN COMPUTER INTERFACE

UNIT CODE: ACMP 446

FOOD SHORTAGE DOCUMENTATION

CHAPTER 1

PROBLEM STATEMENT
What’s more satisfactory than sleeping on a full stomach? So unfortunate that not everyone gets
this opportunity.
Global warming has brought a change in weather patterns. Weather patterns are no longer
predictable, for instance recently we experienced a longer cold season than we have been having.
Similarly, longer periods without rains have been experienced in most parts of our country. But
do we blame it all on change of weather patterns? Do you think our country produce enough
food to satisfy us all?
Food storage and management is a crucial practice that has escaped our blink of the eye. An
estimated 3.1 million people in the Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) suffer acute food supply. Let’s take
this case scenario where the government only bought 2 million bags of maize from our farmers,
way too far to settle the adverse effects of food shortage leaving the rest of the farmers maize
bags to rot, so sad the government went on importing more than 59.1 tons of maize.
Storage and management of food is a threat which should be acted upon before it’s too late.
JUSTIFICATION
In our case above, if the government had a criteria or knowledge on the amount of maize bags
needed to quench its population, would have enabled them to buy more maize bags from farmers
and also plan on future expansions on the quantity to buy
Good knowledge on the amount of food we consume and are needed and how to manage to
satisfy our population is one of the main key to solve our food shortage otherwise this will
remain a challenge.
 CHAPTER 2
PROBLEM DISCOVERY AND UNDERSTANDING
FIELD STUDY REPORT
Global hunger isn’t about lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough food to nourish every
child, woman and man on the planet. But nearly a third of all the food produced each year is
squandered or lost before it consumed, this amounts to a total of about 1.3 billion tons per year.

So sad that, that food would be sufficient to feed two billion people. That’s more than twice the number
of undernourished people across the globe.

I-Solvers did a field study around one of our markets around that is Daraja Mbili at Kisii Town and its
depot too. We interacted with different people ranging from mama mboga, retailers and wholesalers.
The methods used to carry out the field study were:

 Video recording
 Photography
 Observation
 Administering questionnaires

ROLE OF EACH GROUP MEMBER

1. Photography- IAN
2. VIDEO RECORDER- MAINA
3. FORMULATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE- BARASA
4. ADMINISTERING QUESTIONNAIRE- PETER

QUESTIONNAIRE

This was the main source of data which enabled us to engage with most people at a personal level

Some of the questions we used were:

1. How much quantity of food do you consume/ or your customers consume per day or
weekly?
2. Who is your food stock provider?
3. How do you manage and store your food?
4. Which challenges do you face in food storage management?
 5. What is the percentage of your food stock that goes into waste?

After a long interaction with different sellers and also retailers, we were able to identify transportation
means as also a challenge; almost a 1/8th of the food stock would get spoilt before reaching the market

From the above data we were able to recognize there was a big challenge in food storage. Most of the
sellers just wrapped the leftover stock and hoped to find it still okay the following day, or either stored it
in their homes where still they didn’t have a better storage system.

PHOTOS

Below is a link to access some of our photos that were taken during our field study.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10IZToCg6lSRtN0RHIGMzPPZBWE6jsFmD

VIDEO RECORDINGS

Below is a link of our video recording during our research

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-GZSyTiQwFvu2hlCE0SptQFSw1XpvDj-/view?usp=drivesdk

OBSERVATION

This was done through a visit to different food suppliers and we would compare their way of food stock
management and storage.

GENERAL FINDINGS

1. Poor food transportation means lead to food wastage

2. Poor food storage lead to at least a 1/3 rd loss of most food suppliers stock
3. Poor food management that is in displaying it to the buyers would also lead to food wastage.

CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED

1. Most of the sellers were busy with customers and would merely engage with us
2. Most of the people feared video recordings and voice recordings and the willing ones would ask
for favors in return making it a little harder for us.
3. Harsh and uncooperative people
 CHAPTER 3
IDEATION
BRAINSTORMING MEETING REPORT

INTRODUCTION
I-Solvers brainstorming meeting shares their perspectives on the research carried out on task 2
previously to help curb the issue of food shortage in the country.

ROLE PLAYED BY EACH MEMBER

1. KELVIN BARASA – Chaired the brainstorming meeting
2. MAINA NGATIA- compilation of report
3. PETER OWITI- sketch post-cards
4. IAN KIPNGENO- PHOTOGRAPHER

GENERAL FINDIINGS FROM PREVIOUS INTERVIEWING SESSIONS

4. Poor food transportation means lead to food wastage
5. Poor food storage leads to at least a 1/3rd loss of most food suppliers stock
6. Poor food management that is in displaying it to the buyers would also lead to food
wastage.
7. Poor marketing strategies

THEMES/HEADLINES
1. Access to capital
2. Problems with distribution
3. Poor storage facilities
4. Poor display methods
5. Unhygienic environment
6. A lot of congestion

INSIGHTS
After analyzing all our findings and through the extensive research we learnt that
1. Food sellers should be granted some incentives to facilitate food management
2. Modern storage methods should be employed
3. The government should expand their storage facilities
4. Food sellers should embrace food hygiene as this would reduce wastage
5. Food sellers should embrace modern technology to market their products
HOW MIGHT WE QUESTIONS
1. How might we incentivize food distributors to make food deliveries in low income
neighborhood
2. How might we locate our sellers to the buyers in the market to avoid congestion in the
market
3. How might we promote healthy food hygiene and avoid wastage
4. How might we improve our farm products display methods and attract more customers to
avoid products pilling up and ending up rotting
5. How might we expand our food stores
6. How might we promote a healthy competition in the market

IDEAS
1. Create a food management system
2. Create mass awareness on food storage
3. File complaints to the county government on the poor hygiene in the market
4. Propose modern and large food stores for the market
5. Provide incentives for food distributors

CONCLUSION
After a through critique of the different ideas suggested I-Solvers sort out developing a food
management system as the best idea in solving food shortage issue.
Below are some of its benefits that made it stand out:
1. Food distributors, sellers, buyers can locate each other easily reducing congestion in the
market
2. Farmers can market their produce online where there is a variety of customers
3. Food distributors from all over the country can link up together
4. Farmers can link up with all food distributors from all markets easily and this will ensure
smooth flow of food supply around the country
5. Link the government with the farmers directly
6. Simple and efficient
7. Cheap to implement
ATTACHED IS PHOTOS TAKEN DURING OUR BRAINSTORMING MEETING:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18I_pQ6zgKgg6KFjOkXFEiqOoRa00QdDP

Below is a link to access some of our photos that were taken during our field study.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10IZToCg6lSRtN0RHIGMzPPZBWE6jsFmD

CHAPTER 4
PROTOTYPING
Food loss occurs from farm up to and excluding retail, whilst food waste occurs at retail, food
service and household level. Causes range from poor handling, inadequate transport or storage,
lack of cold chain capacity, extreme weather conditions to cosmetic standards, and a lack of
planning and cooking skills among consumers.
I-Solvers came up with an idea to develop Smart Soko a marketing platform that aims to
minimize food shortage by trying to curb food wastage at the hot spots

SMART SOKO PROTOTYPE

Smart Soko aims to link up all food retailers together with the buyer and bridge the gap between
them to promote fast and efficient delivery in turn reducing food loss that occurs along the way.
A user first signs up where he/she inputs their details i.e. name, phone number, occupation-
(farmer, transporter, retailer), general buyer where they are exposed to a large variety of food
stocks from the farm or the market directly. The user is able to-Sign up to Smart Soko

Food stock section- the user can search for all categories of food, check their prices, buy them
and also display their stock for sale.

In the storage section the user checks for:

1. Space available
2. Space booking and prices
The users are able to book and secure storage spaces for their food stocks in situations where
they don’t have the best storage requirements or limited space. Smart Soko also offers advices on
the best methods for food storage.

Transportation section – here, the user can secure for transportation of his food stock to the
market, or to his client.
The user first signs up to Smart Soko

Challenges experienced during prototyping

1. Lack of a visual design
2. Balance of design and client preferences
3. Some functionalities were difficult to implement
Assumptions

1. All users are computer literate

2. All users are internet accessible
Roles of each members
1. MAINA NGATIA- IN14/00001/19 –briefed the prototype in the screen recording
2. KELVIN BARASA - IN14/00029/19-compiled report
3. PETER OWITI- IN14/00035/19- photographer
4. IAN KIPNGENO IN14/00014/19- Sketched the prototyping design

PHOTOS LINK
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CkWAyan6IO9Bp6Ee2wyDYQD8kX4oS_Sk

VIDEOS LINK
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DaQtiSFrGE6sikknp7qnXzftjkMXK6xd/view?usp=drivesdk
BELOW ARE SOME PICS OF THE PROTOTYPE IN PROGRESS DEVELOPED USING
FIGMA
 CHAPTER 5
FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK REPORT
I-Solvers conducted a feedback report on the Smart Soko prototype which is intended to help
curb food shortage.
We were able to establish that the prototype was highly appreciated by the users and below are
some of the things that they suggested we should include to make it more effective:
1. We add a functionality to choose a user’s convenient language- this was due to a fact
that most of our users had different levels of education and this would promote basic
understanding.
2. We use block chain as a method for payment to enhance security and trust within
customers especially for online services
3. We add a functionality that allows a user to set his/her own theme.
4. There was also a request by one of the users to expound our services to not only being
accessed using a computer or a smart phone but also to USSD code to bring on board
other users with no access to such technology.

We conducted an interview to a few of our intended users and below is a bar graph of the
findings:

Roles of each members

5. MAINA NGATIA- IN14/00001/19 – compiled report
6. KELVIN BARASA - IN14/00029/19-briefed Smart Soko prototype to the usersN
7. PETER OWITI- IN14/00035/19- photographer
8. IAN KIPNGENO IN14/00014/19- interviewer
A BAR GRAPH ON THE FEEDBACK FINDING

SMART SOKO FEEDBACK REPORT

120

100

80

60

40

20

USERS
0
1st user 2nd user 3rd user

Effeciency Effectiveness Safety utility

PHOTOS LINK
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CkWAyan6lO9Bp6Ee2wyDYQD8kX4oS_Sk