We lived in MVF’s bamboo school while working on these concepts and conducting local research in a human centered manner. Each team focused on one small local community, all with similar economic struggles. The main problem being that their main traditional activity - rice farming - did not produce enough income. 

Solution Concept

After conducting multiple interviews in our community and immersing ourselves in their reality we realized that although crab farming was common in asia these communities didnt even know about it and their rice fields were suffering from it. 

They constantly found crabs in the fields which would eat the plant and lower their yeild, but harvesting these animal in the rice paddies instead we could introduce a new income producting activity for the rice paddie owners. 

Business structure

Ride Paddy owners would be able to cultivate and monitor the crabs and get them to a freezing station during soft shelling periods. MVF would help fund the initial costs, train them and monitor production. However, at least to start they would need a partner for national and international distribution. We envisioned building a team to help manage this under the name WeLink, with the long-term vision of integrating the farmers more into the process for them to learn other business skills for further growth. 

With the help of the local farmers we designed and built creel prototypes from local materials to test the posibility of cultivating Pu-Nar crabs in these particular rice fields. We monitored the crabs for soft shelling and once ready prepared them for recipe tasting. Although it was not a common thing to eat for them, the locals were happy and excited to continue. To do so we prepared a final business plan and deck and pitched for investment from YPO members. Although no funding was secured, the project idea was kept going by the MVF and YPO local members as part of the master program initiative projects.