Led a team from IDEO.org in partnership with Distinct Horizon to help create a machine that enables India’s rice farmers to implement Urea Deep Placement as their primary form of fertilizing.
Distinct Horizon is an agricultural startup from India that is seeking to decrease the impact of urea fertilizer on the environment while simultaneously increasing crop yields and reducing fertilizer consumption.
Currently urea is hand broadcast into flooded rice paddies which causes it to release the greenhouse gas nitrogen as well as pollutes waterways downstream. By simply placing it 7-10 cm below the surface of the mud you prevent all of that while also making more nitrogen available to the plants roots.
Thanks to a grant designed to foster relationships between American and Indian companies, IDEO.org enlisted me to lead a design team for 3 weeks in Lucknow, Utter Pradesh.
By jumping straight to farmer interviews we were able to show the DH team that they needed to pivot and focus all their energy on a tractor based attachment as tractors are already the workshorse of Indian rice farming.
We headed straight into brainstorming with the new direction. Emphasis was placed on breaking the challenge down into smaller pieces and exploring them individually before trying to jump to a scale prototype.
We showed them how quick and dirty prototypes can teach you a lot while wasting very little time and helped them design a modular test bed that would allow them to try out many iterations of a given idea.
We took what we had learned with the DH team on the ground and created a design direction for them to work towards. We also provided them a deck and assets to use in their quest to secure further funding.