A post on my Facebook from several days ago: “We have super high-spec people joining AGRIBUDDY even if it means them resigning from a large enterprise with high payrolls, throwing all that away and joining us just because they want to change the world utilizing their skills. This isn’t only about AGRIBUDDY, but it is now a global trend. Until now, remuneration has been only about “money”, but I feel that it is now being transformed into a combination of “money to live a firm life” and invisible values such as “social significance and a sense of satisfaction”.

I put a lot of thought into this and about the new values that AGRIBUDDY can create in rural areas of developing countries, and about the current situation of people who live in rural villages.

The current state in developing countries such as Cambodia and India, or in Japan until about twenty years ago, and probably still the mainstream in the world, where “Money” is still the main axis of “Evaluating people”, this is still the common recognition from people around the world because it is a numerical value clear to any of us. If you earn 500,000 yen then you are better off than a person earning 200,000 yen, if your annual income exceeds ten million yen then you are even better off. Someone with assets of one hundred billion yen is recognized in this world higher than a person with one hundred million yen of assets. It is all based on how big the numbers are. We believe that such things as the world’s billionaire ranking on Forbes or the similar rankings we had in Japan before is the proof of judging people based on the “numerical value of money”.

People in such rankings, or people who are known to hold “huge numerical value” spend their money and wealth on “items that increase their value”, a man might spend his money on expensive watches or luxurious cars, and a woman may buy a branded handbag or jewelry. People with such purchase power are assumed to be able to “afford to buy such items” or have a “special status or connection to be able to get such items”, and their main aim is to show off such matters to a third party. The usability such as knowing the exact time (if we are talking about a watch) or being able to transport goods efficiently (if we are talking about bags) isn’t the main objective but an added value. So, they purchase items for self-branding (or to fulfill his or her desire for recognition) and they use “well known international brands” to do so.

Of course, there are many people in the world who can be evaluated easily without numerical values other than that of money. For example, baseball player Ichiro and Shogi player Yoshiharu Habu, hold a lifetime status that they reached during their career such as batting average rate or winning all seven major titles. Running 100m in nine seconds or winning the Wimbledon match is a similar title too. These people are evaluated with completely different figures from the numeric value of money, so it is unlikely that they will be evaluated as to how much revenue or how much assets they own.

And recently, with the evolution of technology, there are so many opportunities to receive evaluation from third parties in the world we live in. Viewers on YouTube or followers on Twitter are good examples. By visualizing what used to be invisible, such numbers are now considered “value of the person” assessed from a third party. And again, this figure does not necessarily need to be in the form of a ranking such as “No. xx out of seven billion people around the world”, just by visualizing that there are “x” people who are evaluating said person, that will satisfy their desire of recognition.

Recently, the younger generation have stopped consuming. They have also stopped trying to earn more money. I often hear that it is because they are satisfied being surrounded by “items” since the time they were born, but I think that the biggest reason is that they have more options and opportunities to be evaluated other than in the form of “money”. When we were young, there were only a few options for us to be evaluated by from third parties (especially when the relationship isn’t that deep). People in the general community who do not have special skills like Ichiro and Yoshiharu Habu had no other choice but go for the numeric value that money offered to satisfy their desire of recognition. However, nowadays, as the number of options for evaluations increases, it can be seen as old fashioned to follow the “premodern numerical value” and there is even a tendency to lower one’s evaluation by following such values, so younger people (and those who understand the current evaluation axis trends) consciously and unconsciously avoid making such an appeal.

So, in a society like Japan, “earning money” or having “a lot of money or assets” doesn’t work really well anymore and it has become difficult to obtain public evaluation or to satisfy their desire of recognition. It does not mean that the desire to satisfy their recognition has disappeared nor we have evolved into wonderful human beings that do not hold such selfish cravings.

But, in Cambodia and India where I live, the value of money is still an evaluation axis that determines the value of the people. China is also still the same. How much you earn or the larger the size of the numeric values is the only thing that matters and leads to increasing your value, so even if you do bad things, you still get a good rating from the public if you earn some money from it. That is why politicians and civil servants have no problem with waring expensive watches or driving a Rolls Royce. As for the desire to maximize the evaluation towards yourself remains the same whether you are Japanese, Cambodian or Indian. The only difference is the axis of value for evaluation, and the fact is that the options for evaluation is still minimal in such countries.

So, what about the small-scaled farmers that AGRIBUDDY targets who are living in remote areas? What kind of numeric values are they evaluated on?

Those farmers live on less than $2 a day (under the poverty line), or are people who fall under the world income level of x%… They are “People who are nearly worthless” or “people who are not worth the while to count” because we base our value on the numeric value of money. Moreover, they live in a society where “the size of the numerical value of money enhances the evaluation of the person”. Under these conditions, can people live with confidence in themselves? Do we have the right to blame them because they were tormented by overwhelming helplessness?

Can you tell them to do their best when “However hard you try, you will not reach the top half of the ranking, nor reach one hundredth of the value people think are worthwhile.”?

Before I launched AGRIBUDDY, I used to work on a plantation project and employed many local Cambodian workers, and this has always been swirling in the corner of my head. What can we do to increase the income of small-scaled farmers, what can we do to give them more choices that can be solved by money, these are the things we have been working on ever since we launched AGRIBUDDY, as long as they live in a society where the numeric value of money is the main evaluation axis, I have been bashed with the reality that is near impossible to help such farmers earn enough income to be “ranked worthwhile”. And yes, we do not include “to dramatically raise the evaluation from public and self-dignity that accompanies the raise of evaluation” in the task of “things we can solve with money”.

Of course, you all know that such small-scaled farmers are equally valuable. We know many great small-scaled farmers. We know people who do not have money but are respected and trusted by people surrounding them. So, how is it possible to evaluate such people correctly? Can’t we create new figures that become standards that anyone can understand? For example, in Dragon Ball, the fighting power was digitized and visualized through the scouter, can’t we digitize personal values such as “excellence as a person” or “kindness” or “spirit of service” and make it visible from everyone around us? What kind of world will it be if we can visualize such values?

AGRIBUDDY will continue to provide services that enables farmers to earn more money in order to improve their standard of living. And it is equally as important to create a totally different value that is not based on the numeric value of money, there could be people who are “earning money but are not really rated high in AGRIBUDDY’s economy” or there could be people who “do not make much money but are highly rated on AGRIBUDDY’S economy”. I want to create such a system that “people receive respect from others on an axis that is not money”. Hopefully the people who receive great reputation within the economy of AGRIBUDDY will start acting in order to receive “great reputation”, and in the end that will also result in earning more money. We will aim to build such a system and service in the future.

AGRIBUDDY is still a small and powerless startup, but we want to create a world where as many people can live with dignity. So, we need cooperation, support and advice from as many people as possible now and in the future. If you think you have something to offer, please do not hesitate to contact us from the below link, we are waiting for your support!