Improved sustainability in agriculture will come thanks to blockchain technology

The agricultural industry went through a major metamorphosis during the Industrial Revolution, and the stage may now be set for another ground-breaking evolutionary stage. With the rise of blockchain technology, the farming and agriculture sectors are witnessing a lot of innovation and improvements.

According to the founders of AgTech company Dimitra, the possibilities for the agricultural sector to benefit from blockchain-based technology are endless. Find out more about the future of AgTech in the latest Cointelegraph interview below.

Agriculture and technology merge

Q: Is the use of blockchain technology becoming more widespread in the agricultural industry? What are the main challenges for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses in incorporating this technology?

The adoption of blockchain technology is growing within the AgTech sector; The proliferation of mobile devices has made farming applications available to farmers globally. In the past in developing countries, few farmers had laptops or computers. The penetration of mobile devices in rural areas lagged behind in developing countries.

Early applications were basic and did not work well offline, which is a necessity in agriculture. They also only offered a few features that required farmers to purchase multiple applications, which was a significant deterrent.

Initially, mobile-based systems were deployed in North America and Europe. Farmers in developing countries have struggled with expensive Agtech applications and their licensing costs.

Q: What is AgFi? What are the key aspects of this emerging area and how can AgFi help farmers?

AgFi digitizes the farming value chain from crop to end consumer and combines agronomic sciences, environmental sciences, blockchain, remote sensing, IoT sensing and machine learning with AI algorithms.

AgFi helps farmers make data-driven decisions and connects their farming operations to their financing and insurance activities, providing them with a complete enterprise-based system.

Q: Both crypto and the agriculture industry have been blamed for being dangerous to the environment. Is there a way to compensate for the negative effects by combining the strengths of both these industries?

Historically, farming has focused on productivity without consideration of environmental effects. In the past decade, Ag sciences have improved and developed new techniques to make agriculture sustainable. Converting the world’s peasants requires training. Blockchain-based systems can help measure carbon performance and advise farmers on techniques that optimize their carbon performance while maintaining productivity.

Dimitra believes that educating farmers via our platform is the key to solving these problems. We reward them with points and DMTR tokens for following best practices, helping the planet and the farmer (by monetizing their data) at the same time.

AgTech is both for farmers and investors

Q: What is the other side of the coin, how can blockchain technology help investors enter the farming and agriculture industry?

It is a perfect convergence of demand, growth and regulatory pressure that will drive blockchain-based adoption in agriculture. Investors must consider these market factors as well as perform specific research on the companies operating in the area. The AgTech and AgFi sectors are ripe for innovation, with digitization growth rampant on a global scale.

Agriculture itself is a $12.5 trillion industry growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.1%. The food sector is an $8.77 trillion industry and is predicted to reach $11 trillion by 2027.

Q: What is Dimitra’s target audience? Are you looking to help farmers or investors, or does your company offer solutions for both?

Dimitra’s target group is farmers and investors.

Investors looking to support the global food and agriculture industry while impacting the environment, global poverty and the opportunity to benefit from the volume, revenue and price growth of one of the world’s largest industry verticals.

Farmers who want access to digital analysis of their farm to help make better decisions; access to capital for inputs and trade finance; access to insurance designed for smallholder farmers to reduce weather, climate and pest risk.

Q: What is the DMTR token and how does it work to bring benefit to both farmers and investors?

The DMTR token is an ERC 20 token. Farmers can pay for the licenses of Dimitra Connected Farmer or Livestock Guru with DMTR tokens. Users of the platforms will be able to buy and sell goods within the Dimitra marketplace, and this is done with the DMTR token. Users can also stake their tokens via the DMTR portal. Farmers’ crops or livestock have the ability to be tracked and traced from seed through the entire supply chain.

Farmers download our application on their mobile phone, geofence their farms and then start communicating with the platform. When they communicate with the platform, they receive Dimitra points. So when they reach a certain level, they can jump from the DMTR points to DMTR tokens, other cryptos and local fiat currencies and buy goods like sensors on the DMTR market or sell their goods.

Other utility functions of Dimitra include data and analytics, input lending, trade finance, crop insurance, carbon credits, logistics, track and trace and token burn initiatives.

Q: What do you think the future holds for AgFi and the industry as a whole?

The possibilities for AgFi products are endless if approached correctly. It may be the largest underserved industry segment in the world and in the blockchain world. There are new funding opportunities, new insurance opportunities, increasing demand for provenance, track and trace, the incredible demand for data, and increased focus on decarbonisation, freshwater conservation, soil biodiversity, soil loss, sustainable and precision agriculture, food waste reduction, food safety and security.

It is an exciting new opportunity that makes a real difference in many of the UN’s sustainability goals. Environment, world hunger, poverty and many more.