In under developed countries around the world, women make up an average of 45% of the agricultural workforce. Women-run farming operations provide essential income for families combating poverty and lend to the economic needs of developing communities.

In the coffee industry alone, female farmers contribute up to 70% of labor in leading regions. But the effects of gender inequality do not go un noticed. As economic barriers and safety risks in the field continue to hold female farmers back.

Inequality Challenges Faced by Women in the Coffee Industry

Coffee farming takes place in some of the least developed areas in the world. Where farmers lack access to modern resources to sustain growth. In these regions, women experience limited access to farm funding, land rights, agricultural tools, and technology that are essential to reaping adequate yields and profits each year.

The ownership and holding of land are two domains of an opportunity. Landowners are those who legally own the rights and documentation to control or transfer their land as needed.

However, only 18–50% of landowners in the world are women, and women account for only 15% of agricultural land holders globally despite making up so much farm labor.

Domestic requirements place further limitations on female farmers. Working mothers are often solely responsible for their households’ childcare, cooking, cleaning, and overall health. Meeting these demands results in fewer working hours compared to men, and limits their capacity to earn the estimated income goals required to live above poverty.

Between 20% to 30% of coffee plantations are staffed with female farm laborers, meaning out of the estimated 25 million coffee farmers in the world today, over 5 million are women. Still, because of gender inequality, limited small holder resources, and domestic commitments, these women produce 20% less than male coffee farmers.

The International Coffee Organization (ICO) predicts if these gender gaps could be mitigated with continued effort, there would be an extra 30 billion cups of coffee per year. In global agriculture as a whole, closing the gender gap would ultimately decrease world hunger.

Meet Fitria Syahroni

Fitria Syahroni (age 34) works along side her husband at the Solok Radjo buying station in Sumatra, Indonesia. In that role, she educates local farmers on how to plant and harvest red cherry, while her husband Endro works in fermentation. She is a second generation leader of a Solok Radjo coffee cooperative two and a half hours outside of Padang.

Fitria’s story is an inspiring one. Since 2016, she has been legally blind due to complications from diabetes. Despite her disability, she works hard every day to proactively communicate and improve the skills of farmers throughout the region.

She explains, “I can listen, I can touch, I can smell, and I can talk. My blindness does not limit my goals and my purpose of life. I even want to do more. I encourage people to continuously learn, to never be afraid of making mistakes.”

Her impact has grown beyond the immediate area, and she now mentors students from universities and schools in the important practices around farming coffee. She is also now part of the “Coffee Curriculum” initiative championed by Dimitra, helping liaise between leadership at local schools and supporting curriculum preparation and delivery. Fitria and Endro have been local champions of the Dimitra Connected Coffee platform, embracing how technology can help manage their soil, farming and processes and help them make better decisions regarding their end to end coffee process.

Fitria is one powerful example of how women are stepping into more leadership roles in the coffee industry. One key catalyst that is shrinking the gender gap is agriculture technology.

Accessible Agtech to Bridge the Gender Gap

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a list of 17 actions toward improving life for the planet and people everywhere. Two of the top five of these goals include mitigating world hunger (#2) and achieving gender equality (#5).

For female land laborers and small holder farms everywhere, reliable technology is the answer. These modern technologies help empower female farmers to over come obstacles faced in the field by enabling sustainable growth, smart farming practices, and maximized profit.

Governments and economies working with technological solutions help break down the barriers of the gender gap through:

• Land management
• Traceability
• Optimized crop planning
• Land documentation
• Informed trade and purchase
• Inventory control
• Operation cost management
• And more

Encouraging access to land holder data, farm funding opportunities, coffee cooperatives, and farm performance management are critical to the future of coffee farming. No matter the gender, location, or situation of a farmer. Every person working in agriculture deserves equal access to the tech and education required for growth.

As a leading agricultural technology company, Dimitra aims to fuel this mission by providing reachable solutions to global coffee farmers. Dimitra’s Connected Coffee Platform advances small holder farmer operations to improve farmer potential, productivity, and profit. Dimitra is partnering with local agencies and governments across the world to work towards these goals.

Dimitra embraces block chain technology and uses their $DMTR token as a catalyst for the Dimitra eco system allowing farmers to exchange their data for tokens which can be used to access advanced analytic reports, sensors, farming aids, drone or satellite services or convert tokens to currency. $DMTR token holders enable Dimitra’s various applications to be delivered to small holder farmers free of charge by sponsoring a project and staking their tokens.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that the milk consumption rate per capita has doubled in developing countries since the 1960s and continues to grow. Dairy is a high-demand global industry with intense labor requirements, but it also offers major economic benefits. Developing countries could benefit greatly from these economic benefits but often lack the advanced technology necessary at the farm to make data driven decisions. Dairy performance.

Quality, quantity and cost of livestock feed are a concern for large and smallholder farmers.

Appropriate protocols for both grain and pasture feeding require innovative nutrient sourcing, supervised dietary inventory, and careful genetic considerations for maintaining and producing healthy dairy cattle.

The production rate and quality of milk rely on strategies implemented during every stage of dairy production. Dietary requirements of cattle vary depending on age, health, breed, intended use, and season. But farmers without reliable systems for tracking find these variables difficult to manage.

Using the Dimitra Livestock Guru System, farmers around the world have access to a reliable platform that records farm-critical information such as feed management, grazing patterns, milk production, breeding and genetics, performance management, and more. Machine learning and artificial intelligence provide relevant insights to improve all aspects of dairy farming.

Feed Management

Feed is the primary cost of dairy agriculture in every country, followed by heifer raising and labor. Sufficient feeding patterns, access to clean drinking water, proper nutritional intake, and optimal digestibility are vital for dairy livestock to yield maximum production.

A comprehensive feed management system enables the formulation of rations according to the nutrient requirements of livestock and feeding strategies. It is a centralized place to monitor and analyze farm performance by using the reporting features, facilitating effective management of feed inventories.

The quality and quantity of nutrients in feed must be closely monitored to ensure optimal balance. A comprehensive feed management system allows farmers to supply, track, and diagnose the dietary needs of their livestock. During maintenance, milk production, and reproduction phases throughout the farm. Dairy performance.

Effective feed management includes:

• Nutritional intake guidelines for registered livestock
• Feed inventory control
• Ration formulation
• Feed cost management
• Optimal feed scheduling
• Feed effects on cow and herd health
• Production and performance analysis

Business benefits:

• Cost Monitoring Benefits
• Feed Inventory management
• Ration Formulation
• Feed Analytics
• Pasture Management with Grazing
• Feed traceability

Livestock must have adequate nutrient availability to reach optimal milk production. Many farmers use digital systems to record daily operations, feeding management, and the status of individual livestock. By expanding the current tracking methods from birth to maturity. Our Dimitra Livestock Guru provides farmers with every tool they need for livestock management.

Dimitra’s Livestock Guru feed management system design is based of the following three strategies:

Grazing Management of Dairy Livestock

Pastures are a vital resource to the livestock industry worldwide as they are a main source of feed for ruminant animals. To follow best practices that encourage healthy grazing and sustainable farming, farmers need reliable solutions that show them a 360-degree view of how their herd is grazing.

Dimitra Livestock Guru allows farmers to plan and make informed decisions that prevent overgrazing while following an effective management system to reach realistic production goals. This feed management IoT system lets farms reap the benefits of informative and efficient grazing:

• Overall animal welfare
• Increase in milk productivity
• Decrease in production costs
• Improving pasture ecosystems
• Raising forage crop yield
• Practicing sustainable pasture management

Grazing cows have been found to experience better health and quality of life than conventional indoor livestock. A three-year study in Switzerland found that cows who received processed feed in addition to a pasture-based diet had a decrease in milk quality. When farmers are informed of proper grazing management, they are given more opportunities to improve the quality of the milk. Dairy performance.

Improving Dairy Cattle Milk Productivity & Quality

Milk yield and quality are immediate and generational concerns. In addition to animal health, several factors affect milk quality, including genetics, nutritional provision, environmental stress, age, as well as seasonal conditions.

With superior feeding and grazing management, farms can reach peak milk production and quality. That’s not the end goal, though. Farmers can now maintain the vitality of dairy livestock so well that genetic recording can identify cattle with the greatest potential for breeding high-yield dairy cows.

At Dimitra, we believe farmers deserve the best no matter where they are. From dairy feed management and cattle record keeping to advanced genetic technology programs, our Livestock Guru System gives farmers access to data banks they need to achieve goals that help their business and the planet.

With the genetic analytics critical to prime livestock mate selection, only the best dairy cattle are chosen for reproduction, furthering the production of top-quality milk at higher volumes year after year. Animal health and activity monitoring for needed interventions and predicting disease and productivity analysis to help make informed decisions are tools that farmers can benefit from. This gives farmers opportunities to enter more competitive markets, where they can continue to improve the farming and dairy demands of the world in a way that’s profitable, healthy, and environmentally responsible.

Dimitra is featured as the cover story for American Dairymen’s October issue!

Quinoa in Bolivia – Our latest Case Study is out!

With Dimitra’s Connected Farmer Platform and other agriculture technology tools. Farmers in Bolivia can advance their understanding and practices to improve quinoa crops.

Take a look at our latest Case Study on Quinoa in Bolivia: Coordinated Efforts for Long-Term, Sustainable Solutions here: https://bit.ly/3fGZyal

Dimitra

Erasing uncertainty and building practices. A transformation is occurring among farmers in Bolivia, for quinoa and other high value crops. Most farmers in the region still engage in low tech processes. Pest attacks and soil degradation are jeopardizing profits from the high export value of quinoa. In 2021, the United States spent nearly $25 million Bolivian quinoa: countries throughout Europe, North America, China, and other regions spent an additional $55 million on Bolivian quinoa. Lack of widespread knowledge on scientific methods of cultivation and actionable solutions to disruption under mine Bolivian farmers ability to reliably profit from quinoa.

Bolivia’s Farmers need Education and Empowerment

Dimitra, the Government of the State of Oruro, SwissContact Bolivia, the Proinpa Foundation, and the Plagbol Foundation are all contributing to a new mission to help farmers in Bolivia. All five parties are providing resources and leadership to improve agriculture in the whole region. A significant task that will require ongoing education and training, tech based tools, implementation strategies, and results measurement.

BELIZE CITY, BELIZE — Dimitra Incorporated, a global Agtech company, is on a mission to make its Dimitra Connected Coffee platform the leading provider of digitization for coffee production in the developing world. As part of this journey, Dimitra is already working with Solok Radjo Cooperative, a Coffee Cooperative of 3,300 coffee farmers based in West Sumatra, Indonesia by connecting education and Indonesian coffee.

Solok Radjo and Dimitra have signed an agreement to develop a solution to accelerate the growth and profitability of Solok’s coffee to premium export markets. Demand for traceability and provenance in today’s coffee industry requires that the solution manages all areas of the extended supply chain — farming, harvesting, collection, processing, batching, and exporting.

In line with Dimitra’s drive to facilitate and educate smallholder farmers. We have signed an agreement with Andalas University, a public research university in Padang, West Sumatra. Andalas is one of the major public institutions of higher learning in Indonesia, and the oldest outside of Java.

Solok Radjo’s sustainability strategy

Solok Radjo’s sustainability strategy has seen them team up with Andalas University to develop an integrated Carbon Soil Assessment Program. To review the current soil health and monitor the ongoing regenerative practices with a digital platform. Dimitra is working with students, lecturers, and Professors to collaboratively digitize the user experience. And continually improve the platform to create an industry-leading service.

By leveraging the power of Dimitra’s ‘Connected Coffee’ application and dashboard. These are of soil test results collection, correlated satellite imagery, and plant and tree coverage in the Solok Rajo farms.

Dimitra brings a simple-to-use platform to this collaboration between the University, the farmers, and cooperative management. The technology’s powerful back-end Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial intelligence (AI) systems pull insights from tracked activities in the field. As well as soil sample traits, weather events, satellite imagery buying station statistics, and plantation yields.

Solok Radjo Cooperative is a progressive social farming enterprise using environmentally friendly farm practices to nurture the land under crop. The cooperative motivates farmers to optimize the yields of their land. In particular, farmers should be able to benefit from coffee farming while the cooperative processes and markets the coffee fruits. In addition, cattle are included in the ecosystem for human protein. Sold to domestic markets for diversified income, and the manure is used on the plantations to boost soil health. SR has 3300 farmers within the cooperative network and is looking to double its farmers in the next two years.

Quotes

Dimitra’s Indonesia Country Partner, Ricky Tanudibrata, said, “This project opens opportunities to students to experience coffee farming, to get involved in the coffee supply chain that is based on data. This is an eye opener for them about the future in farming, which for many reasons, has been demotivating. With this cooperation, they will understand that their capabilities are very much needed to build a sustainable coffee ecosystem. With the students’ collaboration, we can build a vibrant farming community that is based on data that gives everyone access to technology, to finance, to a market that is responsible and sustainable.”

‘Partnering with Dimitra is important for Solok Radjo to realize an integrated, data-based, sustainable coffee enterprise. We are greatly looking forward to working with Dimitra’s Connected Farmer platform to provide a more structured approach to our production and to allow us to meet the requirements of our export partners while helping the environment and ultimately the lives of our cooperative community,” said Head of Solok Radjo project, Alfadriansyah (Adi).

Coffee is one of the most widely-consumed beverages in the world today. Every minute, more than 2 million cups of coffee are enjoyed worldwide. And yet, it’s the 25 million smallholder farmers that account for over 80% of global coffee production, who operate on up to 2 to 5 hectares of land in regions along the equator.

Farming in rural locations with limited access to socioeconomic trends, coffee growers often receive about 2% of the revenue from every cup of coffee sold. According to a study by the World Economic Forum, for every standard $3.00 cup of coffee purchased, original farmers receive only $0.07. Nearly 75% of the cost goes to the retailer, with the remaining cost going back to the roasters, distributors, and exporters.

There are many social, economic, and environmental challenges coffee farmers face today, despite the world’s love for this caffeinated beverage. Read on to learn what the future of coffee farming looks like.

Economics of Coffee Farming

No matter where you live, your favorite cup of coffee wouldn’t be possible without the farmer — or the international coffee supply trade. Fortunately, smallholder farms have some opportunities to make more profit.

First, increasing the yield of coffee cherries will sell more on the market. Next, switching to higher-quality coffee varieties ensures a better profit margin, as there are five quality grades, and those ranking 0–1 can be sold at premium rates. Lastly, getting a coffee certification, such as organic or fair trade, as higher-paying buyers seek these out.

Many coffee farmers worldwide don’t have access to the resources to make these upgrades. And certification processes can vary from country to country.

Social Impacts Affect the Supply Chain

Unstable prices of coffee and a lack of access to basic technology puts farmers at risk of losing money. Farmers are affected by social issues such as poverty, crime, food insecurity, health complications, theft, and unfavorable working conditions. These are issues that directly impact the coffee supply chain, of which farmers are the least integrated aspect.

Some farmers benefit from local cooperatives: organized groups that share resources, training, and sales opportunities among collective farmers in the area. Co-ops help coffee growers access the necessary tools, technology, buyers, and education. These cooperatives also help coffee farmers with their distribution, financing, and crop planning.

Environmental Concerns of Global Coffee Demand

Coffee farming takes a toll on the environment, especially as farmers adapt growing and harvesting methods to suit volatile demands. Farming processes become unsustainable and continue to lend part to deforestation. For example, the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers threatens the local water supply due to contaminated runoff.

While coffee farming is a contributing factor to environmental impact, it also suffers from pressing issues such as climate change. When there are dry months during the expected wet season, coffee plantations suffer from delayed production and significant stress rushes farmers to outsource solutions.

Comprehensive Agtech: Empowering Coffee Farmers Worldwide

Smallholder coffee farmers are masters of cultivating coffee cherries year after year — many of them revered among generational family legacy. But overcoming the complexities of climate change, adjusting to unexpected market shifts, and optimizing their place in an inadequate supply chain is not an easy option for many coffee growers.

To give farmers the logistical support they need, one agricultural technology (Agtech) company developed affordable systems to help coffee farmers.

With Dimitra’s Connected Coffee Platform, coffee farmers from anywhere in the world can:

• Manage plantations and seedlings
• Digitally manage quality control of their soil, crops, harvest, and storage
• Access a broader network of buyers and sellers, empowering informed trade decisions
• Keep records of orders and transactions
• Manage sales reports and analytics

The Connected Coffee Platform enables coffee growers, processors, and traders to meet quality and reporting requirements while collecting critical data to improve their farming and processing operations. Farmers can seamlessly access all data essential to their operations with real-time traceability. This puts the power of choice and trust in the farmer’s hands, equipping them to increase production, mitigate risk, and reap greater profits.

To learn more about the Dimitra Connected Coffee Platform and other technology programs helping small-scale farmers thrive, visit www.dimitra.io.

https://dimitratech.medium.com/external-impacts-on-the-global-coffee-industry-6d60a34cbd87

50% crop loss and resorting to hand spraying options paint a bleak picture. In the 2019/2020 season, the Makham valley of Papua New Guinea was plagues by the fall armyworm. Seeing devasting losses of as much as 50% of maize crops. Traditional spray equipment, using a tractor and boom spray trailer. Was too small to get above the crop, leaving hand spraying as the only option. Hand spraying is not safe or healthy for the workers. And it results in inconsistent application. Smallholder farmers in Papua New Guinea need a large scale, effective solution to rule out a repeat of the maize disaster of 2019/20. Maize and Fall Armyworm

A Powerful Public, Private Partnership

An important public, private partnership has been formed between Rumion Limited, PHAMA Plus, Grow PN, and Dimitra, with the support of the New Zealand and Australian governments. Together, they are working toward a community based drone service model.

“The aim is for this engagement with precision agricultural technology to provide a lower cost of application, higher yield of crops, new technology job opportunities and providing PNG’s small holder farmers much needed access to new technologies.” said John Simango, Executive Director, Grow PNG.

Dimitra + Drones to the Rescue – Maize and Fall Armyworm

Each member in the public, private partnership has a role to play. Dimitra is offering drone pilot services, with pilots trained to fly the 30 L payload DJI T30 Ag Drones. Then upload data outputs to a central repository to support agronomists and the farm management staff of Rumion.

Dimitra is working with a leading AgTech data integration management company, Pairtree.co that provides a visualization platform. And dashboard that integrated into different Dimitra tools.

Dimitra’s Connected Coffee Platform provides end to end supply chain traceability, product quality management, agronomic performance management. Cherry and bean processing, and purchase order and warehouse management functionality. To all stake holders in the Global Coffee Value Chain. This enables growers and cooperatives to meet reporting requirements while collecting critical data to improve their farming and processing operations. Dimitra Connected Coffee differs from other solutions because it provides enterprise access control with specific role permissions for users such as grower, buying station, dry milling, warehouse, export and roaster. Dimitra Connected Coffee Youtube.

Functionality embedded in Dimitra Connected Farmer allows for data collection through the growing cycle. And is enabled with advice on best practices derived through agronomic research and supplemented with AI. Producing recommendations to increase yield, reduce cost and mitigate risk. Partnerships with several Universities and a large team of in house Agronomists can work with your agronomy team to deliver tuned advice to the farmers right on their mobile phone.

Each farm or cooperative also receives valuable satellite data reports and can take advantage of our drone imagery and spraying capabilities. Dimitra Connected Coffee provides for lot level traceability from the beginning of the process through delivery to the Roaster. This is supplemented with support for Organic, Fair Trade and other valuable certifications. We are currently testing methods to help farms and cooperatives measure carbon and submit for potential valuable Carbon Credits if supported in their regions. Our clients use Dimitra Connected Coffee to ensure that they are delivering the best quality. While with best practices and regulations allowing them to focus on the bigger picture and tell the story. Dimitra Connected Coffee Youtube.

Dimitra

Agriculture drones are slated to occupy a global market space of about $4.4 billion by the year 2024. The compounded annual growth rate in this sector is 30.2%.

Drones aren’t going anywhere. As interest around drones in agriculture is mounting, this tech represents major potential for farmers worldwide.

Drones have both agricultural and livestock applications, from monitoring to topographical analysis to herd management and much more.

The team at Dimitra assembled these lists to give you some insights into how drones work in agriculture, and how they are making an impact for farmers.

Drones + Agriculture: Capabilities & Benefits

Here is a list of the capabilities and benefits drones provide in agriculture:

• Cultivation — The growing itself is supported by autonomous spot weeding, spraying, and seeding. Drones are easier and cheaper than any other existing machine-based process.
• Data gathering — Farmers benefit from all kinds of information, much of which can be gathered by drones. Drones gather, store, and transmit data in code, in videos, in photos (advanced imaging), and even by transporting physical samples.
• Harvesting — Drones can alleviate manual processes — or those previously done by huge and expensive machines — during harvest with tasks like selecting, picking, and handling.
• Surveillance — An easy, autonomous vehicle that can navigate the skies but doesn’t require the investment of a prop plane or helicopter? That’s appealing to any farmer, especially cost-conscientious ones. Drone surveillance can give farmer’s a bird’s eye view of the land by field scouting, crop monitoring, intrusion detection, and more.
• Crop management tasks — Larger drones can be outfitted with additional tools and features that support pruning/thinning, mowing, and tilling/soil preparation.

Want to explore how the Dimitra Connected Farmer App uses data from sources like drones as a solution for agriculture globally? Watch this video.

Drones + Livestock Management

Drones are no less powerful a tool in livestock management, providing benefits for the following:

• Phenotyping — For livestock management, drones are useful in collecting data for genetics and breeding programs, both in terms of the animals themselves and in animal behavior data collection.
• Livestock tracking — Farmers can detect and reduce theft and enhance loss prevention through drone surveillance and tracking.
• Assistance and automations — Large-scale or small-scale livestock management can benefit from tech-enhanced assistance and automations.

Eager to see a purpose-built tool for livestock management? Check out the Dimitra Livestock Guru Platform.

Drones Give Farmers an Advantage

Many of the benefits drones provide to farmers mean less manual work and more insights into field or herd yield, productivity, health, etc.

There are also benefits to the operations of the farm. Drones are an affordable technology that could be instrumental in the growing issue of food insecurity. Drones can work 24/7, which makes them an appealing alternative to manual labor. They can operate in almost any weather condition and take over repetitious or hazardous tasks.

Many crops face a narrow harvest time window, which makes time of the essence for farmers who need that yield. Coffee is a good example.

Example: Drones and Coffee

Coffee is a fast-growing, high-revenue crop. Dynamics throughout the entire lifecycle of coffee impact its value in the market.

For farmers to take advantage of all of the possibilities that come with growing coffee, drones can be invaluable. Drones in flight can capture imagery of pests, diseases, nutrient or water issues, and other important crop-related issues. For farmers growing coffee, early alerts can be the difference between success or failure, and drones can provide this information as fast as possible for prevention measures to be taken.

Drones can count coffee trees and track water levels. They are useful for early detection of growing issues and surveying crops after weather events or changes. Some drone models can cover as much as 400 hectares of land in one flight.

The imagery or footage captured by drones is one key benefit. This is cheaper, easier, and faster than any manual effort, and minimizes pesticide exposure for farm workers.

Drones improve yield in coffee, enabling farmers to strategize around problems and create more predictability around this valuable crop.

Drone Data: Dimitra Platforms

The Dimitra Connected Farmer App and Livestock Guru Platform have awesome capabilities when it comes to drone data. Data-driven farming is the goal of using tech like drones. With bigger, more comprehensive, cleaner data, farmers can not just go day-to-day, but learn from the past, see problems before they escalate, and forecast into a better future.

With Dimitra’s agtech products, users get instant access to purpose-built platforms that can collect, store, aggregate, and generate reports on data from all types of sources, including drones. Visit www.dimitra.io to learn all about it.

Up next — Want to see drones in action? Check out Drone Solutions to fight Fall Armyworm in Papua New Guinea.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to join the AMA, and submit questions! We appreciate you taking the time to be involved, and we look forward to seeing you all in upcoming AMA’s!

Q: Jon, can you please provide a brief introduction about yourself and Dimitra for those that are new to the community?

A: Hi Cassandra, thank you and thank you everyone for attending today’s AMA.

My name is Jon Trask and I’m the CEO and founder of Dimitra and I appreciate everyone being here and supporting Dimitra. I’ve been involved in cryptography, blockchain, and building enterprise software for the last 30+ years. I love creating and building enterprise technology and I’m very passionate about Agriculture and helping farmers around the world.

Dimitra is a blockchain based Agtech platform that we’ve built and the goal is to provide real utility to smallholder farmers all over the world who need our technology the most as they do not have it. We do this by increasing their yields or outputs, reducing their expenses, and mitigating their risks all through our data driven approach and platform. Dimitra’s opportunity is simply massive with there being 570 million small farms around the world.

Our Connected Farmer application is a combination of mobile, satellites, sensors, drones, machine learning and AI, track and trace capabilities and more with blockchain. Think of our Connected Farmer platform as the OS for Agtech and our DMTR token as the driver of our ecosystem. We’re now up to 15 languages within the Connected Farmer platform and we’re in the process of adding Turkish, Mandarin, and Greek. We’ve built Version 1 of the Connected Farmer Platform and we’re doing updates almost weekly and we launched Version two in May 2022.

Here’s a short video about our Connected Farmer application:

Q: Can you please provide an update? What is new for Dimitra? Do you have any new announcements? Can you tell us about them?

A: Thanks Cassandra, great question and we have a lot to update!

First, it’s been an amazing first year since we launched our token pre-sale on June 15th, 2021 and raised $6.5 mil USD. Dimitra then launched to the world on Kucoin and Uniswap on September 22nd, 2021.

I think it’s important to highlight that we’re only a one year old company and about 125 team members now 🙂 We’ve built a lot in a short amount of time and we will continue to build and do great things.

Dimitra’s scope and vision is massive and with big ambitions and plans it takes time to be realized and implemented with nations who are our customers. However, we wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for you all and our community’s support.

Ok onto more accomplishments:

On Tuesday, Dimitra announced a capital investment / commitment with GEM Digital Ltd for $20 million USD. This is a huge vote of confidence in Dimitra and what we are doing and it’s also a big accomplishment considering the current bear market.

Dimitra announced a partnership with Ocean Protocol earlier this year and we’ll be selling anonymized agricultural data via the Ocean marketplace eventually. Our 1st bounty program with Ocean is live and underway.

Dimitra launched our Proof of Concept for our Coffee module on July 1st, and we go live on August 15th, 2022. Our first implementation starts August 18th with Solok Radjo in Indonesia, we also secured another contract in Latin America yesterday (announcement to come):

Here’s a great video about it — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCRapanymh0&t=3s

And this article: https://dimitratech.medium.com/coffee-traceability-in-the-supply-chain-881fa02acc3f

And our announcement with Solok Radjo in Indonesia:

https://dimitratech.medium.com/connecting-indonesian-coffee-to-the-world-e84cd0a1f4a7

The Dimitra Livestock Guru was launched in March 2022.

The Platform allows farmers to learn about which results each genetic cross will produce in advance. This information can include everything from the best financial benefit in the long term to which cross could result in calving complications or higher incidence of diseases. We are now adding feed management and dairy management to the platform over the next 2 quarters.

Dimitra has also announced the following new country deals since the start of 2022:

Agrosavia in Colombia:

Together we are developing the Colombian agricultural sectors sustainably through the digitization and centralization of genetic information for bovine herds in Colombia and we are applying Artificial Intelligence to help farmers make the best reproductive decisions for healthier, more productive, and profitable animals.

Form Holding Company in Saudi Arabia:

Form is deploying Dimitra’s Connected Farmer platform to utilize the advanced technologies to support their past, present, and future agriculture projects in compliance with the Saudi 2030 green initiative.

Fedeanco in Colombia and LATAM:

Dimitra and Fedeanco are working together to strengthen sheep and goat farming in Colombia and Latin America by assisting producers to make the best productive and reproductive decisions while increasing productivity and profitability in the sector.

Rumion in Papua New Guinea:

Dimitra is delivering precision drone spraying, spreading, and mapping services to fight invasive Fall Armyworm (FAW) in Papua New Guinea, Asia, and Northern Australia which hurts Maize productions.

Fundacion Proinpa in Bolivia:

Dimitra’s Connected Farmer Platform is being used to promote innovation and accelerate inclusion in the agricultural sector of Bolivia.

A bit more context for everyone

 — Dimitra had the goal of having organizations with ten million farms under contract by the end of Dec 2021 and we finished the year with eighteen million farms under contract so we are ahead of schedule. In 2022, we have organizations with over 20 million farms and we are working with 14 nations (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria).

Listed on five major international exchanges: https://dimitra.io/token/#markets

Launched our staking portal: https://portal.dimitra.io/login

Has one of the highest staking rates in crypto and this says a lot about our community and your belief in what we are doing — so just a quick thank you to you all.

Have been featured in many publications: https://dimitra.io/news/

Redone our website: https://dimitra.io/

Dimitra put out a video using Unreal Engine with our partners @ Howl Media — check it out:

Dimitra has built and started implementing our Dimitra Connected Farmer Platform, Dimitra Livestock Guru Platform, and our Dimitra Connected Coffee Platform globally.

Q: Wonderful! How is the 2022 roadmap coming along? Is there anything new you’re adding to it?

A: We’re very busy updating our Connected Farmer platform on a weekly basis, we’re in the final stages of launching the Dimitra Sponsorship Program, finalizing our Farmer Points Program, working on the Dimitra marketplace within the Connected Farmer platform and a lot more.

We will talk more about roadmap in a later question.

Q: How many farmers are in your ecosystem at this point?

A: Our customers are not individual farmers but governments, corporations and cooperatives. Most of the governments do not want or will not allow transparency for their numbers published to the world. Our initial rollouts started in May 2022 with about 100 users onboarded to the new version. Keep in mind that enterprise software rollouts on a scale like ours at a national level take twelve to twenty four months.

Three of our contracts are working in the middle of rollout plans with thousands of users over the next few months. Each has their own roll out plan based on the availability and growing seasons of the crops that they work on so it’s not a one size fits all approach.

Plus, It doesn’t make sense in most cases to start collecting data in the middle of a growing season, so about 30 days before planting we start training and onboarding.

Also each contract starts with smaller groups of farmers to build comfort with the app and infrastructure. For example with the Solok Radjo deal in Indonesia, we are starting with 300 core farms being coached by local agronomy students from a local University and one of our team members. This will roll out in three phases to onboard about 3500 farms over the next 12–18 months. The next roll-out phase starts after Indonesia Independence Day with our team arriving on the 18th of August.

Great! Thanks, Jon. Now it is time for some community questions.

Dimitra Community Questions

Q: How will Dimitra solve the usage of farmers in Africa/ India etc without internet etc, so how will they use the software of Dimitra?

A: Great question, we do not sell to individual farmers, we actually sell to governments, corporations and cooperatives.

Adoption of smartphones is growing rapidly and there is more smartphone penetration than people imagine. For example, In our user areas in India smartphone penetration is over 70%, in East Africa smartphone penetration is over 30%. However, when there is no internet or cell signal we also have an offline mode. Farmers can record their data and when they go to the market or the buying station with their produce they can connect to the internet or cell towers in the villages.

Initially we are onboarding farmers with their own smartphones. The cooperatives also provide tablets that can be shared at buying stations or processing centers. A farmer can use a shared device, login and load their data. Lastly, to support literacy challenges, the cooperatives and NGO’s have personnel to provide support.

Q: Will there be a clear roadmap in the near future for investors so every investor can follow and check. It gives some clarity and transparency.

A: We always provide as much detailed information as possible but we can’t share country deals or details of deals that are under NDA. Our linktree is the best source of information for everything related to Dimitra:

https://linktr.ee/dimitratech

Over the next 6 months we are releasing:

Connected Coffee — August 15th, 2022

Connected Coffee v2 Traceability — September 2022

My Livestock (microservice) — November 2022

Marketplace — October 2022

Crop reporting — September 2022

Advanced satellite with 15 additional reports to the existing 5 reports — September 2022

Farmer points program — October/November 2022

A farm activity scheduling and calendar tool — December 2022

Another 10 crops — a few monthly

Additional languages — Greek, Mandarin and Turkish

Livestock Guru — Dairy Management — January 2023

Livestock Guru — Feed management — October 2022

We are also starting on an iOS version of Connected Farmer for launch next year

Finalizing our Farmer Points Program designs this summer and starting development in fall 2022

Integrating with Polygon in the fall of 2022

Q: What is the idea/plan of Dimitra for more exposure? Marketing? Listing? Etc.

A: We are always in discussions regarding listings and have recently listed on Bittrex Global. And will not and cannot comment on further exchange listings as exchanges reserve absolute non-disclosure until the deal is complete.

Dimitra is looking to add more crypto-focused marketing resources and are seeking a crypto marketing specialist to join the team. We already work with two major crypto marketing organizations who will continue their work.

Q: Why has the tokenomics of the project changed, where 800 million tokens have gone, has the date of coin distribution changed? whether it is planned to expand from the use of other networks (SOL, BSC) , whether it is planned to list the token on other exchanges? What difficulties do you experience when implementing the application to the masses? How many specific users use your app and in which countries?

A:

• 800 million tokens have not yet been minted, while 200 million have been minted.
• 58 million of those are in an operating float, not yet distributed.
• We have almost 20 million sitting in market-making accounts at various exchanges for liquidity.
• 57 million tokens are currently staked
• 4.6 million of the presale tokens have been redeemed and are in investor accounts.
• DMAS has 30 million tokens and are distributing them as monthly staking rewards
• Our executives and employees are holding (HODL!) their tokens. To date employees and contract employees have only sold 66,000 dollars with the majority of those having been sold by contracted developers who have finished their work and left the company.
• Many of you have seen the announcement of our GEM deal. GEM is a great partner with 3.2 billion in current investments. We have placed 33 million tokens in a digital vault for their initial purchases. This will be updated soon on CMC and CG.
• The balance of the tokens are active on the market coming from trading, purchases after the presale, or compensation for our marketing activities.
• We are evaluating a project to develop part of our farmer points program on Polygon to reduce gas costs. We can comment further on this as the design develops. Our target timing for this initiative is the end of year.

Q: Will the Dimitra website feature its own APY calculator to show compounded interest yield 1Y, 3Y and 5Y out? If so, when?

A: Great idea! I’m going to add it to our list of things to do. However these things take time 🙂

Q: Since DIMITRA is well on its way to be heavily involved in Trade finance and CeFi, Does DIMITRA plan on becoming ISO 20022 compliant?

A: Interesting question. With current crypto market conditions we have delayed the launch of our farmer loan program.

We are working with potential coffee growers to further determine their needs from a trade finance loan program. They are quite interested in more trade finance options but we need to further study compliance in the coffee growing regions of the world. As these negotiations evolve we will continue to evaluate ISO 20022 compliance.

I used to sit on the ISO blockchain committee working on data related ISO programs, so I am a fan of many ISO programs.

Q: Can we get some usage metrics for the SaaS solution? – Dimitra Community

User data, token usage etc

Not asking for names obviously as understanding that would breach agreements, but some stats would be great.

How many companies onboarded, how many users etc actually using the software

A: Like a wheel, things will move faster and faster over time. The first implementations and building and testing the platform takes the longest amount of time and effort. We are going as fast as humanly possible and we are pushing our dev teams :).

Implementation schedules are based on our partners timeline. They want comfort, they need to work out training and communications and need to align with growing seasons.

Often the look for customizations which can add time to the schedule.

Our first three customers are private companies and we treat their info privately.

Q: Is there a roadmap for releasing the software in other countries?

A: There is not a public release roadmap for specific countries.

Our country deals each have specific start dates set through the contract planning process. Those dates are controlled by our customers and the amount of customization the deal requires of the software. The timelines generally are not ours to discuss unless the client gives us permission.

We are negotiating in many more countries and will likely close several more deals this year.

Our new Connected Coffee App already has 3 deals in negotiations. We are also getting significant interest in our satellite analysis.

Q: Hi there, i have a question about the tokenomics. If farmers use the tokens they have in their app to buy services (farmer point program), where do the tokens go? Are they getting locked into a treasure or does they enter back into circulation? Best regards

A: Simply put the tokens pay for the cost of the goods or service being purchased and the remainder remains as profit within the Dimitra Ecosystem.

For example, when a purchase for a sensor is made in the Dimitra marketplace, funds (or tokens) are sent to the OEM manufacturer, the sensor is sent to whomever bought it and the margin that we put on the transaction if its in DMTR will be sent to a wallet. We have costs associated with the marketplace, so those need to be handled first but over time that wallet accrues DMTR tokens and gets reinvested in products and services which can be sold.

This grows a perpetual cycle of token demand and profit. The profit remains within the ecosystem allowing for top line and bottom line growth.

Q: Is your platform suitable for Crypto beginners? Or is it only appealing to professional users?

A: Our platform is really for farmers, agronomists and the food chain.

Q: What are the benefits of holding your token as long term investment? Can you tell us about the motivation and benefits for investors to keep the your token in the long run?

A: We are a growing corporation. The agriculture and food space is one of the most lucrative in the world. Smallholder farmers are one of the fastest growing verticals adopting mobile phones.

Q: What’s your main focus right now, are you focused on the community or market/Exchange or the products?

A: This is a balance, we have various teams that focus on each of the above. We are growing and adding additional team members. Balancing community and customers alongside developing the tech are keys.

Q: Revenue is an important aspect for all projects to survive and maintain the project/company. How have you been able to build a complete project and what is the way to generate profit/revenue of the token? What is the income model?

A: We have many revenue streams:

– Licensing

– Product and service sales

– Satellite

– Data Sales

– Ag consulting

– Marketing

Q: Are you planning to promote your project in countries / regions where English is not good? Do you have a local community for them to better understand your project??This looks like an amazing project!

A: We have local salespeople in 70 countries and are promoting in 4 languages right now. We will continue to grow this. We’ve built the app in 15 languages and are adding 3 more before the end of summer.

Q: What is the revenue model? How it can be beneficial for both investors and for project itself?

A: Much of our revenue will be transacted in DMTR which will add profitable volume and create a growing ecosystem.

Q: Did you consider community feedback/requests during the creation of your product in order to expand on fresh ideas for your project? Many projects fail because the target audience and clients are not understood. So I’d like to know who your ideal consumer is for your product?

A: We spend a lot of time working with community and customers on their product needs. We have a large dev team and have many roadmap items.

**

Great! Thank you to everyone who submitted your questions, the winners of the community questions submitted earlier this week are: @THFC_Bear, @Whiteman5, @Jo, @Timmer83, @mikenit890. We will be reaching out to you to ensure you get your DMTR! Thank you everyone for joining today, it was great to see so many people actively participating on both Telegram and Twitter. We will take your questions into consideration for the next AMA, we hope to see you there!

At the latest count, there are about one billion head of cattle in the world. That number rose from 996 million in 2021. Beef is valuable in any market, with the average export value at a record-breaking $407.22 per head in 2021 (a 35% increase from 2020). Anti-Cattle Rustling.

Farmers in developing countries who seek to raise cattle face the constant issue of theft, also known as cattle rustling. Throughout Africa, on the border of India and Bangladesh, and in developing nations worldwide, cattle rustling costs lives and jobs. Thieves steal cattle on all scales, from a head here or there to massive, headline-making heists.

This dynamic isn’t entirely preventable, but tracking measures represent a major deterrent to thieves. If would-be cattle rustlers know that farmers can definitively prove ownership, they may be less likely to steal these animals. Cattle branding was used for this purpose but has inherent animal welfare issues and is actively discouraged or forbidden in some areas of the world.

In 2017, a study was conducted by researchers in Senegal and France to investigate the use of IoT to fight cattle rustling in Kenya. Major strides have been made in getting tech like this into the hands of farmers. But there are still millions of farmers who don’t have any technology and face the consequences of stolen cattle.

The Dimitra Livestock Guru System provides a game-changing tool. Giving farmers around the world an accurate, simple, secure way to monitor animals.

Advanced Cattle Tagging Methods To help with Anti-Cattle Rustling

Farmers may use NLIS ear tags, chips, or new technologies such as a rumen bolus or nose printing to keep track of cattle. Bolus pills can be given to calves and live in the animal’s body until its death. Bolus sensors can be used to monitor animal health, but also have uses for animal tracking.

The technology can enable remote tracking, sending a notification to the farmer in the event that the cow is outside a specified range. The farmer can respond to these alerts by manual surveillance or by sending out a drone for aerial surveillance. Most of these systems can operate on repeaters to increase range in areas with low or no cell coverage, or simply as a way to extend the range of the device to send notifications

In addition to alerting a farmer, experts at Dimitra are supporting moves by governments and regulatory bodies to scan this technology in the animals’ body to verify ownership. This could reduce trafficking and fast sales, as well as giving evidence in court for farmers pursuing legal recourse.

The key to effective monitoring is using technology to support your tagging systems, however simple or advanced they may be. In the Dimitra Livestock Guru, every animal is assigned an identification number and also records ID numbers in your existing livestock tagging systems/database.

Important information to include on each animal includes:

• Age
• Sire/dam/progeny
• Previous owners
• History
• Health incidents

There may be more data points that are relevant for farmers to track, at which point the question becomes what to do with all of the data.

That’s where Dimitra comes in. The Livestock Guru aggregates all of the relevant information, providing insight into each animal’s history and performance. In the event of a disruption, an issue at sale, theft, or other problem, the Livestock Guru becomes the source of truth against which animal identification can be verified. It’s a secure and reliable way to track animals throughout the entire supply chain.

What does it look like in the real world? Dimitra partners are already actively deploying our Livestock Guru Platform in their countries:

Read about NAGRC & DB deploying Dimitra’s Livestock Guru Platform in Uganda.

Traceability & Anti-Cattle Rustling With the Dimitra Livestock Guru System

The Dimitra Livestock Guru System solves the major issue of cattle rustling by transforming the way farmers can track their valuable livestock.

Here are some of the benefits gained through improved, tech-based processes for tagging, tracking, and tracing to monitor animal movement.

• Birth to market livestock traceability. This isn’t just an immediate payoff, but has long-term benefits as farmers start tracking patterns that can drive strategic decisions.
• Real time monitoring. Sensors can send app-based alerts, notifying farmers in real-time if animals leave a designated perimeter. Tagged animals can be monitored for any movement, whether they get through a break in the fence, an open gate, go missing, or are stolen.
• Proof for litigating cattle rustlers. Farmers need hard evidence to prosecute cattle rustlers. With the Dimitra Livestock Guru System, they may access numerous points of proof for livestock ownership. This provides the essential backing to defend their claims and recover losses.
• Emergency alerts for reduced response times. Disease outbreaks, natural disasters, food safety issues, and theft are all too common for farmers, and can have devastating impacts. Any unusual cattle behaviors or warning signs can trigger alerts in the Livestock Guru System, giving farmers lead time to respond proactively.

Accurate and secure tracking of livestock not only helps individual farmers but has ramifications along the whole supply chain. Our practical, multifunctional tool supports animal health, public health, food safety, supply chain visibility, and much more.

Dimitra: On Mission

Dimitra is a leading agriculture technology platform, providing innovative solutions to problems farmers face worldwide. We are on a mission, working every day to get better tools in the hands of every farmer, equipping them to implement resilient practices and future-proof the world’s food supply.

Our unique model leverages the power of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency (DMTR), IoT, AI, satellites, and every other cutting edge approach that has the potential to further our cause.

Dimitra Livestock Guru Platform