Dimitra Incorporated’s involvement in the Honduran market, particularly in the coffee sector, has significantly impacted production, quality, and sustainability. Dimitra has successfully implemented its Connected Coffee Platform in Honduras by focusing on producer training. The platform provides innovative tools to optimize efficiency and increase yields in plantations.

Following suit, pioneering cooperatives are actively implementing the training provided by Dimitra. By adopting this technology, the companies highlight their crucial role in driving sustainability, quality, and efficiency in Honduras’ coffee industry.

Empowering communities with tech tools

As the Honduran coffee market is the fifth-largest global producer. And a leader in Central America, coffee traceability is crucial for Honduran organizations.

Dimitra significantly contributes to the region’s economic development by empowering cooperatives and farmers with the necessary tools. This aligns with global demands for more responsible and sustainable agricultural practices. The collective effort represents a crucial step in the positive transformation of the Honduran coffee sector.

In January 2023, Dimitra and AHPROCAFE announced their initial partnership. Together, their goal was to provide traceability for the coffee grown in Honduras. Moreover, they planned on implementing Dimitra’s Connected Coffee Platform in as many cooperatives as possible.

Pedro Mendoza, president of AHPROCAFE, highlights, “Dimitra plays a crucial role as a strategic partner in the journey towards global digitization, driving technological transformation, and enhancing the productive, agro-industrial, and commercial competitiveness of coffee cooperatives worldwide.”

Growing transparency in a growing industry

Since Dimitra’s first partnership in Honduras, they have collaborated to understand the needs of Honduran coffee growers. Dimitra has strengthened its mutual commitment through strategic meetings, collaborative events, and essential visits.

Today, Dimitra is working with two additional Honduran coffee cooperatives.

Cooperatives like COMISUYL, formed by small producers from Subirana, Yoro, in Honduras, aim to expand their exports to various countries. They can do this while maintaining their organic and Fair Trade coffee certifications. Because the Connected Coffee Platform has been introduced.

Similarly, UNIOCASMO, a second-level organization whose 346 members represent the union of 17 Coffee Producer Associations, is implementing the platform. They aim to strengthen coffee production and marketing in the San Marcos region, Ocotepeque, in western Honduras. In fact, producers testify to the significant impact the project will have on their lives.

What’s more, the UNIOCASMO members recall that the platform will improve Honduran coffee traceability and quality and ensure compliance with the European Union regulations related to deforestation in imported products.

“The collaboration between Dimitra and cooperatives is seen as a fundamental step to ensure that Honduran products meet the requirements of sustainable production and continue to be marketed in the European Union,” comments Calvin Funez, Dimitra’s partner in Honduras.

Ensuring sustainable production with the EUDR

The technology that Dimitra provides farmers couldn’t have come at a better time.

It enhances coffee traceability and value and helps cooperatives and associations tackle the challenges posed by the new European Union regulation (EUDR).

Farmers worldwide are adjusting their farming practices to adhere to these new changes. Not to mention, farmers have to substantiate their farming practices to allow for produce export. If they don’t, the importer will face fines of up to four percent of their annual EU turnover.

As a result, this regulation demands that local companies ensure sustainable production of their products, combating deforestation related to soy, timber, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, beef, and rubber.

Dimitra’s Deforestation Compliance Module

Evidently, Dimitra is offering the Honduran coffee cooperatives that they are working with the Deforestation Certification Module as an upgrade to its Connected Farmer platform. This makes the deforestation evaluation accessible to combat the climate crisis. The deforestation module allows producers and traders to prove their goods are unrelated to deforestation and helps regulatory authorities confirm compliance.

Mauro Rodríguez, President of the Board of Directors of COMISUYL, states, “AHPROCAFE, in collaboration with Dimitra, aims to comply with forest preservation legislation, initially focusing on georeferencing to ensure that coffee comes from non-deforested areas. The collaboration intends to expand to manage traceability and inventories, replacing paper records with a digital approach. The Dimitra application is seen as a tool to meet the requirements of the new legislation, offering visibility, compliance reports, and facilitating agile and effective decision-making on production and agricultural issues.”

Promoting traceability, sustainability, and quality

In collaboration with cooperatives and associations like COMISUYL and UNIOCASMO, Dimitra is training producers to trace every bean, elevating the quality of Honduran coffee in the global market. Furthermore, using Dimitra’s platform, coffee growers have visibility, compliance reports, and accurate information about the origin of their coffee.

Dimitra is helping cooperatives adapt to these new regulations, using its platform to provide visibility, compliance reports, and accurate information about the product’s origin. Nonetheless, this partnership aims to elevate the Honduran coffee industry to a new level, promoting traceability, sustainability, and quality internationally.

Using Dimitra’s platform, coffee growers have visibility, compliance reports, and accurate information about the coffee’s origin.

Gerson Solorzano, UNIOCASMO Certification Technician, says, “UNIOCASMO, despite being a new enterprise, faces the challenge of complying with the new European Union legislation. To achieve this, it seeks to use a reliable tool like Dimitra to provide accurate information, meet information requirements and risk assessments, and carry out due diligence. In recent years, we have collaborated with municipal authorities and producers to improve the biodiversity of coffee plantations by incorporating timber trees and implementing reforestation projects in various communities.”

Dimitra SUT – Dimitra Incorporated, a leading blockchain-based enterprise systems for AgTech driving productive, intelligent, and inclusive farming, is working with The Saudi Sustainable Union Trading Company (SUT). SUT is an organization that provides innovative solutions to help develop agricultural businesses. Together, they are establishing a development program for Jazan Coffee producers.

Dimitra and SUT aim to promote the coffee industry within the country. By assisting in developing coffee farms in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia, these farmers can further capitalize on their unique coffee heritage in Saudi Arabia.

Traditional Farming Methods

The tradition of cultivating coffee in the Jazan region has been passed down from generation to generation. Primarily, this has been achieved through non-formal educational methods such as practical training and observation. This type of knowledge transfer is common in agricultural practices. Skills and techniques are learned through hands-on experience and shared within communities. In Jazan, there are approximately 700 coffee farms. However, with dramatically altered natural cycles and weather patterns resulting from the growing climate crisis, farmers face many new problems regarding water and working resources.

Dimitra’s Connected Coffee Platform

The Jazan Coffee Cooperative (CCJ), a leading agricultural development institution and national expertise house in the agriculture sector, is using Dimitra’s Connected Coffee platform. The tailored platform provides straightforward, actionable insights to increase the quality and quantity of coffee yields, all sustainably and with longevity in mind. The platform also offers real-time track and trace capability throughout all levels of the supply chain, ensuring farmers’ produce is transparent and credible.

In addition to the advanced technology, the local SUT Agronomy team will provide support and training to the local farmers and workers in coffee cultivation. For example, the farmers will be receiving assistance on their techniques for planting, pruning, harvesting, and post-harvest processing. This ensures the production of premium-quality coffee beans. To summarize, Dimitra and SUT will help the farmers increase their yield and improve the overall quality of the coffee cherries.

Assisting 700 coffee farms

The project’s initial phase starts with 200 farms in 2023 and will reach 350 by the end of 2024. The project’s full scope is to implement the Dimitra Connected Coffee platform for 700 farms in 6 coffee provinces in the Jazan region that cultivate Arabica and Khawlani coffee beans.

Specifically, Dimitra’s Connected Coffee platform will help the farmers establish quality control measures. It will also assist with monitoring and maintaining the quality of coffee produced. Moreover, it will also encourage farmers to adhere to international quality standards. The app will also motivate farmers to consider obtaining certifications such as organic to enhance marketability.

Mr. Gibran Farhan Al-Maliki, pictured above, is one of the leading coffee growers in Jazan and a professional coffee agronomist. Mr. Gibran will join Dimitra with his son Ahmed Gibran Farhan Al-Maliki at the initial training phase. As many people call him, Uncle Gibran is one of the first in Jazan’s Al Dayer area to turn his love of coffee into a local business. Upon retiring from teaching in his remote mountaintop village of Al Qateel in 2007, he looked to revive his family’s farms at 1,500 meters (about 4,900 feet) above sea level.

Revolutionizing the coffee industry

Maged Elmontaser, Dimitra’s MENA regional Director, says, “The Jazan province is packed full of advantages. The six mountainous governorates have many investment opportunities, especially in agriculture and heritage sites. Exploring opportunities to integrate coffee farms into the Dimitra Connected Coffee platform will transform the coffee industry. In addition, it will revolutionize the history, cultivation, and brewing of Saudi Arabian coffee. They are leveraging knowledge exchange, access to markets, and improving the overall competitiveness of Saudi Arabian coffee”.

Today, Saudi Arabia continues to produce coffee and has been promoting its unique coffee culture and heritage. The country has been investing in modernizing its coffee industry, improving quality, and promoting its coffee brands to the international market. The initiative the region is showing to help its coffee farmers led to Dimitra and SUT working together.

Dimitra Incorporated, a leading blockchain-based enterprise system for AgTech driving productive, intelligent, and inclusive farming, announces the launch of the Connected Cacao App. The application improves agricultural efficiency, ensures transparency in the supply chain, and helps strengthen cacao cooperatives.

A revolution for cacao farmers

The Connected Cacao platform represents a revolution in cacao farming. It offers a significant increase in efficiency for agriculture operations. The application allows farmers to optimize each stage of the process, from cultivation, harvesting, fermentation, drying, storage, and marketing, reducing resource waste and increasing productivity.

Furthermore, the application offers complete transparency across the entire supply chain. Farmers can generate a traceable label through the application, allowing cooperatives and producers to tell the whole story behind cacao. This is important as today, more than ever, buyers want transparency with the products they are purchasing.

Also, as far as the farmer is concerned, prices constantly fluctuate. This has a significant impact on them as they can’t store the cacao for long periods and often need to sell it right away and cheaper than they expected to.

Traceability and digitizing information

By using the Connected Cacao platform, farmers can make sure they have more produce, higher quality, and more market access. In summary, offering traceability is helping the product enter the most demanding markets while adding value to the product.

With digitized information, cooperatives have an accurate view of the entire process. This allows a more precise diagnosis of the situation for each region and producer, helping the overall decision-making process.

One of the most notable effects of this technology is the reduction of disparities in profitability between producers. Connected Cacao aims to create a more equitable environment where all farmers have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their size or starting resources.

Cacao compliance with deforestation laws

Another challenge farmers face that the application considers is compliance with the new European standards regarding zero deforestation. In 2022, 141 countries signed a pact to eradicate deforestation by 2030. As one of the first to take serious action, the EU is implementing a law that effectively bans products originating from major crops linked to deforestation. Cocoa, which is the processed version of cacao, is one of the seven core commodities that must guarantee origin on a property that has not been deforested since December 2020.

What does this look like for farmers? Well, they must practice farming in more environmentally responsible ways. There’s no longer room for farms of any size to continue deforestation if they want to remain legally operational.

In addition to the functionalities the Connected Cacao application offers farmers, they will also have access to Dimitra’s Deforestation Compliance Module. When farmers sell their products to agriculture companies, they can use Dimitra’s platform to mark the geo-location of the origin farm at the time of harvest. This action will automatically produce a deforestation map to certify there is no deforestation before the shipments are prepared.

Tackling industry challenges with technology

Several organizations are already in the training phase and utilizing the Connected Cacao application as a tool. One of those organizations is REDMUCH, an organization in Honduras that, when translated to English, means “Network of Cocoa Woman Farmer and Chocolatiers of Honduras.” The organization currently consists of around 350 farmers, with the majority of them being female. As a whole, they work together to empower and support women in the agriculture industry.

The challenges the REDMUCH farmers face in the cocoa sector currently surround increasing productivity and international sales. An additional challenge includes the certification of organic and fair trade.

Dimitra is working with them to tackle these industry challenges with the help of its Connected Cacao platform.

The Connected Cacao app offers a more efficient, transparent, and sustainable approach to the cacao industry. This app is essential to a fairer and more environmentally conscious industry by optimizing farming operations, promoting cooperation, and empowering producers.

Dimitra Letter to the Community – Hi everyone, Jon here, CEO of Dimitra.

I am reaching out to you, our community members, to provide an update on some of our current activities. And to thank you for your loyalty and support since our launch on September 22, 2021, on Kucoin.

Over the past two years, the Dimitra team has been building an extensive digital toolset that allows us to evaluate. And rate farm performance, crop management practices, and the potential of the land that the farmer is working on. Beyond analysis, we provide track and trace and regulatory compliance tools to the extended agriculture and food supply chains. This toolset combines artificial intelligence, machine learning, satellite and drone analytics, and IoT devices with critical data stored on the blockchain and captured via an Android mobile interface. All of this data is then analyzed, automatically through our revolutionary technologies, to provide farmers with simple, actionable insights to improve their processes.

This toolset was designed with various stakeholders in the extended ag/food value chain in mind, such as farmers, traders, food processing companies, investment companies, and lenders.

The first — and arguably the most — important component to a farmer is an evaluation of the farmland and its compatibility with growing specific crops successfully. To help the farmer with this we have created the Dimitra Scorecard. We are also now making this web3 scoring system available to banks, lenders. And investment companies to aid them in evaluating their farming investment opportunities.

Dimitra Scorecard

Dimitra Scorecard, provides a primary scorecard to farmers and agricultural financial companies. Allowing all stakeholders to understand both the potential and the risks associated with the land. For example, a farm that does not receive sufficient rainfall must invest in irrigation to supplement water in the dry months.

In addition, the scorecard allows stakeholders to evaluate the level of investment needed to successfully grow their crop, while simultaneously collecting fundamental information to provide data-driven recommendations to farmers, helping them improve their farming operations throughout the year.

Land Suitability Scorecard

Our initial evaluation of each farm formulates a baseline score (excluding any improvements necessary to improve the land). This is done by analyzing details of the soil including pH, texture, organic carbon, and coarse fragments, in addition to slope, temperature ranges (min, average, max), precipitation, and artificial surface. We then calculate the impact of those variables on crop potential.

Farmer knowledge and potential

To ascertain education and experience levels, farmers complete comprehensive surveys. We also evaluate their previous loan performance.

Through our Dimitra Academy we produce educational materials to keep farmers abreast of the latest strategies to successfully grow, manage, and sell their crops. We have tests established to evaluate a farmer’s knowledge delivered in the crop specific materials.

Farming and land performance

Using our Connected Farmer application, we evaluate a farmer’s soil preparation, planting, soil management, irrigation, cropping, harvest, pest management, disease management, storage, and documentation practices to ensure that farms are set up and ready for the best possible success. Where possible, we provide recommendations for farmers to better improve these processes to ensure farmers have the best start possible.

We use IoT sensors such as moisture and nutrient sensors, product quality meters, and drones to assess overall quality on a farm.

Farmers also have access to our crop marketplace to enhance their opportunity to obtain the best possible prices for their produce.

Risk factors

We evaluate environmental trends, weather patterns, market conditions and more to make ongoing recommendations to mitigate risk. A farm’s ability to manage these risk factors can reduce losses and improve quality, essentially for a thriving business.

Financial Industry

The financial sector struggles to evaluate risks at a farm level and bases much of its loan decisions on previous financial success versus the potential of a farm to be successful. Often loans fail because a bank cannot access a strong agronomic analysis to support their decisions, or a farmer does not have sufficient data to make necessary decisions to manage risk.

The Farm Scorecard provides a valuable evaluation tool for financial institutions that are financing or investing in farming or agriculture.

Combining the Dimitra Farm Scorecard, Dimitra Connected Farmer, and Dimitra Marketplace with our export certification, deforestation certification, and carbon credit applications allows lenders to make better decisions when evaluating a farmer for a loan and maximizing the success of their lending portfolio. These tools also can be provided to the farmers taking out loans to maximize the success of the farmer.

Now that we have tested the Dimitra Scorecard, we are selling this toolkit to investors, lenders, and fintechs globally. We have recently signed up our first bank to use our tools with their lending customers. Preferred licensing agreements are provided to institutions paying fees in DMTR.

Application of Scorecards

Farmers in developing nations face many challenges in business, and many struggle to access capital for their farms. Financing the growth of their farm is a critical challenge.

Shifting part of their farm to fruit-bearing trees (where possible) and other high-margin crops is a game changer from a financial perspective, creating generational wealth as trees produce for decades.

Establishing perennial crops and trees can take multiple years, and managing soil nutrients, pests, and diseases can be resource-intensive and costly. Avocado trees, for example, take 3–5 years before they start producing and 8–10 years before they hit peak productivity.

As a result, farmers need to access financing to carry the cost of the initial seedling, fertilizer, planting costs, and annual maintenance. In East Africa that financing is not readily available to small farmers. Dimitra is working towards enabling farmers’ income potential, prospectively leading to improved living standards for them and their families.

Connected Finance

Dimitra is piloting the digitization of farming assets with NFTs. Our trial, which we have been running in Kenya, uniquely tracks each tree within the My Finance module in our Dimitra Connected Farmer App. Farmers enter data about soil and tree health and add photos to show progress. We supplement this data with drone and satellite data feeds to provide recommendations to farmers to maximize potential.

The digitization of these trees allows us to develop connected financing options for small farms.

We are now launching tools to finance trees, provide for maintenance costs, sensors, and the Dimitra Connected Farmer App to farming organizations globally. We will offer three NFT programs:

1. Dimitra NFT Program (November 2023)
2. Dimitra Crop Certificate Loan Program (to be discussed in a future letter)
3. Dimitra Investment Fund Program (to be discussed in a future letter)

Dimitra NFT Program

Our first release in this series of programs, the Dimitra NFT program, will go live on November 15th, 2023.

Digitizing trees, farms, livestock, and other farming assets allows us to support philanthropic opportunities with digital monitoring that will allow us to measure the success of the initiative. Philanthropic organizations globally invest billions in programs to support agriculture and food generation and are seeking options to help measure success and sustainability.

Dimitra is launching a web3 platform that allows organizations to develop a farming project, collect funds from donors, and access the Dimitra Connected Farmer Application and Dimitra Marketplace for their recipients. Donors will receive automated annual reports regarding the program’s successes. Sponsorship is accessible to all, and an individual can sponsor one tree or many. Transaction fees are to be paid in $DMTR with fiat onramps so donors can provide support with a credit card.

In collaboration with one of our latest ecosystem partners in Kenya, One Million Avocados (OMA), we are currently planting 10,000 avocado trees across 100 initial farms. We have also purchased soil sensors for OMA to provide additional data to the Connected Farmer Platform, enhancing this evaluation. The first 1,000 trees will be our pilot to test digitization. And sponsorship interest preceding the development and testing of our fintech tools for digitization of loans and investments. We are working with several projects which are corporately or government sponsored to enable their selling of loan programs. For these initial projects we are working as a consortium with in-country financial institutions, government and regulatory agencies. .

The ultimate goal with One Million Avocados is to plant 1 million trees across East Africa.

We are initially offering the Dimitra NFT Program through the Dimitra portal.

We are selling Series One of the Dimitra NFTs in the following multiples:

NFTs will be released in tranches of 1,000 and 100% of the proceeds of this investment will be provided to the farmer in the following goods and services:

1. Quality seedlings and the required fertilizer to plant them on their farm.
2. Labor to assist the farmer with tree planting.
3. Windbreak trees.
4. Agronomic support from OMA to maximize the chance of success.
5. Dimitra Connected Farmer application to track the tree lifecycle and provide reporting to their supporting NFT holders.
6. Access to the Dimitra Marketplace and additional Sales and Marketing support to secure top rates for the future avocados produced.
7. Track and Trace support to meet regulatory requirements for export, allowing farmers to export their avocados, presenting improved revenue.
8. Annual IoT soil testing and analysis with tree care recommendations.
9. IoT avocado quality testing to demonstrate product quality to buyers.
10. Assistance with applying for carbon credits based on the storage of carbon by the avocado trees and cover crops.
11. Annual education regarding agricultural best practices and automated recommendations from the Connected Farmer Platform.

The extended platform will be developed as a fully automated Web3 platform that provides many digital financial instruments supported by DMTR, enabled digitally by Dimitra’s platforms, and delivered by Ecosystem partners like OMA.

Farmers Provide:

1. Land for the planting of the seedlings.
2. Ongoing care for the tree throughout its life, including ongoing fertilizer, pest and disease management based on recommendations from the Dimitra platform.
3. Quarterly photos of the tree into the Dimitra platform for image analytics and transfer to the sponsor’s portal.
4. Access to the tree so that OMA can monitor its progress and provide recommendations via the notification tool in the Dimitra system.
5. Listing the crop availability on Dimitra Marketplace to enable Dimitra and OMA sales teams to achieve the top possible revenue for avocados.
6. Logging traceability requirements in the Dimitra platform to qualify for export regulations.

Donor Risks:

1. A percentage of trees die before they are productive.
2. Many factors, such as climate, weather, pests, disease, accidental causes, lack of nutrients, lack of water, and other risks, may prevent a tree from producing or achieving its potential revenue.
3. Donors will be able to monitor their tree(s) through the Dimitra portal, seeing the farm and photos of the trees.

Opportunity:

Mature and productive trees produce up to 400 kgs of avocados annually. The global avocado market size was valued at USD 14.85 billion in 2022. And is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3% from 2023 to 2030. Increasing focus on a healthy lifestyle and a growing number of buyers for healthy food products are impelling market growth. Moreover, increasing awareness about nutritional values, and rising import demand is expected to boost industry growth.

Conclusion

Dimitra believes this program contributes significantly to supporting many SDG goals. Changing the lives of farmers with limited access to capital and technology to plant high-yield, high-ROI trees, which they may not typically invest in due to the time and revenue.

The Dimitra NFT Program opens the door for people across the world to help support marginalized farmers through crypto. Many farmers may lack the basic finances to buy inputs to bring seedlings to maturity. This model removes the burdensome interest rates of traditional markets that put farmers in precarious financial positions. The Dimitra NFT program provides a more sustainable way for farmers to finance their operations and reach their seasonal goals.

Disclaimer

*THIS IS NOT AN OFFER TO BUY OR SELL ANY SECURITY. ALL INVESTMENTS INVOLVE RISK AND MAY RESULT IN PARTIAL OR TOTAL LOSS. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. ANY HISTORICAL RETURNS, EXPECTED RETURNS, OR PROBABILITY PROJECTIONS MAY NOT REFLECT ACTUAL FUTURE PERFORMANCE. PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THEIR INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES, RISKS, CHARGES, AND EXPENSES AND SHOULD CONSULT WITH A TAX, LEGAL, AND/OR FINANCIAL ADVISER BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION.

Dimitra UNJA – Dimitra Incorporated, a global Agtech company on a mission to make its technology available to farmers globally, is collaborating with the University of JAMBI (UNJA). UNJA is a public university located in Jambi City, Jambi, Indonesia. Together with the district government, they have built a traceability-based beef cattle development initiative with the community of oil palm farmers by utilizing blockchain.

Building resilience by diversifying farms – Dimitra UNJA

Consequently, the rejuvenation of palm oil plantations forces farmers to wait up to 2–3 years for their plantations to become productive again. For smallholder farmers, this means no income during the waiting time. Whereas farmers who own an average of 2 hectares of oil palm plantations can usually earn as little as 3 million rupiah (US$200) per week.

Dimitra’s Indonesia Sales Partner, Ricky Tanudibrata, recalls, “Jayus and Trimanto, two village heads in the oil palm plantation area, have encouraged their villagers to diversify their livelihoods by raising cattle. It becomes an additional source of income apart from the oil palm sector. To maximize their hopes as a beef cattle-producing village, the oil palm growers are fully aware that they need training to build capacity and skills in raising cattle. Jayus and Trimanto understand that raising cattle traditionally will not make much difference.”

Dimitra and UNJA combine their wealth of knowledge and expertise in community cattle farming. Together they are conducting an intensive training program to help farmers increase yield, reduce expenses, and mitigate risk. The program will be curated specifically for cattle farms that are integrated with oil palm plantations. Firstly, Dimitra will be supplying the technology. Secondly, UNJA will be conducting the local operation and research. They will work with two villages in Tanjung Jabung Barat regency, namely Purwodadi and Sungai Muluk villages.

The role of utilizing blockchain-based traceability technology

Equally important, by using blockchain traceability technology. Every stage in the beef cattle supply chain can be recorded accurately and transparently. The data generated through this platform can provide the following detailed information:

• The origin of the cow
• Health Condition
• Nutritional Information
• Breeding Practices
• Rearing Practices

Futhermore, with this information at hand, consumers have greater visibility about the products they are buying, including:

• The environmental sustainability
• Animal welfare
• Social responsibility of the farm

In addition, blockchain traceability technology also allows for faster and more efficient tracking of problems or unexpected events. Events such as disease outbreaks or food safety cases. What’s more, data recorded in real-time through this platform allows a fast and precise response. This minimizes the negative impacts that may occur in the beef cattle supply chain. Not only will working towards sustainable data-based cattle farming improve the welfare of oil palm smallholders, but it is also positive for the environment.

The role of utilizing blockchain-based traceability technology will be focused on the following:

1. Identification (Location mapping, Soil health, Animals, Plants, Owners)
2. Governance (Land, Animals, Cages, Health) and
3. Marketing (Distribution, Price/Time/Location, etc)

Beef production in Indonesia – Dimitra UNJA

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesia’s need for beef in 2022 is 736,000 tons (estimated to be more). Domestic beef production in 2022 is 450,000 tonnes. This means that domestic beef production can only meet around 60% of the total beef demand in Indonesia.

It is estimated that by 2050 in order to feed the world, raising food production by 70% will be the only way to keep up. In addition, Indonesia still imports 40% of its meat (beef and buffalo). Repairing and increasing the people’s cattle supply is something that needs to be done. For the time being, the collaboration between Dimitra and the University of JAMBI is focused on just that, enhancing the cattle industry in Indonesia and supporting diversified farming.

The University of JAMBI’s Deputy Rector and Professor, Rayandra Arsyad, says, “Through the collaboration between the Jambi University and Dimitra Inc, I hope that we can realize the integration of cattle farming with oil palm plantations based on information technology. The opportunity is real. We must be able to materialize it in an effort to improve the quality of life and welfare of smallholder cattle breeders in Jambi province.”

Dimitra PNG – Rumion Limited is a pig farming, feed crops and cattle grazing enterprise located in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with around 3,000 total acres of property and 500 acres of maize. Much like other farms in the area, Rumion Limited faces problems from pests.

The Fall Armyworm (FAW), in particular, presents unique challenges for maize farmers in the area. While they tend to be a manageable pest during the early growth stages, the larvae burrow into the whorl, a tightly wrapped and twisted group of corn leaves, as they mature — creating significant issues for pesticide distribution and effectiveness.

Rumion Limited understands the risks of FAW infestation all too well. Just a few years prior, these dangerous pests destroyed over 50% of their maize harvest.

Dimitra Incorporated is a global Agtech company focused on helping smallholder farmers, much like Rumion Limited, with technology-based solutions that leverage the latest advancements in mobile tech, machine learning, satellite and drone imagery, genomics and advanced farming research.

Alongside local and other technology partners, we worked closely with Rumion Limited to develop next-generation solutions to the FAW problem and methods that are easily adaptable for other farms.

Rumion Limited’s FAW Problem

The FAW is a moth pest noted for its taste for maize and its reputation for crop destruction. The term armyworm actually describes the large-scale infestation of crops, and for farmers across PNG, the FAW is a real nuisance — leading to reduced yields and other potential issues.

The FAW problem is not unique to PNG as it is causing damages in many regions around the world. For example, studies from Eastern Zimbabwe estimate the impact of FAW damage on maize yields at around 11.57%. Across PNG, the FAW finds the suitable tropical environment and fields of maize the perfect place to feast and grow.

Research shows that there is a limited window for effective FAW management.

Controlling FAWs at the sapling stage (10 to 15 days after seeding) is easy. But, after 35 days after seeding (DAS), the larvae enter the whorl of the crop, making it difficult to control as the larvae may not come in contact with the pesticide solution.

This presents a unique challenge for farmers. If FAW is not controlled at an early stage, they often lose the chance to manage the problem effectively.

Understanding Pesticide Use – Dimitra PNG

Understanding when the right time to spray, and the right pesticides to use, means on-the-ground analysis of crops — a task often unavailable for either practical or financial restrictions.

Other issues arise from the practice of manual spraying. Not only does manual spraying pose significant poisoning risks for operators, but spraying tall corn stalks is fairly ineffective as it fails to meet the demands for quick control over the FAW.

In order to cover the large surface area of the plant, farmers need to spray multiple times. This can lead to a few problems:

• Chemical overdose
• Damage to beneficial insects
• Water waste
• Pesticides may not even reach the insect

The challenges presented by the FAW are not unique to PNG but rather a problem wherever the pest calls home. Finding effective solutions that reduce resource use and promote sustainable practices is essential not only for managing FAW infestations but also for supporting Dimitra’s mission of empowering smallholder farmers in the area and globally.

Dimitra’s Solution

The economic threshold level (ETL) is the pest density at which farmers should consider management actions to prevent the population from reaching the economic injury level (EIL), the lowest population that will cause economic damage.

Unfortunately, not every farmer has access to the necessary tools to determine these essential levels of pest infestation — let alone the tools needed to control an infestation.

Dimitra, alongside tech partners like Mast Electrical and Telecommunication, UnCrewed Solutions and local partners Theodist, developed a FAW management system that leverages the power of drone and satellite imagery as well as comprehensive pest control software component that helps Rumion Limited better control and understand FAW infestations on their maize crops.

The innovative system works by pairing data coming from satellite imagery with local drone imagery to discover insights about infestation levels on crops. The imagery drones, in particular, easily assess FAW damage based on stages of symptoms:

• First Stage: small FAW caterpillar sightings. This includes seeing clear or window-like patches on leaves.
• Second Stage: larger FAW caterpillar sightings that usually result in irregular elongated holes. Once they enter the third instar, feeding causes ragged-edged holes.
• Third Stage: extensive leaf damage at this stage, with whorl feeding symptoms and fecal matter presence.
• Fourth Stage: larvae cause damage to the tassel and ear of the corn. Chemical control measures are not advisable at the later stages of corn growth when larvae are hiding inside the ear.

By gathering this data from the drone pilot and the farm, Rumion Limited can discover key insights into the health of crops on the ground and inform pest control practices.

Key Benefits of Drones

The drones themselves provide a few key benefits during the spraying process as well. For one, they can operate at night, when the FAW caterpillars tend to reveal themselves. They also atomize pesticides into micron-level droplets, allowing for even distribution and adhesion of chemicals to the surface of the plants at a higher coverage rate.

Additionally, the strong downdraft from the drone’s propellers assists in reducing liquid drift while increasing pesticide deposition — which is when both sides of the leaves and the central part of crops can be more precisely targeted.

This can increase the FAW’s exposure to chemicals and reduce the amount of pesticides needed, better conserving beneficial insects.

Drone operators work with strict rules. This includes avoiding spray drift to flowering crops, not spraying in the morning or the hottest part of the day and watching the weather to find the right and most effective time to spray.

Of course, drones are only part of the equation. Alongside drones are satellite imagery.

Using Satellite Data – Dimitra PNG

Dimitra uses five types of satellite indices during various stages of the crop season:

• Land surface water index (LSWI) monitors moisture levels.
• Real-edge chlorophyll vegetation index (RECI) monitors nutrient levels.
• Modified soil-adjusted vegetation Index (MSAVI) monitors crop health.
• Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used during the starting and harvesting months and is most suitable in mid-season months.
• Normalized real edge vegetation index (NDRE) measures crop greenness, detecting the yellowing of leaves during the mid and late-stage of the crop.

With satellite data, we look at the images and can determine what exactly is happening. It’s not that easy to paint the full picture of what’s going wrong with this data alone, though. You need an agronomist on the team and on the ground to get more information. This will allow farmers to understand the problem more holistically and find the right solution faster.

These tech-driven efforts, combined with advanced machine learning and data science methods, gives Rumion Limited the tools and insights they need to better understand their FAW problems in real time and discover effective solutions for control and management.

Data-Driven Results in Precision Agriculture

With these tech-based solutions in hand, Rumion Limited is better able to identify FAW threats early and accurately. Advanced satellite and drone imagery, combined with insights from the ground, paint a comprehensive picture of crop health across the property.

With the software arm of the Dimitra solution, the Connected Farmer App, Rumion Limited can take all this information and plug it into a detailed pesticide module. The application will help farmers on the ground assess the damage based on the symptom stages listed above to determine the correct method of spraying and identify which chemicals are appropriate for that particular stage of FAW infestation and maize growth.

This helps these farmers be more judicial with how they apply pesticides. Instead of continuously pumping pesticides hoping for results, which often presents a significant financial challenge, Rumion Limited can know exactly what and where to spray.

All this allows for better real-time decision-making to take place on the ground, leading to better yields, stronger crops and a healthier environment.

“Partnering with Dimitra will enable the first use of agricultural-specific drones in fighting the FAW infestation in PNG, with the aim to reduce human exposure to chemicals and increase application efficiency.” — David Duran, General Manager, Rumion Limited

Beyond PNG: The Dimitra Mission

Rumion Limited’s FAW problems required a comprehensive approach to tech integration that addressed the unique issues of their farm. While Dimitra’s solution encompasses a use-case-driven approach to this issue, the methods and practices can apply to virtually any agricultural problem.

Part of the issue with understanding the problems on the ground is that what causes damaged crops can vary. From heat damage to nutrient issues, Dimitra’s system can help farmers across the globe better understand the health of their crops and make better management decisions.

Moreover, the data science and machine learning arm of the Rumion Limited project can extend to other farms for other purposes.

While the models trained on maize crops are great at identifying FAW issues, other models can accomplish different goals. For example, drone and satellite imagery of a fruit farm alongside custom ML models can quickly identify the age of plants as well as the number of plants in a given area.

But it’s not just crops; it’s cattle too. These systems can easily do things like determine the weight and traits of cattle through imagery alone.

What Dimitra is developing in PNG for Rumion Limited is a single use-case but proof of concept that this type of Agtech-based system is broadly applicable to all kinds of unique agricultural issues.

To learn more about Dimitra, our mission and our suite of next-generation Agtech tools, like the Connected Farmer, Livestock Guru, Connected Coffee and Deforestation applications, be sure to connect with the team today.

Dimitra SASPRI-IPB – BELIZE CITY, BELIZE — Dimitra Incorporated, a global Agtech company on a mission to make its technology available to farmers globally, is teaming up with SASPRI-IPB, a social enterprise company linked to the Agriculture Institute Bogor (IPB) to promote the development of community-based cattle farming. This collaboration aims to build Indonesian cattle farmers’ raising capabilities and increase their data-based production and efficiency.

Closing the gap between the supply and demand of beef

To date, domestic production can only satisfy about 45% of the demand for beef in Indonesia. Moreover, most smallholder farmers keep breeding stock rather than fattening cattle. Farmers do this as they aim to have animals for extended periods to provide progeny to be sold and a continuum of stock to provide manure for cropping.

Dimitra and SASPRI are working to close the gap between the supply and demand of beef in Indonesia while supporting and empowering its farmers. In short, they plan to do this by implementing a community cattle farming development program based on a data-driven farming model. In addition, SASPRI will make sure its cattle business owners improve the quality of their breeding cattle with certifications through this program.

A breakdown of the technology – Dimitra SASPRI-IPB

After the farmers have gone through the nine months and ten days of training, in collaboration with SASPRI, Dimitra will implement the Connected Farmer livestock module for these trained cattle farmers. Moreover, the Dimitra platform is built on blockchain technology and incorporates mobile technology, machine learning, IoT devices, satellite and drone imagery, genomics, and advanced farming research.

More specifically, farmers will have access to the following functionalities:

• Data acquisition
• Process management
• Data analysis and artificial intelligence
• Report generation
• Operational control center
• Hardware integration like ear tags

“SASPRI believes that by using Dimitra, smallholder farmers can increase the transparency and quality of their products. With traceability, consumers can trace the origins of products. Consumers can also understand the cultivation methods used and appreciate the hard work of breeders. It also helps protect farmers from unfounded accusations against their products,” says Founder and Chairman of SASPRI, Professor Muladno. “Collaboration between the government, universities, the business world, and technology such as Dimitra is very important. It supports the growth and digital transformation of the agriculture, livestock, and plantation sectors. Using the right technology, smallholder farmers can gain the recognition they deserve and continue their role in providing high-quality products that consumers value.”

Using data-driven farming to grow a community – Dimitra SASPRI-IPB

There are a few things that these two organizations will keep in mind during this partnership. Firstly, exploring collaboration patterns in the data-based community cattle breeding program. Secondly, continuously initiating, assisting, monitoring, and evaluating the performance of this program.

The main focus of this program is cattle. However, there are opportunities for other farm animals, such as buffalo, sheep, and goats. Dimitra will add these animals to the program on a case-by-case basis.

Ultimately, SASPRI, in collaboration with Dimitra. Is working to recruit smallholder cattle breeders and improve their capabilities through education and certification. Following that, they plan to consolidate them into a cooperative. The goal is to increase competitiveness and improve the welfare of farmers. In fact, they are inviting local universities and governments to take advantage of their role in mobilizing breeders.

“Fortunately, the presence of technology like that developed by Dimitra is expected to bring positive changes. Through this technology, customers and consumers will now be able to obtain consolidated information on livestock numbers, livestock origin, quality, and health of livestock,” says Founder and Chairman of SASPRI, Professor Muladno. “By utilizing Dimitra’s technology, SASPRI’s efforts to build a collective business that aims to encourage the independence of farmers, ranchers, and area managers can be realized more quickly and more massively. SASPRI believes that this movement can strengthen the livestock sector as a whole through close cooperation and the use of the right technology. Even though it started on a small scale, this collective business has the potential to grow and reach a national scale.”

Overview from Ricky

Dimitra SASPRI-IPB – Dimitra’s Indonesian country partner, Ricky Tanudibrata, says, “SASPRI-IPB and SPR, which is its educational arm, are instrumental in educating livestock entrepreneurs to follow sustainable farming practices, meet market volume and quality needs and, finally, build their welfare.

For this reason, Dimitra is here, providing solutions that are easy to implement and can be followed up by farmers. The interactions between breeders and the Dimitra technology ecosystem recorded on the blockchain will benefit other stakeholders in the beef supply chain. Buyers and consumers know exactly what they buy/eat and enjoy the transparency provided by the system.

Not to mention, this data-driven openness is undeniable. In turn, it will give the independent cattle farming community more opportunities and the confidence to grow. It will increase the availability of beef and improve the beef’s great taste. In addition, the availability of meat from smallholder cattle farms, which is healthier for consumers, will also increase.

So the strategic collaboration between SASPRI-IPB and Dimitra is to build the capacity of smallholder cattle breeders to be able to provide beef from their cattle farms. This beef is raised based on excellent and sustainable animal husbandry practices. It comes from the farms using Dimitra’s Connected Farmer platform. It is healthier for consumers and, at the same time, for our environment.”

Dimitra AgTech Breakthrough – August 18, 2023 — Dimitra has been selected as “Blockchain-based AgTech Solution Of The Year” in the 4th annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global agricultural and food technology markets today.

Dimitra provides technology to farmers worldwide through the use of blockchain. The agricultural application system helps farmers use technology to increase productivity, improve yield, and reduce cost and risk.

Therefore, Dimitra’s blockchain-based, “Connected Farmer” platform integrates satellite, AI, Machine Learning, IoT and more, while providing farmers with actionable data to make intelligent decisions and improve operations. Examples include implementing blockchain technology to automate regulatory and shipping documents, national and international food certification documents. As well as compliance documents, supporting the regulations and governance of the agro industry.

For instance, Dimitra also makes use of blockchain technology for reliable coffee traceability and through the entire supply chain process. The Dimitra system streamlines the whole supply chain, with tracking mechanisms from farm. To buying station and warehouses, through global transactions. The blockchain works to replace manual recordkeeping along the supply chain. Traceability enables downstream quality controls, and the ability to backtrack to upstream origin.

Dimitra has also built a Deforestation Certificate solution for farmers, traders, importers and consumer packaged goods companies. To ensure every shipment is compliant and meets the regulatory requirements of the EU. The solution combines satellite analysis, GPS data, AI, blockchain, and mobile technology, allowing operators to detect deforestation, prove compliance, and reduce the risk of fraud.

Subheading

Such as, Farmers and cooperatives can consolidate the information on their farms with all data written to an enterprise grade blockchain. That provides transparency and takes advantage of blockchain’s security and immutable ledger.

“It all begins with the blockchain. We set out to develop the world’s first international agriculture network built on the blockchain. Thank you to AgTech Breakthrough for offering support to our mission of making advanced agtech available to small and medium-size farmers,” said Jon Trask, founder and CEO of Dimitra. “Agriculture feeds the global supply chain and we want to provide a solution from farm to plate. We will continue to expand on our platform’s capabilities. And deliver more value to farmers and, by extension, their communities, regions, and countries.”

The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most comprehensive analysis. And evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 1,750 nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.

“We’re thrilled to recognize Dimitra as ‘Blockchain-based AgTech Solution Of The Year.’ Supply chain automation using blockchain solutions, alone, is groundbreaking. Dimitra’s tech stack, which includes ML, AI, IoT, satellite, and drones, is having a worldwide impact on agriculture development,”. Said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director, AgTech Breakthrough. “Blockchain is crucial to agriculture because it levels the playing field for farmers while also aligning with the regional needs of farming. It allows farmers of all sizes to improve productivity with the power of data.”

About Dimitra

Dimitra has gained a global reputation as a leader in AgTech solutions. Partnering with national governments, farmer associations, NGOs, and development banks. By creating “Smart Farming” solutions, they have created actionable steps to enhance food security through sustainable agriculture while driving economic growth and development for local farmers and countries. It is part of their mission to “Think Local, Act Global,” a policy that brings unprecedented economic prosperity. To small and medium-sized farmers — which in turn spurs growth in local communities, cities, and nations.

By focusing on supporting smallholder farmers with innovative technological solutions Dimitra is addressing larger, seemingly impossible goals: ending world hunger, creating sustainable farming practices, fighting climate change, and growing national economies around the globe. With smallholder farmers representing nearly 570 million farms in the world and producing over 70% of the world’s produce. This bold step forward for Dimitra promises to have an impact on a global scale.

As they continue to grow our platform. Dimitra is being joined by some of the largest names in the AgTech space. They recently announced many new partnerships such as One Million Avocados, and Redmuch, allowing Dimitra to further develop the platform, increase user-adoption, and expand the utility of the Dimitra Ecosystem.

To learn more about the Dimitra Token as well as the Connected Farmer platform, visit www.dimitra.io.

About AgTech Breakthrough

Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural & food technologies, services, companies and products around the world. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, IoT and robotics, FoodTech, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.

Dimitra Redmuch – Dimitra Incorporated, a global agtech company on a mission to make its technology available to farmers globally, is working with REDMUCH, an organization in Honduras that, when translated to English, means “Network of Cocoa Woman Farmer and Chocolatiers of Honduras.” The organization currently consists of around 350 farmers, with the majority of them being female. As a whole, they work together to empower and support women in the agriculture industry.

To start with, Dimitra and REDMUCH are analyzing the cocoa industry needs to see where they can make a difference. In addition, the REDMUCH farmers will be using technologies available on Dimitra’s existing platforms, such as Connected Farmer and Connected Coffee. Based on the findings in this partnership, Dimitra is exploring the development of an official Connected Cocoa platform. The new platform will contain all of the necessary technological tools. These tools help cocoa farmers increase yields, mitigate risks, and reduce costs.

The challenges in the cocoa sector currently surround increasing productivity and international sales. An additional challenge includes the certification of organic and fair trade. This partnership is a proactive approach to tackling these industry challenges.

Women in the agricultural workforce

Currently, women make up approximately 45% of the workforce in agriculture around the world. But with gender pay gaps, local policy limitations, and insufficient access to the latest farming technologies, many women in agriculture today remain underpaid.

It is estimated that food production could increase by 30% if female farmers had equal access as males in this vital workforce. To put it another way, combating some of the challenges women face within the industry is one of the reasons this initiative has come to fruition. By helping women overcome the barriers they face and providing them with the tools needed for self-empowerment, we can make a thriving economy a reality.

REDMUCH is a remarkable network for several reasons. First, it is dedicated to the production and transformation of the cocoa industry. As a result, it contributes to increasing productivity and business potential. Just as important, it is a massive advocate for women. They have created a unique and supportive network for Honduran women. More specifically, enabling women who participate in the different links of the cocoa chain to communicate and exchange experiences.

With this in mind, REDMUCH, with the support of national and international organizations, seeks the organizational, social, and economic empowerment of women cocoa producers and processors. They are seeking this so that their participation in the cocoa value chain in Honduras is active, remarkable, and admirable.

What makes Honduras cocoa so special? – Dimitra Redmuch

The famous Honduran chocolate tastes like a mix of chocolate, cinnamon, and pinol. It is proudly derived from 100% Honduran crops, with cocoa being the primary ingredient. The unique chocolate is double certified, organic, fair trade, and made with high quality cocoa. In fact, Honduras, at the Central American level. Stands out for being the country that occupies second place in cocoa production.

Honduras cocoa doesn’t just provide the base for delicious chocolate, but it also provides a series of ecological benefits. Firstly, since the cocoa bean grows from an evergreen tree, planting more cocoa trees means reducing the impact of deforestation. Moreover, the trees transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, generating a healthy ecosystem and promoting biodiversity.

In addition to the ecological benefits, cocoa also benefits the community of Honduras.

The crop is linked to generating direct employment within the community, benefiting many people in the cocoa growing sector. According to the Honduras National Cocoa Chain Committee, there are more than 5,000 producing families. More than 20,000 jobs generated and more than 7,000 hectares planted in nine departments. Furthermore, in addition to cocoa benefiting the economy, it also has health benefits due to its high nutritional value, aesthetics, and cognitive abilities.

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Calvin Funez from Honduras Conecta, Dimitra’s Honduras Partner, says, “We are thrilled to announce this new stepping stone towards the sustainability of cocoa production in Honduras. I foresee a very fruitful partnership with REDMUCH and look forward to beginning our first project together.”

Ana Jency Dubón Macedo, President of REDMUCH, says, “My expectation is that this new technology will give us a great boost in the traceability management of our cocoa producing farms and the added value that we give to our raw material. The positive impact on the agricultural sector is increasing yields, mitigating risks, reducing costs, etc. This improves the quality of life of our producing families. And the positive environmental impact that having this platform brings. I really feel that this brings us a great opportunity and hope for us as REDMUCH from all the links in the cocoa chain.”