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.”

Dimitra Cointelegraph East African Farmers – Small farmers in the developing world may be on the cusp of an agricultural breakthrough. With emerging technologies like satellite imagery, drones and machine learning boosting productivity. It’s becoming more viable than ever to sell their produce in places like Western Europe. 

There’s just one catch: avocado farmers in East Africa or coffee growers in Latin America.

Their harvest bounty can’t come at the expense of denuded forests or through the assistance of child labor.

This is where blockchain technology could play a significant role. 

Generating an immutable record – Dimitra Cointelegraph East African Farmers

“Blockchain creates a great solution with an immutable record, particularly [when] combined with mobile” and other emerging technologies, Jon Trask, CEO of Dimitra — an AgTech firm active in 18 countries, which has worked with government agencies in Brazil, India, Uganda and Nepal — told Cointelegraph.

On July 20, Dimitra and One Million Avocados (OMA) — a sustainability-focused tech group. announced a partnership to help Kenyan avocado farmers boost production and quality through cutting-edge emerging technologies, including blockchain.

Dimitra’s multitech platform, which also includes mobile technology, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things devices. Satellite imaging and genomics, will give small farmers “greater access to solutions to further promote sustainable farming practices. Primarily in pest and disease prevention and data reporting,” according to the press release.

Another key goal of the partnership is to help farmers in East Africa. “overcome traceability issues to ensure maximum value of produce and to align with international regulatory frameworks.”

It’s not just in Kenya or the African continent where this movement. Of agricultural goods from the Global South to the Global North is picking up, either. “We have the same situation in Indonesia, Brazil and a few other Latin American countries,” Trask told Cointelegraph. “When they [farmers] are exporting their produce, they can get more dollars per kilo.”

Heading 4 – Dimitra Cointelegraph East African Farmers

Documentation will be critical for would-be exporters, especially with Europe’s new deforestation regulation, which went into force in June. Though its main obligations won’t apply until yearend 2024. Explained Trask, adding: “When an avocado farmer in Kenya goes to export their produce. They need to create certain documentation to show the origin of the produce. It’s easy to create a fraudulent document.”

Enter blockchain, the traceability tool par excellence. “Blockchain-traced data is immutable and can serve as proof for farmers to get certifications or loans,” researcher SzuTung Chen, who recently completed a master’s thesis on coffee growing in Colombia, told Cointelegraph. “A blockchain company is working with carbon credit companies, for example. So that the farmers that are operating sustainable practices can have recorded data of their farming and get additional income.”

One of the biggest problems facing small farmers is information asymmetry, Chen explained. “Coffee brands and roasters capture the highest margin of the coffee price. Because they are closer to the end customers, and can leverage branding and marketing.”

Farmers, on the other hand, don’t know where their coffee goes after they sell it. The destination of their coffee or any coffee market trends. “which keeps them in a vulnerable situation in the supply chain,” she adds.

What blockchain can potentially do, she continued, is facilitate two-way transparency, so not only do stakeholders at the end of the supply chain know where the coffee comes from, but farmers also know what happens in the downstream supply chain.

More powerful than blockchain alone

Dimitra will use satellite imaging technology to help Kenyan farmers prove they aren’t ravaging woodlands to grow their avocados, but this technology can also be used to enhance productivity. By applying machine learning models to satellite imagery, Dimitra has developed algorithms that can pinpoint where more fertilizer is required or where irrigation needs to be stepped up, for example.

A multitech solution may generate synergies too. As Monica Singer, South African lead and senior strategy at ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph. “When you are able to create an ecosystem using mobile and Internet of Things devices and AI, where relevant. It will be a more powerful solution than the blockchain ledger on its own.”

Is this cross-disciplinary approach the wave of the future? “I believe that blockchain can’t do it on its own,” Trask said. “We need to combine technologies in order to provide the services that the agricultural industry needs.”

It may be different in the financial sphere, conceded Trask, who has spent the past six years working on blockchain-related projects — his supply chain-related experience goes back even further. DeFi use cases can often stand on their own, but agriculture is different. “When we combine those technologies — machine learning and visual imaging and drones with blockchain — we can get more bang for the buck.”

The firm has “trained” machine learning models to recognize what a tree looks like using satellite images. A “tree” must have a certain canopy, height, etc.

Heading 3

Dimitra says Kenyan farmers can double their productivity by applying emerging technologies available today. But how much of that gain derives from digital ledger technology per se?

“It does require a combination of technologies,” answered Trask, but one shouldn’t overlook blockchain’s importance. “We originally did a project in East Africa around cattle,” he said, adding:

Farmers discovered that they could “get 50% to 100% more per pound of beef than they would if they didn’t have a traceability [blockchain] system.”

Heading 2

If African avocado farmers can meet the European Union’s documentation requirements, “they can get 30%, 50%, maybe even a couple hundred percent more on export.” Further gains from AI-driven enhancements in areas like irrigation and fertilization could result in a further doubling of productivity, he suggested.

Others agree that blockchain technology can become a factor in its own right with regard to the continent’s agricultural sector. Particularly if its record-keeping capabilities are used for quality assurance, as Shadrack Kubyane. Co-founder of South’s Africa’s Coronet Blockchain and eFama App, told Cointelegraph.

The importance of tamper-proof agricultural records was driven home to Kubyane by the world’s worst-ever listeriosis outbreak. Which occurred in South Africa in January 2017 and had a death toll exceeding 200.

That case “continues to be contested in the courts to this day,” he said. The primary suspect remains a major food processing and distribution entity that, to this day, insists it was not the major source of the outbreak. “Had blockchain been in full force across that specific food chain, then the determinant factors and source of the outbreak would have been determined in two-and-a-half seconds or less, rather than waiting six-and-a-half years for a still-pending verdict.”

A “game changer” – Dimitra Cointelegraph East African Farmers

ConsenSys’s Singer is bullish about blockchain’s future use on the continent. “Supply chain technology with track-and-trace functionality using blockchain technology will be a game changer in Africa,” she told Cointelegraph. “We have a high penetration of mobile phones in the continent. We also know that blockchain technology is most useful when there are many intermediaries and when we need to have an audit trail of transactions involving many parties in a transparent manner.”

In Africa, the farmer is often the last to benefit from the sale of produce, “in particular when there is dependency on many intermediaries.” Among other virtues, blockchain tech also helps with “right-sizing intermediaries,” Singer added. Moreover, “We currently have very few sophisticated technologies for track-and-trace.”

Some of blockchain’s key attributes resemble those of traditional African bartering systems, like the one used in the small village where Kubyane grew up.

During the harvest season, crops could be traded for livestock in various quantities as needed. This made for some blockchain-like benefits, including traceability, as “people knew exactly where their food came from”; transparency, since “goods could be exchanged without intermediaries adding unnecessary markups”; and supply chain control, as “many farming families had control over their entire supply chain — however small scale — from seed banks to direct sales to consumers.”

A barter system has many limitations, of course, including a lack of scalability, and Kubyane is against turning back the clock on Africa’s modern food supply chain. But blockchain technology can help with many contemporary challenges, including “food traceability, post-harvest losses, lack of supply chain transparency, unfair trade practices, and monopolies that marginalize small and semi-commercial farmers,” he told Cointelegraph.

Patience is required

Dimitra Cointelegraph East African Farmers – Overall, it may take some time to move the African farming needle. “Certainly, it will take years,” said Trask. For instance, a farm cooperative may come in and sign a contract with Dimitra and say that “they’re going to onboard 30,000 farmers. We probably never get 100% adoption; we may only get 80%.”

Moreover, only 10% of system users may be “power users,” he continued. Some may be participating because food giants like Nestle and others have told them “they had to have traceability,” Trask noted. Other farmers simply don’t want to convert to new technologies.

Another challenge is, implementing these solutions sometimes “requires too many parties to be involved or to learn about the technology,” according to ConsenSys’s Singer.

Solutions must also be accessible, affordable and scalable, added Kubyane. “It is of utmost importance to have patient capital at a significant scale.”

In sum, synergies from melding blockchains with other emerging technologies like satellite imagery, AI, mobile tech and others may one day revolutionize agriculture in the developing world. But until that day arrives, farmers in East Africa and other regions can potentially fetch higher prices for their products by tapping export markets like the EU and North America.

But to secure a permanent place at dining tables in these Western economies, they will have to convince regulators and sustainability-minded publics that their crops weren’t grown by razing woodlands or employing child labor. To accomplish that, private and public blockchains, with their enhanced tracking, tracing and certification capabilities, may prove invaluable.

Dimitra One Million Avocados – BELIZE CITY, BELIZE — Dimitra Incorporated, a global Agtech company on a mission to make its technology available to farmers globally, is collaborating with One Million Avocados (OMA), a startup organization in Kenya, focused on helping the avocado farmers in the region. More specifically, OMA’s goal is to increase the production and quality of East African avocados using trace technology and, ultimately, “saving the world, one avocado at a time.”

Everything you need to know about avocados

So, why do people love avocados? This pear-shaped, green-skinned crop is not just a way to upgrade your dips and spreads, but they are also a nutrient-filled powerhouse. Contrary to popular belief, avocados are actually a fruit, not a vegetable.

An increasing number of people are focusing on a healthy lifestyle, leading to rising demand for nutritious food. As a result, the global avocado market is predicted to expand and grow in the coming years.

Amidst the projected growth of the avocado market, we have the farmers trying to keep up with demand. Before you see an avocado in the produce aisle of your local grocery store or market, a farmer will have gone through many stages to grow it — propagation, planting, farm analysis, post-harvest, and market distribution. Harvesting the fruit requires an enormous amount of labor and water.

To combat this, OMA is utilizing Dimitra’s tech stack to support the OMA farmers. To put it another way, farmers will be able to improve the current practices and create more sustainable farming methods for the future.

Industry challenges farmers face – Dimitra One Million Avocados

Currently, avocado farmers are facing certain challenges with their farming that we want to improve upon.

For example, there are stringent export rules that are in place that make it difficult for a farmer to export their produce with ease, limiting their potential revenue stream. Other common problems that farmers face are pests and diseases that affect the livelihood of their crops.

With Dimitra’s tech stack, combining advanced machine learning and data science methods, farmers can have the tools and insights they need to better understand their pest and disease problems in real time and discover effective solutions for control and management.

What’s more, Dimitra is exploring potential sponsorship opportunities and programs with OMA. For example, looking into helping farmers access financing modules to alleviate financial burdens. Together, they aim to cement Kenya’s position as Africa’s top producer of quality avocados and increase exports globally.

An agtech solution to support farmers

Currently, OMA focuses on traceability, precise farm management, pricing, financial inclusion, and the marketplace to support their farmers. By working with Dimitra, OMA’s farmers can utilize Dimitra’s tech-driven solution curated for the avocado industry. Ab0ve all, by providing farmers with the tools and support needed to succeed, they can increase yields, streamline supply chain processes, and promote sustainable farming practices.

Dimitra continuously develops the Connected Farmer platform to adapt to new regions and crops. Today, the platform is ready for avocados, and Swahili has been added to the growing list of 18 languages. More specifically, the app will be used to support OMA’s farmers with pest and disease prevention and data reporting.

By working with Dimitra, OMA plans to reduce administrative and operational costs associated with farm data registration and collection.

A noteworthy point about this agreement is that OMA uses Dimitra ($DMTR) tokens for transactions, ensuring that farmers also use the token. OMA will convert the One Million Avocados (OMA) farmers’ points accrued for DMTR tokens, consequently increasing awareness of Dimitra tokenization among its farmers.

Actionable insights for decision-making

Reporting is a big factor in a project like this. At Dimitra, we use reports to benefit farmers through advisory services. This way, farmers can apply actionable insights to their farming activities to increase yields, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and improve overall crop health.

More specifically, by increasing crop performance, farm productivity can as much as double in some cases.

Crop management includes factors such as:

• Soil remediation
• Reducing the use of chemicals and fertilizers
• Irrigation and water management
• Weed management

In fact, an example of where Dimitra intervenes is providing recommendations to reclaim soil health and a problem diagnosis on what pests and diseases might be evident. A farmer receives these recommendations through an analytical crop report that can be sent daily, weekly, or monthly.

Prince Victor Femi-Fred, Dimitra’s Director of Sub-Saharan Africa, says, “Dimitra is proud of this partnership as it will help bridge the gap of complicated farming. Providing room for data-driven farming using today’s technology across the Sub-Saharan region of Africa to make a difference. We are excited to work with our new partner and expand Dimtira’s presence in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Dimitra Day of Cooperatives – The International Day of Cooperatives highlights the growth and progress of cooperatives all across the globe. These organizations help communities build better sustainable practices, shore up financial resources and develop socially progressive approaches to community building.

On this day, it’s important to shine a spotlight on those who are on the ground doing the good work of building a better future for us all.

At Dimitra, we’re committed to helping these communities grow with the latest agricultural technology. Let’s explore why this day is so significant and look at a few projects we’re excited about that support cooperative efforts worldwide.

What Is the International Day of Cooperatives?

On July 1st, the world will celebrate the 101st International Day of Cooperatives. United by the slogan “cooperatives for sustainable development,” this year’s event will highlight how the cooperative approach to working is a critical element necessary to meet the targets set by the U.N. in their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) is one of the oldest and largest business networks in the world, and the drive to meet the SDGs is an intrinsic part of its DNA.

This year, the international community will reach the midpoint of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — with the International Day of Cooperatives highlighting the contribution of cooperatives toward advancing and achieving the SDG.

Why Are Cooperatives So Important?

Cooperatives provide citizens access to vibrant local communities focused on improving the economic, social, cultural and political advancement of their members. These people-centered enterprises offer open-membership models that are owned, controlled and run by and for the members themselves.

As organizations driven by values, cooperatives don’t just think locally but also progress toward internationally agreed principles, like the SDGs. These groups are crucial in fighting against environmental degradation and climate change. In addition, they generate good jobs, contribute to food security and build ethical value chains.

Cooperatives allow people to take an active approach to their economic future. What’s more, since stakeholders don’t hold the reins, the economic and social rewards of their activity.

These businesses have a proven track record of resilience. As a result, this makes them the perfect partner for tackling the major challenges facing the international community and sustainable development efforts.

Dimitra Cooperative Spotlights

As a company on a mission to help farmers across the globe, we’re quick to highlight the good work of the international community here at Dimitra. In the past, we’ve brought awareness to worldwide sustainability efforts like World Water Day and World Population Day.

In the spirit of the International Day of Cooperatives, let’s explore several cooperatives that work with our technology to bring their communities closer together. What’s more, cooperatives create sustainable frameworks for financial, environmental, and social success.

Solok Radjo Cooperative – Dimitra Day of Cooperatives

The Solok Radjo Cooperative is a progressive farming enterprise located in Indonesia. What’s more, it highlights the use of environmentally friendly farm practices to nurture the land under crops. One of the driving forces behind the cooperative is to help farmers learn to optimize the yield of their land. In particular, their focus is on coffee crops.

The cooperative of 3,300 coffee farmers helps members process and market the coffee fruits. In addition to coffee, the Solok Radjo Cooperative raises cattle. They sell the cattle to domestic markets and use the manure locally on plantations to boost soil health.

Using Dimitra’s Connected Coffee Module, farmers can open up new growth opportunities. This includes access to the students, lecturers and professors at Andalas University. Moreover, the goal behind this is digitizing the user experience and improving the platform. Through that, an industry-leading service is created that will benefit other farms.

In fact, by bringing farmers into the digital world through the Connected Coffee Module, the cooperative can accomplish quite a lot. Here are a few more standout benefits:

• The platform opens up new premium export markets, bolstering financial profitability and growth.
• Data collected from the app will find a home in Dimitra’s immutable records. This includes soil test results, satellite imagery and plant and tree coverage from farms.
• Powerful back-end ML and AI systems pull insights from tracked activities in the field. For example, soil sample traits and weather events provide actionable insights for farmers.

As the Head of the Solok Radjo project, Alfadriansyah (Adi), describes, “partnering with Dimitra is important for Solok Radjo to realize an integrated, data-based, sustainable coffee enterprise.”

Ahprocafe

Coffee plays a pivotal role in more than just Indonesia. Located in Honduras, Ahprocafe is an association of more than 100,000 coffee farmers across dozens of local cooperatives.

Their goal is to provide these farmers with state-of-the-art agricultural technology, more specifically, traceability and AI tech. In fact, as Honduras is the fifth largest coffee producer worldwide, this type of tech adoption is essential to shoring up this critical national export.

While we only announced earlier this year, Dimitra and Ahprocafe have big plans for the implementation of the Connected Coffee Platform:

• Provide traceability for coffee grown in the area
• Offer real-time track and trace across the supply chain
• Build transparent and credible businesses
• Attract new sustainability-savvy customers
• Improve pest management efforts
• Reduce climate change effects
• Deliver continuous data collection — informing data-driven decision making

“Ahprocafe seeks to strengthen the business capacity of affiliated coffee cooperatives and generate initiatives that allow us training support and potential market spaces,” says Manfredo Villanueva, Ahprocafe’s General Manager. He continues, “we faithfully believe that the alliance with Dimitra will allow us to achieve our objectives.”

To become involved with Ahprocafe and its work, consider exploring the Dimitra Sponsorship Program for Individuals.

Moving Forward: Dimitra’s Commitment and Mission

Lastly, as we celebrate the International Day of Cooperatives, it’s important to highlight the growth and progress of these organizations as they build a sustainable future for the world. Dimitra is proud to be a technology partner with these cooperatives, helping us both push forward and deliver ethical, sustainable and socially progressive farming practices worldwide.

Dimitra SDG Good Health – Overall health and well-being impact many important aspects of human life, from career and family to socioeconomic experience. Studies have shown that better health and higher levels of perceived well-being are associated with decreased risk of chronic disease and injury, better immunity, and increased longevity.

Although most developed nations have greater access to health resources and best practices, many developing countries around the world do not. In the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote worldwide sustainability, Good health and Well-Being ranks third on the list.

Here’s how Dimitra is approaching this non-negotiable health goal, especially as it relates to global agriculture today.

Good Health and Well-Being SDG

3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”

The SDG objective for Good Health and Well Being not only focuses on health and wellness. It also looks at the ways in which poverty, illness, discrimination, and populations intersect.

This goal coincides with several other SDGs, such as the goals to mitigate unclean water, inequality, and world hunger. With an emphasis on “leave nobody behind,” it also addresses socioeconomic inequalities including education, income, and gender.

Health Education and Improved Access – Dimitra SDG Good Health

Nearly 3.4 billion people around the world live in rural, developing locations without frequent access to clean water or food — the two fundamental requirements for good health. Even when given the resources to improve food and water quality, a lack of proper education surrounding health and well-being presents ongoing risks.

In addition to improving access to health supplies and basic resources, reliable educational frameworks are crucial for enabling effective change. When working toward SDG #3 for Good Health and Well-Being, education and technology are two essential parts of the solution.

Dimitra: Advocating for the Well-Being of Farmers and the World

One of the most practical ways to improve the well-being of a population is to improve access to quality nutrition, adequate healthcare, accurate education, and emerging technologies. With smallholder farms producing nearly one-third of the world’s food, it’s vital that farmers in rural locations have the resources they need to achieve and maintain sustainable health and well-being.

The hard work and harvests of farmers contribute endlessly to the well-being of the world. But smallholder farmers have families to support. They should not have to sacrifice their own health and well-being for the sake of crop production.

Dimitra is dedicated to helping farmers improve their lives as well as their livelihoods. By supplying farmers in developing countries with opportunities, technology, and education, we’ve seen many smallholder farms become more sustainable. The Connected Farmer App, for example, democratizes farming technology by helping farmers learn best practices for business, farm operation, livestock management, and even Track & Trace features. All of these contribute to increased income, fewer risks, and fairer outcomes.

Dimitra’s agricultural technology solutions help farmers and other agricultural workers gain access to food, market opportunities, land protection, and community support. Dimitra also helps to improve SDG 3 by working with students and Universities to teach. And work hands-on with farmers and farming communities. Dimitra continues to work with government and farming organizations to strengthen farm-related jobs while mitigating health risks.

Cointelegraph Dimitra Agtech – Blockchain technology has shown that it can transform data-driven markets, such as finance. However, the technology is industry-agnostic and can be applied across the board in ways specific to each industry. For example, it can be used in agriculture, the oldest industry in the world, and one that’s part of the primary sector of almost every economy globally.

Agricultural technology (AgTech) is growing rapidly to streamline and automate multiple processes. Thanks to a range of innovative technologies, including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and satellite and drone imagery, farmers can scale their businesses, reduce costs and expand their reach.

In recent years, farmers and other industry players have adopted AgTech for a variety of use cases. Including farm management, remote sensing, precision agriculture hardware and automation, among others. North America and Europe are leading the way in AgTech adoption, while Asia remains an untapped market. According to a McKinsey survey published in 2023, more than 60% of polled farmers in Europe and North America are currently — or are planning on — integrating innovative technologies, with Asia lagging by a wide margin at only 9%.

This AgTech firm offers a complete tech stack for farmers and stakeholders

Cointelegraph Dimitra Agtech – AgTech has evolved rapidly, giving today’s farmers access to many offerings. Dimitra, a leading AgTech firm, offers a comprehensive tech stack that utilizes the latest technological innovations in agriculture. Including blockchain, AI, drone imagery, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and genomics, among others. Dimitra’s tech stack makes it easy to adopt AgTech on any farm. Helping farmers scale their businesses, cut costs and improve the quality of their products. Mike Meurin, the company’s chief digital currency officer, said:

“The true power of Dimitra lies in our entire tech stack. By combining all of the elements of our tech stack and analyzing immense amounts of agricultural data in real time, we can provide farmers with real, actionable insights to improve their crop outputs and, by extension, their lives.”

Dimitra’s flagship product is Connected Farmer, a web and mobile application supporting more than 18 languages and multiple module components to address a wide range of needs. It can help farmers monitor their finances and insurance operations. As well as track crop inputs, fertilizer and regulatory requirements, seed inputs and crop yields.

Farmers can also utilize field-level sensors and integrated satellite imagery, and Dimitra then takes this data for AI-based analytics. Dimitra also incorporates satellite technology and drones for anomaly detection. Providing farmers with real-time insights into crop health and potential issues. In addition, the integration of mobile image analysis allows farmers to capture and classify anomalies directly from their smartphones, enabling real-time monitoring and quick action.

Furthermore, Dimitra’s AI algorithms utilize historical weather and satellite data for yield estimation and forecasting, empowering farmers to make informed decisions based on predictive analytics.

Lastly, the all-in-one platform Livestock Guru empowers livestock farmers to increase the profitability of their businesses for generations to come. The platform provides farmers with various management features, including the EPD Calculator and genetics correlations. As well as animal weight measurement using images. Offering comprehensive support for livestock farmers to optimize breeding programs and feed management.

Making life easier for farmers – Cointelegraph Dimitra Agtech

Dimitra has integrated blockchain technology into its tech stack to improve the lives of farmers around the world. But Dimitra’s business model and multifunctional applications address the increasing demand for innovative technologies while offering solutions at an affordable price. The company’s applications are now being used in 17 countries on different continents, including South America, Africa, and Asia.

Recently, Dimitra partnered with the decentralized data monetization platform Ocean Protocol to enable its users to sell anonymized agricultural datasets through Ocean’s marketplace. This will incentivize farmers to collect and sell data. Enabling market participants to access up-to-date data prices, trends and updates from seed companies, fertilizer companies, and commodity traders.

By integrating blockchain, AI and other technologies into its tech stack, Dimitra aims to empower farmers around the world. Supporting 100,000 users worldwide and running projects in over 40 crops. Dimitra demonstrates its commitment to making a significant impact in the agricultural sector.

Abrafrutas Dimitra – With the mission of providing technology to farmers worldwide, Dimitra, a global agtech company, established a partnership with the Brazilian Association of Fruit and Derivative Producers and Exporters (ABRAFRUTAS) last year. This union aims to explore how Dimitra’s technologies can be used to. Increase efficiency in the production, logistics, and export of Brazilian fruits.

The partnership is seen as crucial for the sector, as Brazil is the world’s third largest fruit producer. Producing over 56 million tons of fruits annually and employing around 16% of all agribusiness workforce in Brazil.

The first action taken to initiate this partnership was to identify ways to predict and detect areas where Citrus Canker occurs. A bacterium that attacks all varieties and species of citrus and is one of the most serious diseases in Brazilian citrus farming.

Citrus canker is one of the most concerning diseases in global citrus farming. As it reduces the productivity of affected plants due to defoliation and premature fruit drop. While it poses no risk to human health, it has a significant negative impact on the commercialization. And transportation of fresh fruits due to the risk of pathogen dissemination. Limiting the sale of production to other regions and countries.

However, despite the disease being easily detectable to the naked eye. The sector lacks a way to optimize the risk analysis and control process that helps reduce the risk of exporting infected fruits, which can affect the entire Brazilian citrus exportation.

With this objective in mind, Dimitra initiated a project to study and analyze ways. To help farmers predict, prevent, and mitigate the risk of Citrus Canker. As well as assist in monitoring this disease, which in 2022 led to the suspension of lemon exports to Europe.

After studying the factors that favor the occurrence of the disease and conducting research in various countries worldwide. Dimitra developed an algorithm that showed 95% accuracy in detecting the disease and the percentage of infected trees, using publicly available data from other countries.

Subheading 2 – Abrafrutas Dimitra

The next step of the project is to use data from national production to validate the algorithm and. If necessary, refine it for national realities. After this stage, ABRAFRUTAS and Dimitra will seek ways to develop a commercial platform that can assist producers in their mission to combat this pest. The objective is to reduce costs and mitigate risks for the producers.

Eduardo Brandão, Executive Director of ABRAFRUTAS, stated that “the partnership with Dimitra will certainly contribute to solving some technological bottle necks in the sector and, consequently, help maintain and increase our competitiveness in the domestic and international markets.” The partnership with Dimitra will allow ABRAFRUTAS to be at the forefront of agricultural technology and, thus, achieve its goals of feeding the world.

Diego Costa, Director of Dimitra for Latam, said. “We are honored to support ABRAFRUTAS’ goals and assist them in their mission to feed the world. They are leaders in the fruit sector and an important partner in Dimitra’s expansion in South America.”

ABRAFRUTAS and Dimitra will continue to explore other bottle necks and identify effective solutions to improve the production. Logistics, and export of Brazilian fruits to meet the needs of consumers worldwide. Dimitra will continue to utilize its innovative technology to help Brazilian fruit farming. Remain among the world’s top producers and further expand Brazilian exports.

Dimitra.io is driving global sustainable agriculture with CeDeFi loans and technology designed to help farmers make better decisions.

Dimitra KuCoin AMA – On June 8th, 2023 our CEO Jon Trask and our Chief Digital Currency Officer Mike Meurin had the opportunity to join an AMA in the Kucoin_JP Telegram Channel. Here is the summary:

Jon Trask: Hello everyone. Thank you for having us here today. My name is Jon Trask, and I am the CEO and Founder of Dimitra Incorporated. I’ve built, developed, and implemented enterprise software solutions focusing on the blockchain, supply chain, traceability, finance, and agriculture. I have held several C-level positions with major multinational corporations. I love working with technology, building cool stuff, and, most importantly, I am on a mission to help farmers across the world with Dimitra.

Mike Meurin: Hi everyone. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Mike Meurin, and I’m Dimitra’s Chief Digital Currency Officer. I’m involved in all things crypto and blockchain focused at Dimitra. I’ve worked in blockchain and crypto since 2017. I started in custody. Before this, I was involved in data center technologies and end-user computing. In addition, I was a pro-studio music engineer/producer for 20+ years and worked at studios like Sony Music Studios in New York and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Jon or Mike, can you give the audience some information about Dimitra:

Dimitra is a blockchain-based agricultural technology company that is on a mission to bring elegant and useful technology to small farmers around the world at a very low cost. Dimitra does three main things with our data-driven approach. We help small farmers 1) increase crop outputs, 2) reduce their expenses, and 3) mitigate their risks from our data-driven approach.

Mike, we’ve heard you spent some time in Japan. We would love to hear a bit about your experience here.

Thank you for the great question. I’ve had a connection with Japan for a long time. I first came to Japan when I was sixteen and played badminton for Canada as a Junior and visited much of Sapporo. Then I lived and worked in Okayama in my early 20s as an English Sensei and School Director. I was fortunate to visit places like Shodoshima, Shikoku, Hiroshima, and Kobe and participated in interesting cultural festivities like Hadakamatsuri in Kurashiki. Most recently, I spent three months in Tokyo and visited Osaka, Hakone, and many of the zen gardens in Kyoto. Japan is a fascinating place for me, and I hope to return soon! I miss the sushi/sashimi and Onsen’s!

Can you provide an overview of your tech stack?

Dimitra’s tech stack consists of the following:

• Mobile
• Satellite technology
• GPS
• Drones
• Track and Trace
• IoT sensors (on the ground usually monitoring ground-level data)
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (around 50 reports)
• Blockchain (DMTR is an ERC 20 token and so on Etherscan and have tested writing certificates to Polygon).

The true power of Dimitra is combining all these tech elements with our vast amounts of agricultural data and providing actionable data-driven insights. Dimitra works with 50 crops in 18+ languages, and we have contracts with 17 countries.

Can you discuss the DMTR token and how the token utility works?

So, the DMTR token is an ERC-20-based utility token. Please consider the DMTR as the gas within our ecosystem that drives everything.

I’ll explain DMTR’s utility in 2 parts.

PART 1:

Therefore, we have built five mobile applications, and they are called:

• Dimitra Connected Farmer
• Dimitra Connected Coffee
• Dimitra Deforestation Compliance Solution
• Dimitra Livestock Guru Cloud and Commercial

These are all downloaded as mobile applications onto a user’s phone.

PART 2:

How the Utility of the DMTR Works:

Therefore, when farmers want to use any of these applications, such as our Connected Farmer, they can pay for their licenses with DMTR tokens. If they want extended AI reports, they can buy with DMTR tokens. We are building a marketplace, and people can sell and buy goods in the market with DMTR. We’re also interested in providing farmers with insurance and loans, which will be done using DMTR tokens.

A concrete example of utility with the DMTR token would be our Indonesian coffee farmers buying their Dimitra Connected Coffee licenses with Dimitra tokens.

Here is an article on Cointelegraph that explains this exact use case.

Here are two articles about DMTR Utility:

https://dimitratech.medium.com/dmtr-token-utility-63af9992fd11

https://dimitratech.medium.com/empowering-global-growth-with-dimitra-efe1960a5d2b

If people in the audience would like to know more about DMTR tokenomics, feel free to visit our website here to learn more.

Jon, we saw that you recently won an award, can you please tell us a bit more about that?

Yes, of course! It was recently announced that we won the 2023 Government Blockchain Association Annual Achievement Award for the “Social Impact” Category. I was absolutely thrilled, and It is a great honor to receive this award because, at Dimitra, social impact and sustainability are more than just ideas to us. They are at the core of our goals and built into our platforms and what we work towards every day.

Can you tell us about your Sponsorship Program?

Aid programs have historically had issues with corruption and aid not getting to the farmers or people in need. It’s unbelievable but these things happen. For example, in Haiti billions went missing because of corruption .— https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/world/haiti-foreign-aid.html )

Therefore, I wanted us to make a difference and create a sponsorship program where people could sponsor farmers and know that they were sponsoring the people who needed our systems, with the whole process being transparent. Perhaps the easiest way is for the audience to walk through our explainer video here.

Plus, here is an article explaining our sponsorship program in specific.

Do you have any updates for the community?

So, we’ve just recently hired a new PR agency to increase Dimitra’s presence globally, and we’ve also hired a community engagement manager who is a long-time crypto veteran. We’re excited about the future!

Can you tell us about your Deforestation platform?

I’d love to! The EU recently passed legislation that if companies import seven core commodities (cattle, soybeans, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, and timber) into Europe, they will need to prove that their products are not linked to deforestation. Traders and agriculture operators won’t be allowed to place commodities and products on the Union market nor export them without prior submission of a due diligence statement.

So to address this situation, Dimitra 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. The solution combines satellite analysis, GPS data, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, and mobile technology, which allows operators to detect deforestation, prove compliance, and reduce the risk of fraud.

And the cool thing about it is this process is entirely dependent on blockchain and the Dimitra token. Dimitra receives a deforestation certificate request from a customer. We take payment for the request in fiat. We pay the necessary government filing fees in fiat. Our treasury immediately converts the balance in DMTR to generate the certificate and process the relevant transactions to the blockchain via the Dimitra DApp. Then we burn the tokens, recording the entire process on our blockchain-based platform for compliance.

If you’d like more information on the solution, please check out this video.

Why use blockchain?

So, Blockchain creates immutable records that are non-tamperable, time-stamped, and dated. These records provide a record of truth if a transaction has happened. And that record can’t be altered once it’s written to a blockchain.

At Dimitra, we use blockchain in many ways, such as customers paying for their licenses with Dimitra tokens. Another example of how Dimitra uses blockchain would be our Deforestation solution, where the Dimitra Deforestation certificate is written to the polygon blockchain to show whether the land has been deforested and the record cannot be changed.

How does Dimitra make money?

Some of Dimitra’s revenue streams:

1. Revenue from licensing our platforms (Connected Farmer, Connected Coffee, Livestock Guru platforms, and Deforestation).
2. Custom software builds — Dimitra does custom builds for features that customers ask us for (there are the out of box versions of our platforms, and then there is the possibility to customize applications).
3. Revenue generated from buying extra machine learning reports, and eventually we’ll be selling anonymized agricultural data sets via our partners Ocean Protocol and their data marketplace.
4. Buying things like extra IoT sensors for their farms and having to buy those sensors with DMTR tokens. As we onboard more and more farms, communities, and regions of countries, this will all add up over time.

*** Dimitra is contracted with organizations with 22 million farms + to use our platforms. This doesn’t mean they are implemented or that all 22 million + farms will take our platforms, but the governments we are working with want our platforms to be with as many of their farms as possible. It’s a very exciting time for us 🙂

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS/OTHER QUESTIONS

As far as we know, Dimitra also utilizes a lot of AI and machine learning technologies, can you tell us more about that? How do you see the latest developments in AI technology: From @Nitai1516

Great question @Nitai1516! We have been building AI capabilities into Dimitra since we started in 2021. I spoke with our head of data science yesterday, and we now have over 50 AI reports, and this number continues to grow weekly.

Three concrete examples of how we use AI would be:

1. Improving crop performance
2. Improving Animal Productivity and Animal Health
3. Helping tackle deforestation across the world

Here is an article that explains these use cases in detail and how Dimitra uses AI in our platforms.

The name is cool and I really like it. What is the origin of your name? From @okuokushima

Thank you for your compliment @okuokushima. Dimitra is a unique name. It was chosen as a nod to ancient mythology. In Greek culture, Demeter, or Dimitra, is the Goddess of Agriculture, responsible for bringing knowledge on how to cultivate the land and credited for producing successful harvests. This idea of providing resources to increase growth for farmers is aligned beautifully with our company, Dimitra.

Here is a medium post that provides a deeper overview of where Dimitra’s name came from.

Is there a Connected Farmer platform for Japan? I’m a farmer, so I’m worried about the weather, etc. If it’s available, I’d like to use it! From @446coin

Hello, @446coin! Thank you for your question. Dimitra has yet to have any customers in Japan. We would love to add Japan and the farmers of Japan to our customer list :). Please reach out to our team, and let’s see how we can work together.

I am very interested in how you support the different styles of agriculture in different countries. I would be very interested in learning more about this. From @sora3052

Thank you for your question @sora3052! Agricultural use cases differ from region to region with countries and can be very different from country to country. Dimitra currently works with around 50 crops in 18 languages, which will increase over time, but it is driven by customer demand. Therefore, we look at the customer’s pain point and their specific issue, and then we start to develop a plan on how to work together to solve the problem and build concrete next steps. This continuously varies from country to country as farming associations and farming cooperatives differ in every country. The key is to have everyone aligned and committed to the program’s long-term success.

Here is a list of Dimitra’s Country Partnerships

Dimitra has a growing list of partnerships and projects in 16 nations globally. Here are a few:

• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Abrafrutas
• Colômbia
• Fedepanela
• Agrosavia
• Honduras
• Bangladesh
• India
• Nepal
• Indonesia
• Uganda
• Papua New Guinea
• Canada

Dimitra’s Key Crypto Partnerships:

• Ocean Protocol
• GEC, the Xi Protocol
• Morpheus Network
• Cointelegraph (media partnership)
• GEM Digital

Additional Information:

**Project resource links to include in your video description if possible**

Whitepaper

Dimitra’s linktree to all our socials and more

Everything related to our token

Exchange partners

Dimitra Press releases

Coingecko page for our token

Coinmarketcap page for our token

Dimitra Indonesian Coffee Farmers – One of the leading missions at Dimitra is to increase farmers’ capacities to leverage agricultural technology. This is crucial if they’re to achieve success while adopting more sustainable farming practices. When used optimally, Dimitra’s agricultural technology (AgTech) solutions can increase crop yields, reduce operations costs, and mitigate farming risks at all levels of operation.

To further this mission, Dimitra works with organizations, government personnel, and education programs around the world to help digitize farming — particularly in rural areas that can benefit from simple AgTech solutions. By collaborating with students, professors, and lecturers in other countries, Dimitra continues to improve its AgTech platform to provide global agriculture workers with an industry-leading experience.

Since 2022, the Dimitra team has been working in Indonesia to help coffee farmers achieve this mission. Here’s how it’s going.

Technological Innovation for Indonesian Agriculture

Dimitra’s farming education in Indonesia takes place among two primary learner groups:

1. Regional coffee communities and farming co-ops, such as Solok Radjo Cooperative.
2. Current college students at Andalas University, who will soon be professionals in the workforce.

Recently, Dimitra’s Indonesian sales partner, Ricky Tanudibrata, has been focused on helping Solok Radjo farmers and Andalas University students learn to leverage agricultural technology. The main goal of these education efforts is that farmers throughout the region will be able to increase the productivity of their farms and improve the quality of West Sumatra’s famous coffee through accessible technology solutions.

Using satellites, drones, and IoT (Internet of Things) technology both in lectures and field training, Ricky equips engineering students to collaborate with local farmers and to get involved in the latest coffee farming developments. This collaboration is not only improving agricultural education — it’s building important partnerships across industries.

AgTech, Engineering, and Education Among Indonesian Students
Ricky and the Dimitra team educate students at Andalas University. The school is one of the major public research universities in Padang, West Sumatra. In partnership, they developed an integrated Carbon Soil Assessment Program at the University. This program assesses the current health of the soil so it can then be monitored during ongoing regenerative practices. Monitoring occurs using the digital agriculture solution, Dimitra.

Second Subheading

Ricky Tanudibrata teaches students how to use the many AgTech features of the Dimitra app. Once students are confident using the platform, they go out into the fields and help local farmers in the Solok Radjo Cooperative learn how to use this technology. In turn, students utilize farm data they collect from their fields to then enhance their studies and analyses.

Lectures give students the opportunity to learn from other professionals and cooperatives while simultaneously getting the chance to practice hands-on engineering skills. When working alongside Ricky and the team, it’s common for students to quickly voice new cutting-edge farming ideas. In one lecture, a group of students brainstormed how they could use drones to spread seeds accurately throughout multiple crop rows. In another lesson, students came up with methods to apply crucial farming data securely to the blockchain.

Because these students could be future leaders in their industries. Their interest in advancing these solutions is very promising for careers in agriculture. Lecturers at Andalas University are working to integrate greening and forestry efforts into computer technology and informatics courses.

Recognizing Positive Impacts – Dimitra Indonesian Coffee Farmers

Students at Andalas are already recognizing the real positive impacts both greening and agriculture programs can have on their communities. Faranisa (“Rani”) is a third-year IT faculty student at Andalas University. She is seeing both the necessity and possibilities of Dimitra technology first-hand.

Rani’s father works in housing construction. Rani told a story about how she’s been disturbed because the forest was destroyed in front of where she lives in Lake Singkarak. Land continues to be deforested to make space for new buildings. Dimitra’s lessons at the University provided a new experience. They allowed Rani to see that deforestation is a problem that affects everyone, not just workers in agriculture.

Another student impacted by Dimitra’s education is a young man named Aulia. As a last-year student at the University who has started his assignment, he said Dimitra has taught him a lot about the business aspect of farming. He shared, “I finally feel more confident about my hobby of raising chickens. Dimitra’s lessons have taught me new insights about turning this hobby into a business.” Aulia learned that he has to become more familiar with the prerequisites of all aspects of the broiler supply chain if he is to become a better poulterer. AgTech sensing and IoT features, offered through the Dimitra app, can help him accomplish this.

Ricky Tanudibrata: Leading Dimitra’s Mission in Indonesia

Who is Ricky Tanudibrata and why is he leading AgTech education with Dimitra in this region?

Ricky has experience with process engineering, product management, distribution systems, and marketing. This makes it possible for him to facilitate insightful interactions with students of various majors and interests. He’s passionate about using information and communications technology (ICT) to improve people’s livelihoods. Ricky is an avid lifelong learner and he’s been absorbing blockchain technology concepts. His interest in financial technology, agribusiness, AgTech, platform solutions, and the consumer goods supply chain lends him a leadership role in global farming advancements.

Over the past decade, Ricky has focused on mobile technology skills and their relation to social concerns. He’s also been a successful entrepreneur in mobile technology, advertising, and mobile payment solutions where he built one of the most successful prepaid GSM services in Indonesia. He has decades of experience working professionally in telecommunications and consumer goods.

With Dimitra, Ricky leads both classroom lectures and field training opportunities. He aims to motivate students and professionals to take part in coffee farming developments and coffee production. Ricky hopes the outcome of this effort in Indonesia will include the reforestation of barren land into coffee agroforestry. On top of that, he wishes it would bring greater employment opportunities for local coffee communities.

Dimitra Technology for Bali’s Forests and Farms

As a country, Indonesia is committed to reducing pollution from carbon emissions. A lot of work still needs to be done, especially when it comes to forest protection. Through building welfare solutions for the people — in the agriculture sector and beyond — the country hopes to meet consumer demands in more responsible and sustainable ways.

There are several ways Dimitra helps farmers increase the quality and sustainability of West Sumatra’s famous coffee. They use satellites to assess local land conditions, which can identify areas that are disturbed by high rain or erosion. This allows farmers to increase forested land cover and develop agroforestry to prevent future crop loss caused by erosion.

Internet of Things (IoT) features help the Solok Radjo Cooperative’s purchasing station improve the consistency and quality of their specialty coffee. Dimitra’s Connected Coffee app is accessible to students and farmers to offer solutions.

An example that Ricky often refers to with the students of how these methods can aid in places like Bali, Indonesia. According to the interim local government, forest cover should take up at least 30% of the island land mass. Regional regulations have been set in place to preserve this goal, an important task for both officials and the community.

Integrating Tourism and Agriculture

What makes Bali such an attractive location for tourism, ritual, and cultural preservation is the collective respect the Balinese Hindu people have for the earth’s resources. Forests, water, mountains, and natural wonders hold a spiritual reverence in Bali. In fact, agriculture throughout the province is a cornerstone of the culture. Without agriculture, there would be no Balinese culture; nor would there be such a charm to the island. This respect and charm are what attract so many tourists every year. It greatly contributes to Bali’s economy, making the increase of greening and preservation efforts a top priority.

Because Bali is a high-traffic tourist destination, greening efforts mean more than simply preserving the local land. If accomplished sustainably, greening methods could serve as a model for similar efforts in other parts of Indonesia and the world.

Throughout Indonesia, Ricky teaches greening and other sustainable farm methods at coffee cooperatives like the Solok Radjo, where 3,300 coffee farmers in West Sumatra learn responsible farming as well as how to use the Dimitra app. This is something that can be replicated in places like Bali, where increasing agricultural and preservation efforts is a top priority. Dimitra is always looking for more places to expand and help farmers where it matters most.

Educating Coffee Farmers of the Future: Why it Matters

Dimitra’s work in Indonesia with the Solok farming collective is only one of many essential steps toward improving coffee farming and its global market. Ricky is one of the millions of collaborations needed to properly facilitate and educate new solutions for smallholder farmers around the world.

“Last February 2023, I had four opportunities to speak in front of students from the Faculty of Computer Science and Informatics, Andalas University (Padang, North Sumatra). So many questions were raised [by] these engineering students with astonishment. We can give many answers. However, the most important is that traditional approaches cannot solve the problems of forests and agriculture. This is a problem that requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Second, forestry and agriculture provide opportunities to build new businesses, especially for engineering and engineering graduates.” — Ricky Tanudibrata

Countries like Indonesia need clear and well-defined targets to achieve responsible agriculture. Now more than ever, the world needs innovative and well-equipped educators. Educators like Ricky, who are willing to invest their careers into lasting farm solutions. This is the work Dimitra aims to spread, with Indonesia as one example of proof that it’s possible.

Dimitra SDGs – Today, agriculture accounts for more than 1 billion jobs globally. While this seems like a significant number, only about 500 million people working these jobs receive fair wages.

Farming is one of the most important industries in the world. It’s also one of the leading contributors to global and economic conflict, including climate change, unpaid labor, and human exploitation.

To create a better agricultural reality and achieve a better future for those who provide consumer goods around the world. We must ensure better working conditions. We must also advocate for economic growth across governments, both developed and in development.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a list of 17 major initiatives that the United Nations (UN) outlined as essential to achieving economic, environmental, and ethical development worldwide.

Much of the work we do at Dimitra aligns with these goals, especially in the sphere of agriculture. SDG #8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, is a reality we make possible for farmers around the world. And now, it’s more important than ever.

Decent Work and Economic Growth SDG

8 “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

In nearly every international news source, we hear the urgent call for higher levels of economic productivity. No industry remains untouched by the effects of the global pandemic. Such as rising inflation rates, policy uncertainties, labor market challenges, and supply chain disruptions.

At the same time, productivity for the means of profit is no longer the main goal. People matter most. Now more than ever, so do new and changing work ethics, company values, and environmental sustainability practices.

In response to this demand, employers, laborers, and industry leaders need to prioritize the needs of those who work so hard to provide essential resources to the population. Every sector needs new, quality, well-paying jobs — as well as resource efficiency in both consumption and production.

Farming, Agriculture, and the Need for Technology – Dimitra SDGs

At Dimitra Technology, we help farmers in all regions of the world adopt lasting solutions to support this Sustainable Development Goal #8.

The Dimitra Connected Farmer App helps farmers optimize their daily operations and long-term business goals. The app enables crop input tracking, financial trade support, freight insurance options, farm geofencing and maintenance features, satellite and weather insights, a government support desk, and more.

To support every actor in the agricultural supply chain, we provide certifications for compliant farmers through the Deforestation Compliance Module. With changing laws regarding deforestation in the UN, distributors now need proof that their products meet sustainability standards. The Deforestation Module ensures everything is recorded securely and with full transparency to the blockchain, protecting farmers and employees in every step of the process from seed to sale.

At Dimitra, we work with smallholder farms and government organizations to help agricultural workers achieve higher levels of sustainable productivity. By giving access to technology in remote locations, farmers get the education they need to make more informed decisions — and to make livable incomes.

Jon Trask, our CEO, says: “Every smallholder farmer, regardless of economic status, should be able to benefit from simple, beautiful, and useful technology.. because when farmers thrive, economies thrive.”