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.”

Dimitra Award – Dimitra’s CEO and founder Jon Trask is the winner of the 2023 Government Blockchain Association Annual Achievement Award in the social impact category. This award is an acknowledgment of what Dimitra is doing as a company, and what it has in store for the future.

At Dimitra, social impact is more than just an idea. It is one of the main goals that it works toward each and every day. The company is on a journey to bring widespread, life-changing results to farmers around the globe. By continuously working to improve the well-being of farmers. The Dimitra team believes that the results will spread to their communities, societies, and even the world at large.

The Dimitra team released the following message: “Thank you to those who voted, and those that continue to support the efforts we put forth at Dimitra. We also want to acknowledge Pradeep Goel from Solve.Care and Amy Westervelt from the Energy Web Foundation. Their efforts toward creating an impactful and lasting social impact on the world today are invaluable and exceptionally significant.”

Dimitra Award – “Last but not least, thank you to the Government Blockchain Association for facilitating this event. They are playing a vital role in raising awareness of social impact. And creating more opportunities to bring real and lasting social impact to the world.”

The Dimitra team released the following message: “Thank you to those who voted, and those that continue to support the efforts we put forth at Dimitra. We also want to acknowledge Pradeep Goel from Solve.Care and Amy Westervelt from the Energy Web Foundation. Their efforts toward creating an impactful and lasting social impact on the world today are invaluable and exceptionally significant.”

“Last but not least, thank you to the Government Blockchain Association for facilitating this event. They are playing a vital role in raising awareness of social impact. And creating more opportunities to bring real and lasting social impact to the world.”

Last week our CEO, Jon Trask sat down with the QQ糖 community on Discord to talk through all things Dimitra! Here is the recap of the questions that were asked:

Could you please tell us a little bit about Dimitra Technology and yourself?

Hello everyone, thank you for having me here today. My name is Jon Trask and I am the CEO and Founder of Dimitra Incorporated. I’ve been working in blockchain since 2017 and I have had an extensive career building and developing enterprise software solutions focused on supply chain, identity, traceability, and I’ve held several C-level positions with some multinational corporations.

Dimitra is a blockchain based agricultural technology company and we provide elegant and useful technology to farmers around the world at a low cost. Think of Dimitra as the operating system for Ag-tech, and that the Dimitra token (DMTR — https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dimitra) is what drives our ecosystem. We have a data driven approach at Dimitra to help: increase crop outputs, reduce expenses for farmers, and to help mitigate their risks.

I think I have to ask one of the most talked about topics nowadays, which is how you feel about the recent buzz about the meme hype. And as the CEO and founder of a real technology company that’s helping people all around the world, how do you view this amount of undeserved attention to meme coins?

Meme coins are a novel new area within the crypto industry and the interesting thing about crypto is that people are creating new use cases and value within crypto each day which is driving new innovation. At Dimitra, we are focussed on utility and solving real-world problems within agriculture for small farmers and providing utility with our technology stack and within our ecosystem which is powered by our utility token the DMTR.

What are you most excited about in 2023, and how has this year been so far for you and the Dimitra team?

In 2023 Dimitra is laser focused on expanding our capabilities at detecting and reporting on deforestation. The Dimitra Deforestation module uses satellite imagery to differentiate between trees, crops, forested areas, and clear-cut sections to do precisely that. Machine learning models analyze this data to understand what’s happening on the ground without ever touching the soil. To intelligently identify the deforested areas in a sea of green, the module uses AI to determine texture, color, reflectivity, and much more. This allows both farmers and traders to offer full transparency in their supply chain. Additionally, it allows them to prove with data-backed insights their compliance with deforestation regulations.

So far, three nations have already started using and testing the Dimitra Deforestation module and we’ve been training our Machine Learning with 500,000 square kilometers of forested land. Over time, we expect this to grow exponentially and to become many regions of many countries across the globe as it is a global problem and a global initiative that 141 nations have signed up via legislation to solve.
We’ve written the Dimitra Deforestation Certificate to the Polygon blockchain to ensure the lowest possible gas fees which also ensures the deforestation certificate is time stamped and dated which ensures immutability. If you’d like to read about the legislation here is a link for it:
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/615721825/eu-deforestation-regulation-and-compliance

141 nations have signed a pact at COP to eliminate deforestation by 2030. The EU has mandated that goal that seven crops (coffee, timber, rubber, soy, palm oil and cocoa) are deforested free by 2030. Imagine all the companies that will require a certificate to be compliant and they could potentially be using our system. It’s a massive opportunity for us.

We are also expanding our capabilities to combine drone imagery analysis with our satellite analysis. Recently we ran a project in Papua New Guinea collecting drone data on corn being affected by Fall Armyworm (FAW). We have determined that we can detect early and minimize pesticide costs and losses for those that use our techniques. FAW decimates billions of dollars of crops annually, and we have a viable way to significantly reduce those losses all driven by AI and drones.

We have a major AI-based project in Brazil to mitigate fruit losses, particularly — citrus and mango. This will be applied globally to reduce disease-related losses which can wipe out citrus groves.

We are continuously building out the DMTR marketplace, and increasing awareness of the DMTR token across the world. In addition, we are adding projects to our Farmer Sponsorship Program, with the goal of getting more people to support the Dimitra Farmer Sponsorship Program (https://dimitra.io/dimitra-sponsorship-program-for-individuals/).
And, in time, add more key exchange partners.

Dimitra is also focused on both scaling and improving our five platforms, and adding more farmers, cooperatives, and nations to our list of customers (we have sixteen nations under contract). We’ve got a bright future ahead coupled and now its about execution in 2023–2024 and also growing our customer base and having people purchase our platforms with the DMTR token.

What are the key features about Dimitra that you would like to share with our community?

Great question! Dimitra’s platforms are built on blockchain technology and incorporate mobile technology, machine learning, IoT devices, satellite and drone imagery, genomics, and advanced farming research. We want to help farmers across the world improve their productivity with the power of information.

We know that the ecosystem token $DMTR can be traded on Kucoin, Gate, Bitmart, Bittrex International, and Uniswap. What is the role $DMTR playing in the whole ecosystem?

The token drives our ecosystem. DMTR is a utility token, and our hope is that it creates real-world value or utility for the farmers and all the facets within our ecosystem. That value is not just relegated to digital exchanges, and much of the value is wrapped up in the success of a related project.

Farmers can do things like pay for their licenses (Connected Farmer, Livestock Guru, Deforestation, Connected Coffee) with $DMTR tokens, and when our marketplace goes live, they’ll be able to buy things like sensors, coffee, and crops, and pay for their transactions with $DMTR tokens.

For example, one of our Cooperatives in Indonesia is called Solok Radjo, the cooperative leaders used tokens to purchase their Dimitra Connected Coffee licenses. Over time, they will continue to pay for their licenses using the DMTR token and if they want buy advanced features like additional AI machine learning reports they will have to pay with DMTR. Once our marketplace goes live they will also be able to transact in DMTR within the marketplace.

Dimitra’s market opportunity is massive as we are operating in one of the world’s largest untapped technology markets. I can’t think of many crypto projects that have real-world utility and have contracts with 16 nations as we do already.

What is the long-term sustainable value driver for the $DMTR token?

Sustainability is core to everything we do at Dimitra. When farmers receive notifications and advice from our platform during the growing seasons, it always has sustainability in mind. Therefore, when our customers purchase their licenses with the DMTR token sustainability is at the core. When farmers purchase deforestation certifications they prove that their farm complies with regulations. We are very focused on making the world a better place one farm at a time.

Can you please share a little bit more about the Dimitra team?

Absolutely and thank you for the question. The Dimitra team is so important and we wouldn’t be where we are without everyone and what they bring to the table. Dimitra is operating in over 70 countries and we have 140 team members. Our team is made up of the following: leadership, country sales partners, tech, operations, finance, and marketing.

Thank you so much for having me here today. We appreciate everyone coming for today’s AMA and asking so many great questions.

Dimitra GBA Award – Our CEO and Founder Jon Trask is the winner of the 2023 Government Blockchain Association Annual Achievement Award in the “Social Impact” Category! This award is an acknowledgment of what we are doing as a company, and what we have in store for the future.

At Dimitra, social impact is more to us than just an idea. It is one of the main goals that we work towards each and every day.

However, We are on a journey to bring widespread, life-changing results to farmers around the globe. By continuously working to improve the well-being of farmers. We believe that the results will spread to their communities, societies, and even the world at large.

Thank you to those who voted, and those that continue to support the efforts we put forth at Dimitra.

Dimitra GBA Award – To learn more about the Annual Achievement Awards: https://gbaglobal.org/vote-aaa/

Therefore, The Annual Achievement Awards Finalists Have Been Chosen!

Please look over the 3 Finalists per Award and choose one winner per each of the 4 awards.

However, You do not need to be a GBA Member to vote. So feel free to invite all your friends and family to participate. There is no charge for voting.  Only one submission per IP address will be counted as valid.

Therefore, Winners will be announced from stage at the AAA ceremony, May 24, 2023, in Washington, DC. Winners do not need to be present to win. All finalists will be alerted that they made the finishing round and will be encouraged to come. – Dimitra GBA Award Dimitra

Dimitra Interview – Digital inequality reinforces existing social disparities, demanding considerable efforts to acknowledge and address this pressing issue. In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders, policymakers, think tanks and experts on this topic to share their insights and stories about “How Companies and Policymakers Are Taking Action and Can Further Contribute to Closing the Digital Divide.” As part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Jon Trask.

Jon Trask is the CEO and Founder of Dimitra Incorporated, a global agriculture technology company that utilizes Blockchain, AI, and IoT technologies. Jon is a globally recognized blockchain expert with a background in enterprise software development and designing complex supply chains for multinational corporations. They are passionate about using the power of information to deliver agricultural technology (Agtech) to small farm holders who, while playing a vital role in keeping our world fed, often struggle to feed their own families.

Dimitra Interview – Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you’. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

Igrew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. I spent a lot of my childhood playing with computers, coding or spending time on my family’s farm. I enjoyed a few sports (martial arts and track and field), but loved to be on the computer or reading. My father was in the RCMP (Canada’s national police force) and my mother was a Christian minister. I also had a younger brother who was more interested in bikes and skateboards.

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Looking back on my childhood, that time I spent on the farm was so magical. There was so much land, I was surrounded by animals, I enjoyed horseback riding and fresh crops. As kids, we ate my grandmother’s blueberry pie made from blueberries picked on the farm. Every time I eat blueberries now, it sparks memories of the farm. All of these are memories I will cherish forever.

Fast forward to today and I am married to my best friend, Jackie. We have four children and live in British Columbia during the summers and spend our winters in sunny Florida.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

John Elkington’s “Cannibals with Forks” played a big role in shaping my views about the evolution of sustainable business. He illustrated how leaders must transition businesses to a triple bottom line of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social justice.

I read it first twenty years ago and picked it up again about eight years ago, right as I was thinking more about the intersection of agriculture and technology. When I started in blockchain, it was impossible to envision where we’d be today, with Web3 taking shape and the relevance of this technology pulling these two sectors closer than ever.

That’s where I see my mission. Farmers are increasing their connectivity with the global push of mobile technology and becoming more reliant on the successful integration of IoT, Satellite and other technologies.

I’m fascinated by the ways all of this can align. Take agri-food, which is one of the largest businesses in the world. Its cycles are driven by nature and happen over time. Technology happens at a totally different pace, with industries like crypto operating at lightning speed. Could these two align? It’s an idea I handle every day, because I think leveraging the power of technology to benefit smallholder farmers is how we are going to change the world.

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Dimitra Interview – Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

I have two life lesson quotes. The first is by Confucius, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

The second quote is by Jane Goodal, she says “What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

I have spent a great deal of my adult life using technology to simplify complex supply chains and that has been gratifying. All of those early efforts were focused primarily on Fortune 500 corporations.

As I have aged, I have reflected more on the difference I am making.

Those reflections led me to Dimitra.

Small farmers represent such a large part of the world population but often struggle to make ends meet. As a group, they have substantial impact on poverty, global warming, clean water, clean soil and the economic prosperity of many nations. I saw a way to apply technology to global agriculture problems and knew that focusing on small farms would make a considerable impact on all of these social and environmental issues.

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Ok, thank you. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. How would you define the Digital Divide? Can you explain or give an example?

The digital divide is the difference between those with access to technology and those without access. An example of this is the large-scale industrial farms in G20 nations. These farmers have access to technology that helps them operate their farms as commercial enterprises, exceeding their family’s needs and allowing them to supply food to hundreds of people.

In the world’s developing nations, farmers need agricultural technology the most. However, due to its expense, its availability is limited, meaning these farmers do not have access to resources that will help improve their farms and produce.

Dimitra is bringing useful, affordable technology to those who need it most. We are working to close the digital divide because we believe that every farmer, regardless of their economic status, should have access to agriculture technologies.

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Dimitra Interview – Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to close the digital divide? Can you share a story with us?

Smallholder farmers in many areas of the world struggle to make ends meet. These farmers can play a huge role in solving the world food shortage, improving food safety, and addressing food security issues. Putting simple, effective technology in their hands is our core goal. We want to help them improve their productivity with the power of information.

Dimitra has been working with over seventy nations since we started on this journey.

We now have contracts with 18 nations in different regions of the world.

Each contract and project has a different agricultural focus, objective, and pain point that we are addressing and solving.

Dimitra works alongside the governments of those nations we contract with, the NGOs in that country, and usually their farming cooperatives.

A great example is Indonesia. We are working with Solok Radjo Cooperative to improve their coffee output, provide traceability, digitize document management, and help them get their coffee to expanded international markets.

In addition, we have partnered with one of their Universities to help bring our technology to the farmers and train them on the Connected Coffee application.

There are so many aspects of spanning the digital divide, and we work with as many players in as many sectors as possible to advance progress.

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This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important to create change in this area?

Giving farmers advanced technology provides them with actionable data. In a data-driven approach, farmers can make informed decisions, leading to an increase in their yield and a reduction in their expenses.

Dimitra Interview – What specific actions has your company or organization taken to address the digital divide, and how do you ensure that your efforts are making a positive impact in the communities you serve?

Dimitra is mission-driven to address the digital divide.

We are here to make agriculture software affordable. We work closely with governments, NGOs, and non-governmental organizations to make our technology available to smallholder farmers in developing nations.

Our efforts positively impact the communities we serve in a multitude of ways, and we are committed to being an engaged, useful partner for the long run.

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What are some of the challenges that individuals or communities face when trying to bridge the digital divide?

There are endless challenges to bridging the digital divide, especially in developing countries. These include everything from the cost and accessibility of technology to regional language barriers and rural locations.

Another challenge is tackling the rate of adoption. We have to quickly win trust and equip users, because the quicker farmers have access to technology that can improve their farming practices, the quicker the divide will close.

What role do you see technology companies playing in closing the digital divide, and what steps can they take to ensure that their products and services are accessible to all?

Technology companies like ours play a central role in bridging the digital divide. Dimitra has created five applications for different farming use cases. Everything from working with crops like coffee and quinoa, to helping with livestock breeding, animal health, and improving genetics.

Technology companies will make accessibility a problem of yesterday by ensuring that a company’s product or service is available in rural areas, as well as being easy to use. Having a commitment from all parties — the supplier and the user — is necessary in order to close the digital divide.

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Because of investment coming from the federal government, we have funding for great access to infrastructure and digital skills training. In your view, what other policy changes are needed to address the digital divide? How can companies and policymakers work together to implement these changes?

The digital competency of smallholder farmers varies greatly from highly competent to few skills with mobile phones and applications. Application developers need to develop training programs which allow for an initial training session and then repetition with a coach.

Policymakers should remember how imperative it is to have some amount of structured training which combines basic mobile skills and agricultural training.

We are already in Web3.0. What should we be doing as leaders to ensure the next iteration(s) of the Web are green, accessible and beneficial to as many people as possible?

At Dimitra, we’ve incorporated sustainability into our DNA as a company. We want to leave the world in better shape than we found it. We want every farmer to implement more sustainable practices, which will translate into increased productivity, less pesticides and reduced expenses. When farming communities thrive, societies will thrive. We are dedicated to reducing poverty and social inequality in a tangible way.

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This is the signature question we ask in most of our interviews. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?

1 . Great people are the key to business success. Finding motivated people with demonstrated critical thinking skills and creativity is important. Align with people who support your mission and are loyal to the company and team. People who are in conflict with the team cause chaos. Cultural fit and teamwork are important.

2 . Keep the team on mission and remember that technology is a great distractor. In the agriculture world, there is a need for many great technologies and the rate of adoption is accelerating. We can’t build it all. Keep your designers and developers on mission. Finish your modules, test them and deploy and then listen to your customers and adapt. Don’t let the shiny new object in the market sway you to deviate from your plan, unless your plan is just wrong.

3 . Be action oriented. Figure out your goal and the steps needed to get there, then prioritize action. Driving action has been a key to accomplishing my goals but also getting recognized for success early in my career. Don’t get distracted, because it will slow you down. There is a process and time for innovation and roadmap planning, but move forward in productivity as soon as possible.

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4 . Listen more, talk less. When I was younger I loved to share my knowledge (I still do, in fact), but listening is a skill that must be developed. It took me years to evolve my listening ability and it will take me a lifetime to master it.

5 . Learn, learn, learn. This is the key to innovation. I’ve taken so much time to learn what farmers need, how farmers impact the environment, how farmers impact the global economy, and how they impact world hunger. It is amazing that all of these social challenges are on the backs of almost 600 million farmers and their families. The tech industry needs continuous innovation and the only way for us to do this is through continuous learning.

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What role can individuals play in closing the digital divide, and what steps can they take to support these efforts?

You can sponsor a smallholder farmer with a Dimitra software license. Dimitra has launched an individual sponsorship program. When DMTR token holders stake tokens, they can also sponsor individual farms and projects with which Dimitra works.

How can our readers follow you online?

Your readers can follow me on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-trask-59423632/

They can also visit www.dimitra.io to learn more and view all of our social platforms there.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

Dimitra SDG Life on Land – Over 10 million hectares of land are destroyed by deforestation every year. Globally, it is an estimation that 90% of this land undergoes deforestation due to the expansion of cropland and livestock grazing areas.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a list of 17 priority objectives that promote worldwide sustainability. There is a critical demand to protect and restore terrestrial life. This effort focuses on limiting and reversing deforestation and ecosystem degradation.

Above all, SDG #15, Life on Land, is more important than ever before.

At Dimitra, we’re helping farmers, operators, and global trade companies advocate for sustainable land usage and crop management.

Life on Land SDG

15 “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”

For instance, people are making continuous efforts toward ensuring sustainable forests and more responsible natural resource management.

However, even with these efforts, many of the commitments and instruments designed to protect and restore forests — as well as the biodiversity they contain — must still be implemented properly.

This call is urgent if we are to ensure healthy and resilient societies that sustainably use forested land.

Deforestation Risks to Life on Land

Agriculture, deforestation, and biodiversity loss are inseparable issues that impact sustainable development. For example, in 2022, the Amazon rainforest experienced deforestation at a record high. As one of the most biodiverse places in the world, the Amazon continues to face serious risks of species extinction and rainforest destruction — mainly due to agribusiness operations.

Equally important, through other land threats such as desertification, pollution, and increasing construction in rural areas, it is an estimation that 40,000 species are at risk of extinction in future decades. Although the data and warnings are imminent. Millions of hectares of land continue to be the victim of destruction every year.

Sustainable Forest Management Solutions – Dimitra SDG Life on Land

If the world is to experience the progress it needs, agriculture and land-resource industries must activate sustainable land management.

However, critical biodiversity areas throughout the world need to be properly established and safeguarded. Area-based conservation is essential for SDGs 14 (pertaining to marine ecosystems) and 15 (pertaining to terrestrial ecosystems).

In other words, countries need to commit to setting these safeguards for sensitive areas. In addition, they must be setting voluntary targets for achieving land degradation neutrality. The recent EU law banning commodities linked to crops grown on deforested land exemplifies this proactive effort.

New Farming Technology: Protect Forested Land and Life

At Dimitra, we have a commitment to helping farmers and global trade companies comply with new and upcoming laws similar to the EU deforestation ban. With the Dimitra Deforestation Module, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, farmers, and importers can obtain certifications that comply with new trade laws.

In fact, using satellite analysis, geofencing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and mobile technology, operators can detect deforested areas. Farmers who operate on non-deforested land can prove their compliance in an effort to protect biodiversity. More importantly, farms that operate fraudulently — utilizing deforested land or furthering deforestation — can be easily detected and penalized.

Farmers and agricultural companies around the world can now use the Dimitra Deforestation Module to mark their geographical location at times of harvest. Furthermore, they can then automatically generate maps of the area to certify changes in deforestation or reforestation over time.

With this innovative solution, farmers gain access to risk assessment, farm mapping, certification, and the DMTR token. In addition, a record of all farming activity is securely on the blockchain for immutability.

Dimitra SDG – You may think that water is the most important resource for all life on earth. But it’s clean water that is absolutely essential, and this particular resource is at risk.

Today, 771 million people lack access to clean, sanitary water — about 1 in 10 people all over the world. Because all rely on water for drinking, bathing, farming, and hygiene, water scarcity is considered a top threat to human health.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed by the United Nations list clean water as #6 on the priority list. At Dimitra, our work alongside farmers, families, and communities supports this mission toward clean, sustainable water supplies.

Clean Water and Sanitation SDG

6 “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”

Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene is essential to a hopeful future. However, it’s estimated that over 85% of the planet’s natural wetlands have been lost over the past 300 years. 3 billion people lack quality monitoring of their local water resources, resulting in the depletion of hygiene and increased scarcity.

An ongoing lack of sanitary water can result in waterborne illnesses and death. It can also result in reduced productivity, barriers to education, and chronic hunger. Moreover, unless leading nations work to deliver SDG #6 by 2030, sustainable development remains in jeopardy — especially in critical industries such as agriculture.

Clean Water Access and Resource Management

Water management and land management coincide strongly when it comes to ensuring more sustainable farm practices.

As noted in SDG section 6.5, the goal is to “implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate by 2030.” Water resource management is critical for farmers globally, from smallholder farms with limited technology to large-scale agriculture enterprises.

The solution? Invest in water sanitation projects and improve clean water infrastructure, primarily in underserved regions around the world. Educate families, employees, and farmers about adequate sanitation protocols for their location, and work with local governments to promote water solutions for consumption and agriculture.

Sanitation and Water Solutions for Farmers – Dimitra SDG

At Dimitra, we’re helping increase water efficiency for farms of all sizes, making agricultural technology more accessible than ever before. Dimitra provides actionable insights that inform farmers: when they need to water crops, where to source clean groundwater, and how to ensure sanitary, sustainable practices in everyday operations.

Equally important, overwatering crops is a common and wasteful reality in farming. With IoT sensors, satellites, and other remote monitoring technologies, farmers gain access to water predictions and watering schedules for every crop.

With powerful farming technology, smallholder farms no longer need to play the archaic guessing game of where or when to water. Through the Dimitra Connected Farmer app, farmers use sensors and data to view intricate reports on soil, moisture levels, fertilizers, and pests. With this live data, farmers know when and exactly where to water their crops. This saves a significant amount of their most precious resource.

Dimitra’s mission to empower and educate farmers on sustainable practices strengthens water-scarce communities. Furthermore, as we expand international cooperation with farms and government partners, we hope to make water quality and availability a reality for all.