New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioDimitra 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioDimitra 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.
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.
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.
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.
New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioDimitra x IMFI DAO Community AMA – On April 24th our CEO, Jon Trask sat down with Discord community IMFI DAO for an AMA! Here is the summary and key talking points.
A1: 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 focussed 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 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.
A2: Great question and I’d be happy to provide insights as to how Dimitra uses AI. The Dimitra Connected Farmer platform has a ton of AI embedded in it. And it uses On-the-ground data that is essential to making real improvements in crop performance. Satellite-based spectral and radar imagery analysis pairs with soil, weather, planting, and other agricultural data. To deliver farmers AI-based recommendations that can have a significant impact on crop yields and overall productivity. By combining all these elements and then applying AI we provide farmers with powerful insights and suggestions. For example, In Bolivia which is one of our customers, farmers use our AI to analyze data from all kinds of sources efficiently such as:
Our Connected Farmer Platform provides insights and recommendations for their farmers that results in improved crop yields and, in turn, overall profits. Moreover, it connects national agricultural data to help the government generate reports and organize local agricultural value chains. Therefore, Dimitra is helping individual farming families, their villages, communities, regions, and countries (like Bolivia).
Dimitra also helps by improving traceability that is within our systems. Which is useful data that helps to develop better public policies. I also want to point out that customers can pay for their Connected Farmer licenses with DMTR tokens.
A second example of our AI capabilities at Dimitra, would be to improve animal productivity. When we talk about leveraging AI and ML to improve livestock performance. It directly translates to giving these farmers a data-driven advantage in their everyday decision-making. Dimitra’s Livestock Guru puts those practical AI-based tools right into their hands.
Many environmental, management, and hereditary factors affect the performance of cattle. Moreover, having a comprehensive vantage point based on ML. And statistical analysis results in better predictions, performance, and productivity across many different areas:
Nutrition, weather, water, disease, temperature, etc., all affect the lifecycle of the animals.
By categorizing livestock into groups using these conditions, Livestock Guru helps farmers make better-informed decisions based on data-driven predictions. This influences areas like farm management, animal management, and breeding.
The result? More efficient livestock practices for those who need them most and higher quality products and the customers can pay for their Livestock Guru licenses with DMTR tokens.
Lastly, another example of our AI capabilities would be Dimitra’s Deforestation Compliance Module. The module uses satellite imagery to differentiate between trees, crops, forested areas, and clear-cut sections to do precisely that.
Machine learning models leverage 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.
Three nations have already started using and testing the Dimitra Deforestation module. And we’ve been training our Machine Learning with 100 kilometer areas 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.
So far, 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
Dimitra x IMFI DAO Community AMA
A3: Thank you for your kind words and I’d be happy to. I was selected as one of the finalists for the Government Blockchain Association for their “Social Impact Award,” which is a great honor. Dimitra also won the W3B & Blockchain World 2022 Entrepreneurship Award in the Industry Solutions Category. Plus, we were featured in the Blockchain for Europe article last week for our work in Climate action and Sustainability in this Blockchain for Europe article: https://www.blockchain4europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/An-Overview-of-Blockchain-for-Climate-Action-and-Sustainability-BC4EU-IOTA-April-2023.pdf
A4: You are 100% correct that many of the small farmers have not used new agricultural tech or blockchain. How we are accomplishing this is by having a true partnership with local Universities, cooperatives and governments. If we didn’t have buy in from everyone we could not attain mass adoption of our technology. For example, in Indonesia where we are doing a coffee focused project, we are collaborating with Andalas University and Solok Radjo Cooperative to develop an integrated Carbon Soil Assessment Program and also to improve their coffee crop output and help with their supply chain and traceability to international markets. The students and lecturers go out to Solok Radjo Cooperative and work with the farmers by reviewing the current soil health. And monitoring the ongoing regenerative practices with our Connected Coffee platform. The coolest part is that Solok Radjo bought their licenses with DMTR tokens.
A5: First, there are no guarantees in life, are there? I also can’t say that our price will rise. However, the DMTR token 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. And much of the value is wrapped up in the success of a related project. Take Solok Radjo, for example, the cooperative leaders used tokens to buy their licensing. Over time, they will give tokens to the farmers in their cooperative, who can then use those to buy advanced features in the platform. 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 like we do already.
A6: Great question! Dimitra has many future plans but I will name a few as its a long list: we will add more machine learning capabilities and reports to all our platforms so we continue to add value for our customers, to keep testing and
In 2023 we are focused on expanding our capabilities at detecting and reporting on deforestation, we have had great success working with farming cooperatives and multinational food companies in assessing their impacts on reducing deforestation in their supply chains.
141 nations have signed a pact at COP to eliminate deforestation by 2030. The EU has mandated that 7 crops will be deforestation free by 2024 (coffee, timber, rubber, soy, palm oil and cocoa). In less than a year companies will need to evaluate their shipments for compliance. We have built a system that we are using in Brazil and we are training our artificial intelligence to support these features around the world.
2. 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 pesticides 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.
3. 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 have many more projects this year, but those are a few interesting ones. We are also focused on scaling / improving our platforms, to add more farmers, cooperatives and nations to our list of customers, to build out the DMTR marketplace, and increase awareness of the DMTR token across the world, continue to add projects to our farmer sponsorship program and hopefully get 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. We’ve got a bright future ahead coupled with a lot of hard work and execution in 2023–2024.
A7: The market opportunity for Dimitra and for technology in agriculture is enormous as it is one of the largest market segments in the world. Dimitra’s original goal when we launched was to help 100 million farms. And we’ve contracted for about 20 million farms to date so there is a lot more to do. We’re also committed to helping save the forests around the world and so Dimitra’s Deforestation Module opportunity is also massive.
There are many application developers in the agrifood space. But it is a very large market employing billions globally and generating trillions in revenue. We are keenly aware of other leaders in the space and are assessing their progress. There are very few competitors using blockchain as a tool which gives us an advantage in many use cases. – Dimitra x IMFI DAO Community AMA
New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioDimitra Mother Earth Day – When the UN named April 22nd International Mother Earth Day in 2009, it demonstrated how far the environmental justice movement had come. With roots tracing back to the 1970s — before the widespread awareness of the importance of environmental protection — Mother Earth Day reminds us of the power of advocacy and action.
Today, we at Dimitra are celebrating the achievements of the activists that came before us while also acknowledging the immense amount of work still to be done.
This day is about spreading awareness of the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and about fostering a sense of interdependence that will inspire our society to protect the earth and all the species that inhabit it.
There is a long list contributing to the climate crisis that is continuing to destroy our planet.
Man-made changes to nature and crimes that disrupt biodiversity make it increasingly difficult to reverse the damages done.
Deforestation, in particular, is a destructive practice that results in widespread habitat loss at a level that our planet cannot sustain. Last month, we acknowledged the International Day of Forests and discussed how Dimitra’s technology was designed to minimize the harmful impacts of deforestation.
Other factors contributing to the climate crises include land-use changes, the illegal wildlife trade, and intensified agriculture.
Healthy environments not only provide us with bountiful natural resources, but they also benefit public health by preventing the spread of disease. This is because biological diversity limits the ability of pathogens to spread.
“Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet — and its people. “ — UN Official Website
By abusing natural resources, we slowly decrease their availability to us. The UN estimates that approximately one million different species are presently facing extinction.
Every single one of us possesses a powerful tool to aid in the fight against the climate crisis: a voice. On Mother Earth Day, talk to your friends and family about climate change. Take some time to consider your role on this planet. Not as a person or professional, but as a part of the ecosystem.
Moreover, another way to help make an impact is with Dimitra’s Sponsorship Program. Improve food security and sustainability and make a real and tangible difference in the lives of farmers who need our technology but can’t afford it.
When DMTR token holders stake tokens, they can also sponsor individual farms and projects with which Dimitra works.
Dimitra has an established history of working to defend Mother Earth. Our Deforestation Compliance Module helps support every stage of the supply chain that is impacted by the EU’s new deforestation law.
Our technology provides farmers with data-driven, sustainable, and actionable solutions that help them combat the impacts of intensified agriculture. Plus, we encourage sustainable agriculture by creating opportunities for farmers of all sizes and income levels.
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info@dimitra.ioDimitra Cointelegraph Agriculture – Blockchain has been recognized for its potential to transform finance and other industries that rely on data, but what happens when innovation meets the world’s oldest industry – agriculture? It turns out that blockchain has a lot to offer to the food and agriculture sectors. Especially when merged with other innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), satellites and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The agriculture sector can join the tech revolution to upgrade every aspect that has to do with transaction and data. For example, blockchain could streamline processes related to the supply chain by increasing traceability and bringing automation to the table.
A report from InsightAce Analytics found that blockchain in the agriculture and food supply chain is a market valued at over $280 million as of 2022. And will grow to over $7 billion by 2031. Demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.76% during that period.
Thanks to its unique architecture that involves decentralization, blockchain ensures the highest possible degree of transparency and traceability, which are key elements in the agriculture sector. Decentralized networks enable participants, including farmers, producers, retailers and exporters, to monitor and address major challenges showing up in the supply chain. Eventually, blockchain records can be used for analysis purposes to improve various aspects in the supply chain.
The adoption of blockchain in agriculture can also help regulatory compliance and reporting. By ensuring the provision of accurate, up-to-date, tamper-proof data, stakeholders can make better-informed decisions and implement proper corporate governance. Decentralized networks also simplify the distribution of certification data among relevant parties.
Besides transparency, blockchain can facilitate other advancements in the agricultural sector. For instance, it can enable better management of land rights, more efficient food safety tracking, and enhanced traceability of inputs like seeds and fertilizers. Dimitra Cointelegraph Agriculture
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info@dimitra.ioDimitra KEPM Projects — Dimitra Incorporated, a global Agtech company on a mission to make its technology available to farmers globally, is working with KEPM Projects in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fill the gap between local farmers, associations, and Emirate authorities.
Equally important, Dimitra and KEPM Projects will help to strengthen the UAE’s agriculture and food security efforts. Furthermore, this collaboration will help drive sustainable agriculture practices. Additionally, it will pave the way for a prosperous future for farmers and communities in the region.
To illustrate, KEPM Projects brings years of project management, delivery experience, and consulting in the agri-industrial business sector. In addition, their expertise in agtech and agribusiness complements Dimitra’s innovative solutions and services. What’s more, this enables both companies to provide even better support to farmers in the UAE.
Moreover, Dimitra and KEPM Projects will accelerate the adoption rate of technology in the Emirates agricultural sector, allowing the UAE to lead at the forefront of agricultural innovation. Furthermore, their main objectives to achieve this is the following:
The MENA Regional Director, Eng. Maged Elmontaser, states, ”Dimitra and KEPM Projects have a strategic partnership committed to the promise of faster and smarter decision-making. We’ll explore how to unlock the next wave of future value for farmers, corporations, associations, and governments in the Emirates. With Dimitra’s and KEPM Projects combined innovative technologies and knowledge, we will provide agribusiness with the most innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions.“
Dimitra Sales Partner for the UAE, Eng. Mohamed Alawad, says, ”We believe this partnership will enable us to leverage our respective strengths and expertise to create even more value for our customers and partners. Working together, we can drive innovation and progress in the AgriTech industry and help farmers thrive in a changing world.”
Eng. Mulhim Eltayeb, CEO of KEPM Projects, says, “Our partnership with Dimitra represents a significant milestone in our mission to bring comprehensive and sustainable cutting-edge AgTech solutions to farmers in the UAE. Together, we can leverage our expertise to help drive innovation and growth in the agribusiness sector both locally and regionally.”
New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioNew Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioDimitra AI – Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the agriculture market is projected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2023 to $4.7 billion by 2028.
Unfortunately, smallholder farmers, who produce nearly one-third of the world’s food, rarely benefit from these growing markets. Moreover, they are often the last to see progress coming from advanced technology like AI.
Working on the cutting edge of technological advancements, Dimitra’s agricultural application stack interweaves elements of AI and Machine Learning (ML) to support farmers across the globe and put next-generation tools into their hands.
While these applications meet varying and diverse needs with many different technologies, a critical component of this new green revolution is AI.
But how does it all work?
What does the experience look like for a farmer utilizing Dimitra applications to improve crop yields, manage livestock or battle the pox of global deforestation?
Let’s explore three key examples.
On-the-ground data is essential to making real improvements in crop performance.
Satellite-based spectral and radar imagery analysis pairs with soil, weather, planting, and other agricultural data to deliver farmers AI-based recommendations that can have a significant impact on crop yields and overall productivity.
So, what does all this look like in a real-life use case? Let’s take a trip to South America.
In Bolivia, quinoa is a high-value crop. In 2021 alone, the U.S. spent nearly $25 million on the Bolivian superfood.
Even with all this capital flowing in, smallholder farmers responsible for quinoa production face challenges from low-tech processes, soil degradation, and pest issues. AI and ML models built for these Bolivian farmers utilize advanced weather monitoring alongside satellite imagery. This is to help mitigate crop failure and better predict future performance.
AI also helps battle the scourge of productivity in the area — pests.
Sensors and AI tools help farmers monitor pest threshold levels to enable them to quickly enact countermeasures and keep fields safe.
Through the Connected Farmer Platform, farmers like those in Bolivia can use AI tech to analyze data from all kinds of sources efficiently:
The platform provides insights and recommendations to farmers that result in improved crop yields and, in turn, overall profits. Moreover, it connects national agricultural data to help governments generate reports and organize local agricultural value chains.
In fact, this results in improved traceability and useful data sets that help develop better public policies that increase GDP.
Family farmers rearing and caring for livestock across the world are facing competitive markets, inefficient herd management systems, and breeding practices that lag well behind modern standards.
When we talk about leveraging AI and ML to improve livestock performance, it directly translates to giving these farmers a data-driven advantage in their everyday decision-making.
Dimitra’s Livestock Guru puts those practical AI-based tools right into their hands.
Many environmental, management, and hereditary factors affect the performance of cattle. Moreover, having a comprehensive vantage point based on ML and statistical analysis results in better predictions, performance, and productivity across many different areas:
Nutrition, weather, water, disease, temperature, etc., all affect the lifecycle of the animals.
By categorizing livestock into groups using these conditions, Livestock Guru helps farmers make better-informed decisions based on data-driven predictions. This influences areas like farm management, animal management, and breeding.
The result? More efficient livestock practices for those who need them most and higher quality products.
Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of global deforestation fell from 16 million hectares per year to 10 million.
Thanks in part to changing perceptions toward global conservation and drives to enact regulation, we’re now in the third decade of deforestation decline. Far from over, though, the problem we face now is getting a clear picture of deforestation issues and effective methods to enforce regulations.
Dimitra’s Deforestation Compliance Module uses satellite imagery to differentiate between trees, crops, forested areas, and clear-cut sections to do precisely that.
ML models leverage 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.
GPS track and trace is required to prove compliance in some global markets, like the European Union.
While powerful AI technology delivers insights to farmers, it’s only a glimpse into the full Dimitra agricultural tech stack.
Underneath it all is an optimized blockchain architecture that powers a global marketplace, financial services, and distributed analytics. So how do these practical AI-powered platforms connect to the Dimitra Token (DMTR)?
Here are three examples:
Whether it’s tracking drone data or soil sensor activity, AI is a critical component of the next generation of agricultural products. Dimitra is taking those tools, combining them with other advanced technologies, and providing them to those who need them most.
As the world evolves, Dimitra is committed to developing an all-in-one agricultural platform that caters to farmers across the globe.
This platform utilizes AI and ML tech across the stack to deliver insights that offer real-world results. That means better crop productivity, better livestock management, and a clearer picture of global deforestation.
New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.ioDimitra Reduce Inequality – One of the most definitive issues of human history is inequality. Although several forms of inequality have declined, income inequality is perhaps the most common and concerning form today.
According to the 2022 World Inequality Report, 10% of the world’s population earns more than 52% of global income, while the poorest 50% of the population receives only 8%.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, global income inequality increased for the first time in decades. Insufficient recovery in today’s market continues to widen the disparity, and income inequality continues to rise significantly between countries.
One of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to reduce inequality significantly by 2030.
At Dimitra, we’re working within and between nations to mitigate income inequality, especially among the world’s most important laborers: farmers.
“Reduce inequalities within and among countries.”
While income inequality is stabilizing between countries, it’s growing worse within countries. SDG #10 calls for nations to “reduce inequalities in income as well as those based on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other statuses within a country.”
Inequalities in agriculture still exist today, some of which date back thousands of years. Among smallholder farms that support their immediate families and communities, wealth inequality remains a top concern. Land ownership has also been a constant struggle in the fight for farmers’ rights to a livable income.
Despite historically groundbreaking equal rights movements around the world, gender inequalities still exist in professional fields today — and the farming industry is no exception. Women in agriculture still face serious barriers to land ownership. In fact, less than 20% of landholders are women. Of that amount, even fewer have land ownership — or the ability to control, utilize, and manage owned land freely without oppression.
What are agricultural innovators and national governments to do in the face of farming inequality? As a leading agricultural technology company focused on farmer success, we at Dimitra know there’s no single solution.
Section 10.b in SDG #10 to Reduce Inequality lists a target: “Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular, least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes.”
This effort is one Dimitra strongly aligns with. Direct investment is one thing. Working in accordance with national plans is another, and it’s vital if farmers are to be equipped with the resources, support, and knowledge they need to achieve equal access to opportunities within their country.
To enable farmers to operate sustainably and earn a steady income, countries can work to ensure equal opportunities that reduce inequalities. Agricultural companies and cooperatives can advocate to override discriminatory laws and policies in the industry. Furthermore, agricultural companies can prioritize equal opportunity employment, fair wages, and ethical working conditions in every aspect of the operation.
Whether it be gaining access to basic farm goods and services, learning to implement more sustainable farming practices, or diversifying the opportunities of crop trade, farmers benefit from technology. And it’s possible to make this reality more accessible for all.
At Dimitra, we work with smallholder farms around the world to ensure fair, advanced availability of supportive AgTech platforms. Our Connected Farmer App allows farmers to track finances, manage crops, access weather predictions, and stay in compliance with local government regulations. Although this type of technology was only available to large-scale farmers in the past, we place it in farmers’ hands — even those in the most rural locations.
Dimitra’s CEO, Jon Trask, proclaims: “Every smallholder farmer, regardless of economic status, should be able to benefit from simple, beautiful, and useful technology… because when farmers thrive, economies thrive.”
With Dimitra, farms can effectively increase yield, reduce costs, and mitigate risks throughout every season. It’s our mission to make the equality gap smaller, one farmer at a time.
New Horizon Building, 3-1/2 Miles Philip S.W. Goldson Highway, Belize City
info@dimitra.io