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Nigeria’s Unity Bank Collaborates with Binkabi for Blockchain-Based Agricultural Solutions

Nigeria’s Unity Bank has entered into a collaboration with Binkabi, a commodity trading structure that is blockchain-based. The primary objective of this partnership is to propel lending to Nigeria’s agriculture sector.

Expressly, Binkabi will avail blockchain-based agricultural solutions, whereby value addition will be availed to SMEs and farmers by propelling quality storage for farm produces and grains under the commodities category. Additionally, Binkabi will be instrumental in generating a marketplace, whereby end-sellers and end-buyers of the commodities will be connected.

The collaboration will also be pivotal in boosting finance access to SMEs and farmers. For instance, Unity Bank customers will be advantaged as they will easily attain loans.

Usman Abdulqadir, Unity Bank’s Head of Risk Management and Compliance, stipulated that the partnership was noteworthy as farmers will get end-to-end solutions, whereas the whole agribusiness value chain will be enhanced.

While speaking at an agro commodities trade platform launch, Abdulqadir stipulated:

“There are problems within the agric sector, and one of them is that we have limited bank lending to the sector. There is difficulty in accessing risk because there is no data, and even when there is data, it is not reliable.”

Abdulqadir was optimistic that the partnership would expand farmers’ knowledge base as they will become better risk assessors. Furthermore, the intended platform will propel liquidity and transparency. As a result, the farmers’ purchasing power will be enhanced because of optimal profitability and productivity.

The blockchain innovation will require farmers to avail their warehouse receipts so that they can obtain funding, and this will simultaneously unlock the whole value chain.

Abdulqadir also noted:

“What we are doing today is just to integrate all the various components of the value chain into one single entity to have an integrated approach to funding the agric sector. We have a huge portfolio of primary production; as we speak today, about 40 percent of our entire loan portfolio is in one aspect of agriculture or the other. We are the leading bank in funding primary production; we are also deepening agriculture mechanisation.”

Manrui Tang, Binkabi’s Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, affirmed that the firm’s objective was issuing financing and trading commodities on the blockchain by connecting all stakeholders in the supply chain, such as aggregators, farmers, logistics companies, commodity exchanges, banks, and warehouses, among others.

Dynasty Farms to Use Blockchain for Fresh Produce Traceability Project

Dynasty Farms/ Pacific International Marketing is set to use iTrade Blockchain to propel transparency and traceability of fresh produce. iTrade Network is a noteworthy worldwide provider of supply chain management solutions in the food and beverage sector.

By using iTrade Blockchain, Dynasty Farms will attain and present key product data with various trading partners. This approach will be instrumental in offering optimal visibility of the supply chain operations being undertaken. Moreover, consumers will be advantaged as their knowledge base about food safety will be enhanced.

Dave Johnson, the president of Dynasty Farms, stipulated that transparency and safety were their top objectives.

Johnson noted:

“We want to make sure we are providing our consumers with the safest, highest quality product. Having rich traceability information associated with our purchase orders on the iTrade Blockchain will not only give us meaningful insights into our operations and facilitate a safer supply chain, but it will also set us apart from our competitors and make us more appealing to our current and prospective trading partners.”

The deployment of iTrade Blockchain is set to be transformative as PIM/Dynasty Farms will be able to capture vital first-mile data. As a result, food safety will be enhanced based on the traceability solutions presented. This project is set to render a secure and smarter food supply chain.

Previously reported on Blockchain.News, the traceability of coffee origin was recently propelled by a blockchain app.

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How Blockchain Technology is Improving the Agricultural Sector

Agriculture is a very critical factor when it comes to economic growth and development, as acknowledged by the Worldbank. Projections from the Open Access Government website, providing up-to-date analyses of different fields say that based on the rate of our current population growth, estimated that by 2050, the agricultural sector will have to produce 70% more than what it is currently producing or the world will go hungry.

This has led to the adoption of tactics such as smart farming, which connotes the use of modern technology like Blockchain in farming practices. The agricultural sector is in dire need of innovations and new ideas if it is going to be able to meet the challenge that our increased population poses.

Where the problem lies

Once the grown food leaves the hands of the farmer and the farm, it passes through several supply chains and intermediaries before finally getting to the consumer. It is at this point that most people want to know where the food they are about to consume has been, to determine its safety and sterility.

This is one of the significant use cases of blockchain technology in agriculture. Walmart has been able to implement this in its stores, with the help of IBM, to use blockchain technology to trace food items, in real-time.

Food production

By 2050 there is an estimation that the human population will grow to 9.6 billion people; therefore, there will be a need for a higher rate of food production. To increase food production, the agricultural sector has already started implementing the use of IoT devices – following smart farming practices.

These devices are used to monitor food yield, which then generates data to assist the farmers, to make better decisions about the growth of crops.

Weather crisis

Every farmer battles with unpredictable weather conditions throughout the year, sometimes with a weather that is too hot or with a cloudy day that turned into a lightning storm.

These kinds of conditions have a significant role to play in the growth of food, as they affect food quality and yield.

In this instance, agricultural weather stations built on blockchain technology, have been deployed on farms, to monitor weather conditions, like rainfall, air temperature, and wind direction, to provide farmers with the necessary information they need to make decisions.

Improvement of supply chains

Recently there has been a spike in the increase of food adulteration making the tracking of food supply chains very critical in agriculture; this is to establish the origin of the food item, to determine if they are safe for consumption.

Blockchain technology has simplified this process, by supporting the creation of smart farming devices that capture and save crucial information about food production, which is then uploaded on a distributed storage platform where it can be verified.

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Indonesia’s Chronic Crop Data Problem Solved by Blockchain

Indonesia has been a victim of unreliable crop data, and this has hindered the optimality of its agricultural sector. This nation has been grappling with the lack of accurate data when it comes to issues, such as crop output. HARA, a Jakarta-based startup, seeks to address this challenge by deploying blockchain technology.

According to Bloomberg, HARA has started utilizingblockchain in collecting and managing farm data, such as pest infestation, grains transaction, soil and crop conditions, cultivation process, and land ownership.

Regi Wahyu, HARA’s CEO, notes that blockchain will be instrumental in enhancing farmers’ livelihood as they will be given more insights based on the data collected.

Wahyu stipulated:

“Our mission is to provide rural smallholders access to various farm goods, financing and crop insurance. The holy grail for accessibility is availability of accurate and transparent data which can help farmers in getting loans to finance their production.”

HARA intends to work together with Indonesia’s Agriculture Minister in developing reliable agriculture data through blockchain.

As reported by Blockchain.News on Oct.18, Farm to Plate, a blockchain-enabled provenance tracking portal by Paramount Software Solutions, is set to address the challenge of recalls witnessed in the food & beverage sector.

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Oxfam's Blockchain-Based Agricultural Insurance Firms in Sri Lanka Pay Farmers with Crypto

As stated in a report, the Agricultural Insurance firms in Sri Lanka announced to have made their first payment to smallholder farmers with cryptos. These firms include; Oxfam, Etherisc, and Aon Plc. While Oxfam is an organization that works to alleviate poverty, Etheriscis an InsurTech startup which centers on developing a protocol for decentralized insurance applications: and Aon Plc is a leading professional services firm that provides a wide range of health solutions, risk, and retirement.

Michiel Berende, the Chief Inclusive Officer at Etherisc said: “We are proud to have real-world, on-the-ground success from a blockchain solution for microinsurance. We are delighted with the first phase results, and we are excited to drive on and help more farmers.”

The said farmers were paid by the system in this initial operations phase. The farmers being about 200 were enrolled earlier this year because they had been involved in the risk of losing their crops owing to extreme weather.

The report also outlined the major challenges that prevent farmers from utilizing insurance. These barriers are: unavailability of cost-effective and trusted insurance products, unavailability of understanding about how insurance would help a farmer survive, coupled with knowing when and how a claim would be paid. Interestingly, recent blockchain technology meets up with these challenges.

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Thailand’s Trade Policy Office to Trace Agricultural Products from Farm to Export Using Blockchain

Thailand’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) has revealed its intentions of using blockchain technology to trace agricultural products from farms to export as this will optimize buyers’ confidence.

The traceability of organic rice will be tested initially, and other agricultural products will follow suit.

The blockchain system to be deployed will trail the process from cultivation, whereby a camera will be installed in the rice fields to authentic whether it is real organic rice.

Pimchanok Vonkorpon, TPSO’s director-general, noted that the project will kick off as soon as the office gets the operating funds based on the fiscal 2020 budget. TPSO will also propel discussions with blockchain experts, financial institutions, and related authorities to hasten the development of the blockchain system.

Vonkorpon asserted: “We already talked with farmers and some 5,000 growers from Surin province will participate in this project,” she said. “We expect that the project will start in the middle of the next year, and if successful, we will extend it to other agricultural products.”

She also added: “This system will help instill confidence in Thai organic rice, reducing problems of buyer’s rejection, product adulteration, and license subrogation in order to increase the bargaining power and add more value to the product, as well as creating opportunities for expanding export markets.”

The blockchain network will enable buyers to check the source of organic rice, and this will boost their satisfaction and trust levels.

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