In a recent post I made, someone commented saying “we should start talking about real life issues. You no dey feel the food crisis wey dey go on for Nigeria currently. Channel your energy and skills into agriculture.”

I’d put a laughing emoji here if this wasn’t a serious issue. This reply was in response to an article I posted about the application of web3 in the music industry. The responder probably felt that music wasn’t necessary to pay attention to.

However, what this young man failed to realize is that, in Nigeria, there are few projects already exploring the applications of blockchain in agriculture. There are projects working on solving “real life issues” and one of such is AgriFi - an initiative by ToroNet.

Key Takeaways:

• Quick overview of ToroNet

• What is AgriFi?

• Problems facing agriculture in Nigeria

•AgriFi solutions (what AgriFi offers)

• AgriFi partnerships

Quick Overview of ToroNet

ToroNet is a layer-1 blockchain protocol designed to solve real world problems of the Global South, i.e, Africa. According to a LinkedIn article by Arkan Akin, co-founder of ToroNet, “the Global South represents a substantial portion of the underserved population, with limited access to basic financial services. Traditional banking models have struggled to integrate these communities’ diverse requirements and contexts. However, with the advent of web3-based business models, there is a renewed hope for a transformative shift.”

Think of ToroNet as an arm consisting of projects being developed to cater to the pressing needs of the underdeveloped or developing nations. ToroNet integrates smart contracts and leverages tokenization to build products and services that impact people’s lives. One of the initiatives by ToroNet is AgriFi.

What is AgriFi?

AgriFi = Agriculture + Finance (Decentralized Finance)

AgriFi is an initiative developed by ToroNet to transform the agricultural landscape and empower small-scale farmers by connecting them to financing. They implement zero-knowledge proof KYC tech so that each farmer connected can have a digital profile for easy access to capital.

AgriFi was founded by Bolaji Akinboro and Arkan Akin under ToroNet, the parent project.

The project aims to capture the attention of capital investors to the struggling needs of small scale farmers.

Problems Facing Agriculture in Africa

These are some of the issues facing the agriculture sector in Africa, using Nigeria as a case study:

Difficulty of small-scale farmers to get funding: due to the difficulty of small-scale farmers to access credit facilities, most of them still use manual tools, in this century, to perform activities which can be a hindering factor for productivity.

Market inefficiency: small-scale farmers often find it difficult to find buyers for their products unlike their large-scale counterparts.

Africa’s over-dependency on importing food: despite the vast amount of fertile lands in Africa, we’re still the highest importers of agricultural foods. The region is yet to realize that it is capable of feeding itself and even the world without depending on imports from foreign countries.

Investors are ignorant of the possibility for them to invest in agriculture without actually needing to own a farm.

Loss of farm produce as a result of disasters.

AgriFi Solutions

AgriFi proffers solutions to these problems through some of their offerings:

Aggregate lending pools: AgriFi utilizes aggregate lending pools powered by smart contracts where farmers can use money from there to purchase the necessary things needed for their farming. Once harvest is over and farmers sell their produce, they credit the smart contracts and the money gets distributed back to the parties involved in providing liquidity for the pools.

Pre-matching buyers for crops: AgriFi provides a database of ready buyers for crops in advance.

Agricultural insurance: AgriFi ensures that all farmers using their platform take out agricultural insurance to protect them from loss due to unforeseen circumstances.

Farm monitoring: there is a constant monitoring of farmers to ensure quality yield.

Partnerships

AgriFi has partnered with USAID, Voriancorelli, CropIT, FCMB, and Alliance Block.

Learn more about this ground-breaking project solving real world problems in Nigeria here.