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This replaces the “FDN visualization” drafted Dec 2021 which is here for reference.

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“Digital Farmer Networks” or “DFN” describes an end-state or vision. DG's work will contribute to realizing this vision but we are one actor in a larger ecosystem of players and ideally our technology tools and thought leadership can influence others in a direction that aligns with DFN.

Simply put, the end state we are working towards is one where Farmer groups have control / agency over their own data and leverage it to deliver value for their members; farmer groups have the capacity to drive the digitization effort themselves.

So what is DFN specifically? It has a few

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key pillars:

Confidential Data Compute

  • Tools that enable secure data sharing and analytics to be generated in a manner that doesn’t compromise data privacy or result in loss of control

  • Some examples based on current and upcoming offerings:

    • Data Wallet

    • Consent Manager

    • P2P connectors

    • FS Discovery

    • Progressive decentralization (byte storage and ID)

Data Capture and Analytics

  • User interfaces for capturing and visualizing data at the farmer or farmer group level

  • Some examples based on existing projects

    • Dashboard for FPO leadership to see PG level and aggregated input requirements and marketable surplus

    • Benchmarking report that compares farmer performance on key

    • Planting date survey

Incentives

  • Funding platform: The most direct and tangible benefit is cash which farmer groups can invest to strengthen their member value prop

  • Tokens and gamification to reward data capture and validation

Capacity Building and Training

  • Digital literacy

  • Data officer

  1. Technology product

    • User Interface / Analytics: For capturing and viewing data

      • Front-end app/UI with a back-end data store (which could be a normal DB or decentralized over time, more on that below)

      • Today, this is KDE where there are three distinct interfaces

        • “PG officer” which is a mobile app used by farmer members to capture data information crop grown, marketable surplus for sale, inputs required

        • Dashboard for FPO leadership to see aggregated data and drill down; answer questions like “What is the total quantity of corn available for sale across my members”

        • Buyer interface which lets FPO publish marketable surplus into a catalog that can be easily shared w buyers

      • Explore using photos and voice notes as method of data entry; look back to some of the ideas we explored w NavanaTech

      • Coordination and communication between members (expect a lot of in-person meetings and Whatsapp at present; what if anything needs to be formalized, eg, decisions made by the farmer group BOD)

    • Asset Layer:

      • If we pursue a use case related to financial products (loans, grants, insurance, ecosystem services payments), this is where the financial product is defined

      • NFT with smart contract to govern transactions / payments related to the asset

      • Decentralization / DeFi has utility here in terms of streamlining payments, fractionalizing, making an asset “programmable”

    • Data layer: How is data structured and stored?

      • Data model: impose some structure on the data to support interoperability and make the data more usable externally; will be informed by the use cases we want to support

      • Progressive decentralization: Today, KDE data is stored in the cloud by Digital Green. Over time, can we move towards a decentralized storage model which gives farmers greater control / agency over their data assets

      • Visibility and access to data collected from other sources (eg, not just the UI described above)

    • Other stuff:

      • Tokens as an incentive and governance mechanism

      • Interface to share data with value-add service providers (consent manager fits here?)

  2. “Go to market” or how do we drive adoption in the real world

    • Entry points; what is a value prop that drives farmer group adoption of the technology product?

    • How do farmer groups learn about DFN? Do we leverage SRLM partners as a channel to reach farmer groups? Or resource institutions? Or entities like NABARD and SFAC?

    • How do farmer groups on-board and see value from the technology product; what handholding support do we provide?

    • A data officer or on-ground resource embedded within farmer group

    •  Training and capacity building content on topics like data literacy; can look to the FPO videos we are producing (why join an FPO, how to do a business plan) as reference

    • Who are the entities that use the data generated by farmers? What are their pain points and how does DFN address these?

      • Do we build integrations with organizations who leverage data generated by farmers and is this done as part of FS? Vineet Singh

  3. Economic and governance model

    • When we say farmers “own” the data, what does this mean?

    • What is the legal entity that is building and maintaining the software? And what about the data?

      • Data Trust, Data Cooperative, DAO

    • What is the cost of delivering the DFN services and do farmer groups pay to access?

      1. consider a sliding subsidy scale; eg. 100% subsidy in Years 1 and 2 then dropping by 1/3 in subsequent years

    • How is this entity funded?

    • How are decisions made?

    • What role do product users / farmer groups play in terms of governance of this entity

      • In a Web3 model, tokens show up for funding and decisions making as well

Open things:

  • Where does policy stuff fit? Specifically, how does the data ownership model contemplated here relate to - in India - IDEA/Agristack and some future Data Protection legislation? What about Ethiopia and Kenya?

  • Does Farmstack have similar components? The details will obviously be different but might be helpful to breakdown along similar lines. Vineet Singh

Info

This replaces the “FDN visualization” drafted Dec 2021 which is here for reference.