RIPER;SECURING A BETTER FUTURE

????SECURING A BETTER FUTURE

????Bad debt is on the rise in the agricultural sector, with the number of debtors growing exponentially over the past decade. In 2017, bad debt owed by the farming and agriculture sector increased by 362 percent. With tales of farmers being shunned by financial institutions. In despair, farmers turn to illegal money lenders, whose interest rates are outrageous and they exploit farmers that are trying to survive. But what choice do they have? In amid economic meltdown, seeds, fertilizer which are critical to productivity can not be obtained,

????Nature also plays a part in the circle of bad debt, the damage caused by flood and unseasonal rainfall usually affecting the rural areas that are already burdened by the fall of price. Additionally, the lack of storage resources has led to food wastage and the delivery of farm produce that is not fresh, which can’t meet market demand. ????The Few farmers that succeeded in getting loans in the first place, end up defaulting as a result of drop in price.

????The impact of agriculture in every nation is significant. In India for example, the agric sector accounts for 15 percent of the country’s $2.8 trillion economy and is a source of livelihood for more than half of its 1.3 billion people. With the rise of interest rate and drop in price, farmers earnings will reduce considerably, impacting the overall industry, especially the rural areas

Various schemes have been announced by the government and corporate entities to write off some of these debts but such promises were never kept. Lenders no longer lend as usual because farmers fail to pay back.

Centralization has failed to effectively play its role in the agricultural sector. Financial institutions are more profit-oriented than value-oriented. However, this is not the case with decentralization. Blockchain has provided means of fighting the anomalies that lurk in the agricultural industry. ????Blockchain is delivering innovative means of curtailing the defects, such as the opportunity of farmers to set up their own price, which will optimize the supply chain.

????Different agricultural projects are coming into the cryptospace to help transform the niche. One of such brands is Riper, which is focused on alleviating the plight of farmers, helping farmers get out of debt while providing options for them.

⛓️With such a concept in place, farmers can sell their farm produce conveniently, lowering transaction fees, providing a means of receiving payments and microfinancing. There’s also a provision for crop insurance, which is an absolutely brilliant means of protecting farm produce. This can be done by providing more visibility across the supply chain, documentation and registration of the parties involved (price, location, date),???? securing insurance documents, Dot numbers, pickup documents and much more.

It has been an unfriendly adventure for farmers, a sad tale, ???? living as low-income earners because they lack the tools and resources to “work right”. But with the rise of blockchain and the platform provided by Riper, we witness new dawn in the agricultural sector.