Dimitra, a worldwide chief in agricultural know-how and sustainability options, is supporting the Meals and Agriculture Group of the United Nations (FAO) to develop a smartphone software for Indigenous farmers in Suriname.
FAO is working within the nation to boost natural pineapple manufacturing by leveraging blockchain know-how to modernize cultivation practices, enhance productiveness, and safe market entry. Leveraging Dimitra’s traceable and immutable know-how, via this app native growers will entry superior strategies together with mechanical land preparation and synthetic flower induction to supply premium natural pineapples and meet market calls for.
Dimitra is deploying immutable blockchain and AI know-how to help FAO offering Surinamese farmers with real-time complete farming information on their crop manufacturing and provide chains from end-to-end. From creating digital farmer profiles and registration with their demographic and plot particulars, to monitoring crop actions and managing harvests with traceability companies, the platform goals to make sure that each step of the pineapple manufacturing course of—from planting to harvesting—is traceable.
By offering a safe document of sustainable practices via actionable information, Surinamese farmers can achieve entry to superior know-how to rework agricultural practices, improve market competitiveness, and forge key alliances, opening doorways to premium markets that require stringent compliance with worldwide requirements.
FAO has been working within the nation since 2018 with UNIDO, ILO and UNFPA via the ASTA Suriname initiative has been driving the pineapple sector’s development in Suriname, a focal commodity for the nation’s financial development. Backed by the Joint United Nations Sustainable Growth Group (UNSDG) Fund, the ASTA Suriname undertaking has performed in-depth evaluation of farms and rolled out preliminary implementation actions. The undertaking goals to empower indigenous and rural communities throughout Suriname’s pineapple belt to modernize natural pineapple manufacturing, reworking Suriname into a serious producer and exporter of high-quality natural recent and processed pineapples, and transferring away from outdated practices with little value-addition and restricted exports.
The innovation undertaking proposed by FAO – to develop a digital traceability app to help indigenous pineapple farmers in Suriname – was funded by the 2024 Elevate Grant Programme of FAO, an initiative that fosters revolutionary initiatives for the agricultural sector focusing on smallholder farmers.
The brand new app, already developed in native language, might be launched with the farmers and key stakeholders in early December 2024.
Jon Trask, CEO of Dimitra mentioned: “Dimitra is devoted to empowering smallholder pineapple farmers in Suriname with cutting-edge, easy-to-use know-how to boost agricultural productiveness, promote sustainability, and in the end enhance the standard of life for these communities. By the Agrifood Methods Accelerator (ASTA) and the Horticulture Innovation HUB of Suriname – a newly established public-private partnership offering a number of companies to farmers in Suriname – supported by the Joint UNSDG Fund, we intention to foster a extra resilient and equitable agrifood system globally and provides customers the origin story of their meals.”
With 95 % of its land lined in forest together with components of it forming a portion of the Amazon rainforest, Suriname’s inside areas face financial challenges, leaving many Indigenous, tribal and rural communities in poverty. By the ASTA Suriname undertaking, farmers are supplied with hands-on coaching, and on-the-ground trial plots to showcase efficient strategies like enhancing soil, optimizing inputs, and planting pineapples in beds. Through the use of the app native growers within the nation might be uncovered to worldwide markets, increasing the nation’s financial horizons, and aligning with the accountable consumption and manufacturing of the UN’s sustainability objectives.
Margherita Bavagnoli, FAO’s Worldwide Worth Chain Finance Skilled, oversees undertaking actions amongst numerous Indigenous villages in Suriname: “To date, the ASTA Suriname undertaking has geared up 120 marginalized Indigenous girls and youth to take management of and profit from the evolving pineapple worth chain. There was a necessity to permit Indigenous communities within the nation to succeed in markets, obtain agronomic info and entry companies. This app goals to be helpful in controlling deforestation, offering entry to markets and data to farmers in distant areas, considerably contributing to the conclusion of the sustainable growth objectives (SDGs).”