Kilimo is a South American climate technology start-up company which aims to improve water consumption within agriculture; both for the farmer and the environment. Over 2,000 farmers currently use Kilimo’s irrigation practices within Latin America. To date, Kilimo’s irrigation practices have saved over 72 billion liters of water within the continent.
Here’s where it gets interesting from a DeFi / NFT perspective:
Firstly, according to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), by 2050 approximately 51% of the world’s population could be at high water risk. That is to say that 51% of the world will either have too much, not enough, polluted, or disrupted water systems. Other risks include lack of access to water or poor sanitation. It is important as a world community that we use water sparingly in order to combat these potential problems.
This is where water-neutral NFTs come into play. Enter WakeUp Labs. WakeUp Labs is built on Rootstock which is the first Bitcoin sidechain offering smart contract capability across the network; making it one of the most secure networks in the world. The perfect ledger to farmers’ NFTs!
WakeUp Labs and Kilimo have partnered in order for farmers to practice water-saving farming practices through Kilimo’s ‘Al Irrigation’ management tool. This means that farmers use more efficient practices in order to save water. When farmers save water they are incentivized by water-saving certificates in the form of NFTs. These NFTs are documented using the Rootstock blockchain and can be traded with other companies who want to buy the water certificates if they are using too much water. This way we will have a water footprint similar to the current carbon footprint in global society.
The whole project will incentivize farmers to use water as efficiently as they can while earning extra money by selling their water-saving NFT certificates to other companies who need to use in excess of the allocated amount of water they should be using. Thus, everyone benefits and the project goes some way to addressing the issue outlined by the WWF of over half of the world’s population being at risk of water security.
Kilimo’s Founder, Jairo Trad had this to say on the uniqueness of this project:
“We are excited because Kilimo’s technology will allow farmers to receive income for saving water, and simultaneously companies can offset their water footprint. This is how we can make Everyday DeFi a reality”
While Augustin Pandolfini who is the Head of Social Impact at IOV Labs had this to say about the use of Rootstock and DeFi within the agriculture industry:
“Amazing to see RSK being tapped by these two influential players for a great sustainable cause that’s helping enable innovative everyday DeFi for farmers.”
