Inspiration
Farmers being disconnected from the global financial system, and then falling into debt traps. This is particularly prevalent in India, where farmers have been protesting recently to secure their livelihoods
What it does
Farnance allows farmers to transform their production into a digital asset using blockchain technology. This then appears on their dashboard. Banks can then see which farmers have uploaded which production, and extend loans to the farmers using the digital asset as collateral (along with the underlying physical product). Farmers and Banks will have access to a market where production and loans can be viewed and selected, allowing Banks to extend loan offers and Farmers to apply for loans.
In summary, Farnance allows farmers to create digital assets from their physical production, view & accept loans from banks, and see historical loan rates of their products. Banks can view all products available as collateral, create loan offers for certain product types, and view what rates their customers are accepting.
How we built it
We really wanted to take time to learn during this hackathon, so we built Farnance using a new rapid prototyping language called wasp. By using wasp, we adopted React for our frontend, and Node & Prisma for our backend!
Challenges we ran into
Because we were using a new language, we ran into a lot of challenges using the features of the language; every time we wanted to implement a feature, it was a constant battle to learn how to implement the feature before actually doing so. Additionally, our primary developer was using a new M1 processor Mac which caused difficulty building the software to be run on the cloud as it uses a different kind of processor. Finally, we knew there were a lot of risks with Farnance - we actually ended up spending the entire first portion of the hackathon speaking to mentors, family, and friends to fully understand & mitigate the risks.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Coming together as a team across three continents (North America, Europe and Asia) and 12 hours time difference. Using the diversity in our team as an asset. Challenging ourselves to think about all the aspects of what we're presenting and trying to build, including the risks and how to mitigate them. Not putting ourselves under undue pressure and having fun with the process.
What we learned
We learned about the dynamics of funding agriculture in developing countries. We learned about the difficulties faced by farmers everywhere when it comes to digital infrastructure and access to the latest technology. We learned about the size and value of the farming industry and agricultural production.
What's next for Farnance
In the next phase we will be looking to build the underlying blockchain technology, which may require specialist coding knowledge. We will also reach out to organisations already working with farmers in developing countries to forge alliances that will allow us to pilot and eventually scale up the product. Finally, we will seek the backing of one or two financial institutions who would be happy to participate in a pilot.
Please check out our GitHub repository and leave a like here on Devpost!
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