Topic: Soil Health and the Organic Cure: Agriculture Solutions Driven by Blockchain Tec (Read 152 times)

Here is a blog written by Rasheed Bello on Medium, reproduced with his permission to posted here for this group of readers to benefit from:

Soil Health and the Organic Cure: Agriculture Solutions Driven by Blockchain Tech

Soil Health is a very important aspect of the Agricultural Industry, the Health of the Soil determines its viability and profitability of crop production and related agricultural practice. Extensive use of chemicals like inorganic fertilisers on the soil results in soil degradation and general decline of soil health. The way forward appears to be organic agriculture powered and driven by modern technology

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Technology and its attendant advancements over the years have been greatly beneficial to Agricultural Development and the drive towards global food security. The advent of modern farming techniques and implementation tools have assisted in this development, however this was not without great cost to the environment.
Current cultivation practices and intensive farming systems have largely been responsible for degrading soil health in various farmlands over the world. Studies have pointed out severally that soil degradation as a result of agricultural practice is very real and very alarming. Chemical intrusion- like the continuous application of inorganic fertilisers- on the soil, has been a particularly important factor in soil degradation. In fact this article, while generally focusing on the influence of modern intensive farming systems on soil health, specifically focuses on the effect of heavy use of chemical fertilisers on the same said soil and how this challenged is being tackled.

Not to get too technical, there are two major problems surrounding the issue of fertiliser application and soil degradation as it is obtainable today in which this article looks to address: one is the direct and adverse effects it undoubtedly has on the soil; effects like contamination, fertility degradation, erosion disposition and so on and the other is the alarming ignorance and lack of neglect surrounding the issue of chemical intrusion and soil health.
Regarding the first issue, the negative effects of inorganic fertilisers are quite numerous and well documented. Some of these are discussed below;

Soil Friability Effect

Inorganic fertilisers are mostly composed of chemicals which undergo chemical reactions and produce acidic substances in the soil when applied copiously. The presence of some of these acids cause friability in the soil. Friability occurs when these acids dissolve soil crumbs; causing the soil to lose its compactness. Soils become loose, less rich in organic matter and generally prone to erosion due to poor soil drainage. Over time, the soil is washed away by nature making it less suitable for agriculture. The soil degradation process that results from friability is quite widespread in areas where fertilisers are largely used.
Depletion of soil organic matter

Soil biology shows that up to 30 percent of soil composition consists of soil organic matter. Organic matter present in the soil are made up of living and dead matter. Living micro-organisms are very important to soil and plant health. The help create pest and disease resistance for plants and are also responsible for important processes like nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis. Extensive use of chemicals on the soil have been reported to adversely affect living organisms in the soil. Causing imbalance and soil degradation on a considerable scale.

A Solution Driven by Technology

The problem of soil degradation caused by inorganic fertiliser application can be addressed by simply changing the tools. The need for fertilisers as an indispensable resource for boosting agricultural crop outputs and enhancing yield quality has not only been long established, it has also proven to be a ‘must-use’. With this in mind, it goes to follow that farms must use fertilisers, but not necessarily inorganic ones. Therefore, the need for widespread use of organic fertilisers has never been more apparent. The problem has always been matching the demand needed to replace inorganic fertilisers. By their very nature, organic fertilisers are difficult to produce because of the fact that materials are less available and the process requires better technology. This is why companies like Organicco have invented revolutionary technology in a bid to match the demand for organic fertiliser and other similar organic enrichment technology.
The ecoHERO™ is a extraordinary machine that is able to convert organic waste like; commercial kitchen waste, household or industrial foods waste, farm waste etc into organic fertiliser which is just as effective as its inorganic counterpart and usable for general cropping systems. The machine is available for fertiliser production by the company and has a very high investment yield rate because of waste conversion and in-farm fertiliser production as opposed to inorganic fertiliser purchase. What is more important is that products like this are important in the bid to improve soil health and combat growing soil degradation.
The good news is that Organicco like many modern successful companies has seen the potential for improving their business and promoting their vision by using Blockchain Tech as a means to secure investment and assure the future of their company. The company is scheduled to hold An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) event this month with the aim of attracting investors who can provide funding, as little as £0.40 GBP per token, for the development of the organisation.

The Blockchain Advantage

What then are the benefits of the Organicco ICO https://organicco.uk? After all, organic agriculture is not an IT powered solution or at least not in sufficient manner to necessitate the use of Blockchain tech. The answer is rather quite simple, a look at their Whitepaper and Landing page gives credence to the idea of an ICO. The company intends to use the ICO as an investment sourcing avenue, where investors are essentially buying into the company and profiting from its development and activities in a rather large but relatively untapped market space.

Another justification for their foray into the cryptocurrency space is to provide solutions to the second challenge highlighted above, one of ignorance and general lack of concern as regards soil degradation and soil health. From previous discussions with one of the founders, the company intends to provide a knowledgebase aimed at sensitising the wider population about the benefits of organic Agriculture as well as the evils of chemical and high-intensive driven agricultural practices.

Finally, the company has taken to launching a global payment solution for international trading of agricultural commodity. The solution, easiPayer uses Blockchain Technology to implement a “low cost international payment platform designed to replace letter of credits and invoice factoring that is fast, safe and easy to use”.
These developments indicate that Organicco has a real strategy in place for tackling soil health and developing their organisation in such a ways as to be profitable to investors. It remains to be seen how well the company fares in the crypto space and how well embraced their initiative will be going forward.