Buy food & make an impact

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Buying regenerative foods with ADA, sent through a smart contract % towards smallholder farmers to support livelihood, best farming practices and receive impact validation. 

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

A collaboration between a food company, an NGO with 20+ years of experience working with farmers, supported by 10+ years of digital product development experience and 20+ years of entrepreneurial expertise. Local teams in Ghana. Started the project in Ghana 5 months ago.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Where does our food come from? How is it produced? Does our food include chemicals? What is the environmental impact of the food we eat? How is the farmer's livelihood? 

The answers to those questions are complex and often we prefer not to know. But the reality is that much of the food we eat today is sourced upstream by smallholder farmers living in extreme poverty and using unsustainable and unhealthy farming methods for people and nature. 

In this proposal, we will focus on one supply chain of Bambara groundnut plant-based milk that is being grown in Ghana, by women smallholder farmers.

This presentation gives a good overview of the project:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16s3Vq67Sb8jZtvkavLB2f5md-U9C5TUW/view?usp=sharing

Please see the attached document that explains the opportunity we have across this supply chain

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pFIlHzkOQOsRZGTTo4MQIk1sM6bAGtTMolr25Y1PC5c/edit

Also as background information please read the fund 8 funded proposal which, based on the research we did let us to write the current proposal.  

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/403695

The above resources give a good overview about the project and overall opportunity. 

The proposed solution

This proposal's solution offers a direct connection between the farmers and the customers. WhatIF Foods makes regenerative foods like instant noodles and plant-based milk, which are stable foods. Using plant-based milk products is very attractive as customers drink milk on a regular basis and it is a product that could have big lifecycle value as well as high importance for the engagement between the source and the consumer. 

While the source of the Bambara today is coming in majority from Nigeria, ‘WhatIF Foods’ is developing the supply chain from Ghana. This means that customers could learn from a very early stage on the baseline status and have full transparency and traceability on what is the progress on the ground. As the project is expected to grow and impact more than 25,000 smallholder farming families, there is a great opportunity to show how Cardano technology and the community could support such an amazing project and serve as use case for many other agri supply chains.  

Current status:

• https://whatif-foods.com/ is selling its product online in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and the US (not yet available in Europe). 
• The products are being sold through https://www.shopify.com
• Shopify is already working with Crypto payments including ADA
• https://nowpayments.io/payment-tools
• https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2021/04/cardano-ada-payments-now-available-to-merchants-using-shopify-or-woocomerce/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/cardano/comments/muxpan/ada_payments_possible_on_shopify_woocommerce_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

The suggested process will be as follow:

• A dedicated webpage will be created in Shopify for the project with dedicated messaging.  
• Customers can use their ADA wallet to buy milk to be shipped to their location. If the customer does not have an ADA wallet, information and links will be provided.  
• An agreed % of the revenue will be sent, using a smart contract, to the “Pond Foundation” wallet. 
• The Pond Foundation will use the money to interact with farmers and improve their livelihood.
• A monthly report on the use of funds and progress with the work with the farmers will be provided by the pond foundation.  

Value for customers and users

Customers will be part of the creation of a sustainable supply chain using their buying power. All in a transparent and traceable way using the Cardano blockchain.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The challenge asks the question: What dapps, products and integrations can be implemented to bring impactful use cases to the Cardano ecosystem that help drive more adoption? 

Agricultural supply chain is a big focus for Cardano Foundation and has prime importance in developing countries where Cardano aims to create a large impact. 

Here is some Data related to Ghana: 

In addition, it builds a dapp for a massive problem in Africa in general as well as in the country we are working in. Ghana has a population of 25.37 million [...] with 68 % and 32 % living in the rural and urban areas respectively. About 52 % of the labor force is engaged in agriculture [...] Approximately, 39 % of the farm labor force is women. Agriculture contributes to 54 % of Ghana’s GDP, and accounts for over 40 % of export earnings, while at the same time providing over 90 % of the food needs of the country. Ghana’s agriculture is predominantly smallholder, traditional and rain-fed (SRID, 2001). Source: https://www.fao.org/ghana/fao-in-ghana/ghana-at-a-glance/en/

This solution will directly impact small farmers' livelihood and the environment incentivizing farmers to work in a sustainable way impacting the amount of CO2 sequestered because of the increased adoption of biochar as fertilization of the farmer's soil, the usage of artificial fertilizer will be stopped and the new sustainable way of fertilizing the soil will be the beginning of a local revolution using biochar. This is a key part of the work of The Pond Foundation and ‘WhatIF Foods’.  

But the amazing opportunity is that it will be achieved by consumers using ADA to purchase the products and have full transparency on the use of funds with the farmers. This is a HUGE use case for Cardano around supply chain transparency and traceability. The Pond Foundation will be able to use the funds for all activities like investing in primary education, healthcare, primary infrastructures, access to clean water and sanitation. A report about the use of fund and impact will be available to the community to measure the impact.

In this proposal, we are actually onboarding a food company (https://whatif-foods.com/) to collaborate with Catalyst and incorporate ADA payments for its products and encourage a model where its customers have a direct impact on the supply chain. In the previous fund we managed to onboard the https://thepondfoundation.org/ and this is already a ripple effect.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Challenge 1: volatility of currency - ‘WhatIF Foods’ is taking a risk of managing cashflow based on the volatility of the coins. We will start with a pilot and grow as we resolve some of the key issues such as having a Cardano stable coin. The price of the milk will not be fixed in ADA but rather in USD and will be converted to ADA at the time of purchase. We will work together with the Treasury Guild service (see below) to try and further mitigate this risk.   

Challenge 2: there might be legal implications to selling in the US in ADA - this is why we start with a pilot and price the purchase in USD.  

Challenge 3: Customers' concern and education to use/open the wallet to buy milk - we will focus the pilot with the Cardano/Catalyst community

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

September: planning phase 

• full process definition and verification
• build a dedicated webpage on shopify

October: implementation phase

• open What If Food Cardano wallet and Pond Foundation Cardano Wallet  
• connect webpage with customer wallets function 
• develop a smart contract for money transfer
• develop communication & marketing files    

November-December:

• Promotion to customers - initially Cardano/ Catalyst communities 
• Evaluation and improvement of process
• Use of funds in Ghana and reporting process 
• User survey
• End of the project summary 

2023

• continue to sell and evaluate the scale of the project to other markets' customer segment  

Main deliverables:

• Dedicated webpage on shopify 
• Smart contract and wallets integration
• User survey results
• Promotional materials 
• Project summary 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Product lead = $2000 x 4 months = $8000

Web development (managed by WhatIF provider) = $2000

Plutus developer = $4000 x 2 months = $8000

Sustainability lead = $1000 x 4 months = $4000

Business lead = $1000 x 4 months = $4000

Marketing materials = $1000 

Marketing Promotion = $2000

Accounting support = $1000 the Treasury Guild service (more below)

Admin & tech support & dev margins = $1500 

Total = $31500

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The project is a collaboration between various organizations. Here are the details: 

WhatIF Foods whatif-foods.com

WhatIF foods is a planet-based food company founded on regenerative principles. REgeneration is in our DNA. We make foods that replenish diets, restore degraded lands by using crops that are grown with regenerative practices, and reconnect with farming communities.

whatif-foods.com is a member of The Pond Foundation. WhatIF Foods is seeking The Pond Foundation’s support to develop and implement a new raw material supply chain within Ghana that supports its mission to source their raw materials from regenerative farming that materially improves the lives of farmers. Regenerative agriculture methods and mindset contribute to soil health, and biodiversity, reducing erosion and capturing carbon from the atmosphere. It also includes reducing chemical fertilizer and considering farmers' and consumers' health. It is all part of the 21st-century supply chain.    

Read more about WhatIF Foods mission here: whatif-foods.com/pages/about

Project lead for WhatIF Food: Sylvie Chau 

Innovation and Process Technology 

Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvie-chau-893422139/

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The Pond Foundation

The Pond Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Scott Poynton and dedicated to driving change for good. It exists to guide people and organizations on the journey to reconnect with themselves and drive extensive earth-serving action. For more information :

• The Pond Foundation : https://thepondfoundation.org/
• My Carbon Zero program : https://mcz.thepondfoundation.org/

The Pond Foundation has partnered with WhatIF Foods for the project in Ghana and has been operating there for the last 5 months. 

The Foundation is also part of an important related fund 7 funded proposal, the Cardano Carbon Footprint: cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/385045 through which the team is well engaged with the SPO community https://www.climateneutralcardano.org/ as well as www.Cardano4climate.com community.

Scott Poynton, Sustainability Lead

Scott is a real social and environmental leader for the last 30 years. He created an NGO named The Forest Trust (currently www.earthworm.org) and his estimated positive impact is for about $ 2 trillion of supply chains and millions of hectares of forest. He is now on his biggest mission to mitigate climate change. 

Involvement: Leading the project within Ghana and enabling access to stakeholders of the supply chain.

Links: https://www.scottpoynton.com/about-1 

For more information please visit:

https://adifferentway.life/

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Magnus Edvard Nielsen, Product Lead

Magnus is a product lead with 10+ years experience in building technology products, teams and companies in both B2B and B2C. He has a strong focus on lean methodologies; build, test and learn to stay close to customers, new market trends, increase product quality and speed of development. A Strong passion for web3, complex digital products, getting from “zero to one” and building a sustainable future for our planet.

In June 2019 traveled to Indonesia for research on Indonesian farmers within rice, coffee, coconut sugar.

From 2017-2021 Leading the innovation team, at one of the biggest PaaS companies within digital supply chains named Tradeshift. The innovation teams two focus areas was decentralized technology and environmental sustainability.

Involvement: Leading the product strategy and design

Links: www.linkedin.com/in/magnusedvard/

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Yoram Ben Zvi, business models lead and connect to the Cardano ecosystem

20+ years of business experience working with technology companies (strategy, partnerships, investors). In the last years, Yoram is focused on combining impact and business. 4 years ago he left his comfort zone and worked for 2 years for an NGO Earthworm.org focusing on sustainable business models across agriculture supply chains. Yoram is very active in Catalyst as a CA, successful proposer, and at Cardano4Climate. Yoram is part of the AIM team and is involved with the Catalyst SDG tool cardanocataly.st/proposer-tool-sdg/#/ (which is included in the proposal process) and the catalyst alignment to SDG research. 

Yoram was working on a related project in Indonesia for one year with Earthworm.org together with Magnus and understands the opportunity and the importance of impacting the agri supply chains  

Involvement: Coordination of the ecosystem and business model development.

Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoram-ben-zvi-446836/

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Developers: Quotus Software Solutions www.quotus.co.in

Quotus Software Solutions Private Limited is established in the year of 2020. We are a professional software product development company with technical expertise in Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

Narendra Das Lead developer: Enterprise Software Architect, Developer and Manager

22 years of experience in Software Application Design and Development, Support, Integration and Management. He is passionate about blockchain technology and building expertise in Cardano blockchain specifically.

Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/narendra-das-bb375417/

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Time management

As team members are presenting multiple proposals in this fund as well as in previous funds here is an explanation regarding the time management:

• The Pond Foundation - multiple collaborators and will grow as needed
• Magnus: 1/4 time on the project focusing on bringing the product to market.
• Yoram: here is a link for an explanation of workload management. Overall for this project, Yoram will serve as an admin and business/marketing coordinator
• The rest of the team is newly onboarded proposers 

Treasury Guild Service:

Treasury Guild : offers a 1 to 1 accounting and treasury service to projects within the Catalyst ecosystem. Setting up and managing Project Wallets and the distribution of funds. Keeping track of all budget items and the exchange rate at which the funds were released to ensure that the budget is spent correctly. Including metadata in the transactions enabling future dapps to pull data and create dynamic tailor made dashboards & templates.   

Treasury

Treasury Guild will set up the wallet for {Proposal}, 

Arrange ADA payments to Project team members, maintain budget records and record transactions in GitHub and Gitbook, 

Create Dework & Discord server & channel and gitHub action that sends transaction messages to channel

Miro

Has 20 years of experience in managing finances and organising the business of NGOs and the University. He also worked as a Human Resources Manager (HRM). Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team together with Andre as treasurer in Nov 2021. Currently he is recording, documenting and managing all transactions for CC Admin Team, Swarm, Cardano4Climate, Community Governance and Bridge Builders. LInkedin

Andre 

Has experience in small business operation and accounting. Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team as treasurer in Nov 2021 and has expanded this role by starting the Treasury Guild alongside Miroslav to support projects in the Catalyst community as well. Currently using and documenting GitHub Actions to help automate some of the tasks in Catalyst Circle and treasury work. Linkedin

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes. This is a community focused project looking to bridge the Cardano community and the commercial consumer goods industry by bringing transparency to agricultural supply chain for consumers.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

This proposal will be highly auditable. The webpage with the products and ADA payment option will be available and promoted to the community. The wallets of WhatIF Food and The Pond Foundation will be available as well so the community could track the amounts and wallet distribution. Finally, a monthly report will be provided by The Pond Foundation regarding the use of funds and its impact on the ground. The report will be provided in a written report and video message.  

The following KPIs will be tracked:

• Number of wallets used by customers
• Number of new wallets  
• Return customers
• Purchase amounts - revenue volumes   
• ADA amounts sent to the pond foundation  
• Impact on the ground
• Use of fund
• Number of farmers/women
• Livelihood improvements

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

The project success will be onboarding successfully a food company, payment for an essential product in ADA and connecting customers' purchases to impact on the upstream supply chain. This will be an incredible use case for Cadano that could be promoted and duplicated to other products. 

As an intermediate/Pilot success we will be looking to achieve within 6 months the following KPIs:

• 1000 monthly wallets buying products
• 100 new monthly wallets
• 40 ADA average purchase (30 Singapor Dollars, $21USD) - ADA 40000 per month
• ADA 4000 / month sent to The Pond Foundation 
• Impacting 50 farmers    

Following this pilot, we will have great learning to share and coordinate with WhatIF Foods the scale of the project.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

21 Century agri supply chain:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/403695

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

SDG subgoals:

13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries

13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning

13.b Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

15.3 By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world

15.9 By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts

15.a Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems

15.b Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management and provide adequate incentives to developing countries to advance such management, including for conservation and reforestation

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

13.2.1 Number of countries with nationally determined contributions, long-term strategies, national adaptation plans and adaptation communications, as reported to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year

13.b.1 Number of least developed countries and small island developing States with nationally determined contributions, long-term strategies, national adaptation plans and adaptation communications, as reported to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

15.3.1 Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area

15.a.1 (a) Official development assistance on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; and (b) revenue generated and finance mobilized from biodiversity-relevant economic instruments

15.b.1 (a) Official development assistance on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; and (b) revenue generated and finance mobilized from biodiversity-relevant economic instruments

#proposertoolsdg