Landfiles, deploy agroecology at scale

Agriculture must transform to match performance with sustainability, food sovereignty, health security, biodiversity and carbon sequestration, but implementation of Agroecology at scale is still pending.

Farmers engagement is key to adoption and  dependent on addressing their number one ask : "Will it work on my land ?". Context-reliable knowledge is key to scaling.

Landfiles is a decision-making participatory app. An AI coupled to a social network integrates farmers and researchers skills into context-reliable R&D, organised by farming relevant criteria and industry, and channels it to farmers. This innovative community management triggers collaborative fast iterations between Pilot Farmers, Experts and Other Farmers and drives behavior change, implementation and continuous improvement. 

Tapping into cross-expertise to bring Agroecology to scale in France will have a global ripple effect. While providing solid ground for Climate Change adaptation, transformation of the food supply chain, and building resilient communities of stakeholders in each territory.

https://www.globalagriculture....

http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/06...

Despite the verified adequacy of Agroecology to match agricultural performance with sustainability, food sovereignty, health security, biodiversity and stable carbon sequestration, only 10% of French farms implement it, around 5% globally. 

Obstacles divide into Industry structure, R&D structure, and Farmer's Engagement.

We tackle the latter two. 

Farmer's adoption is prevented by : 

    Lack of context-reliable knowledge : "What will work on my land ?"

&

• outcomes are highly context-dependent
• mistakes have deep impacts
• changing farming practices is a cultural change
• usual apps don't allow for knowledge build-up
• no data-reliable solution tailored to Small Farms needs. 

Coupled to :

Isolation : understaffed isolated farms over large territories

&

• unsuitable communication channels : usual apps don't effectively break technical isolation, face to face meetings are too far between.

Unsuitable R&D structure and based on out-of-context experimentation

&

• slow insufficient cross-expertise, scattered experts
• multiple disconnected databases with non customizable and insufficient search tools, rendering their data in effect dormant
• no comprehensive Agroecology database yet.

Unsuitable Timing :

• last 2 factors : information cannot be delivered with the right timing,
• all 3 factors : render Climate Change adaptation illusory.

Cross-expertise, data consistency, effective implementation and behavior change for structural change cannot happen.

Revolutionizing farming is a matter of speed and sync of communication of implementable information to farmers.

Our solution speaks to speed of adoption, relevance of practice and stability of conversion.

What is it ?

Landfiles is an app building the largest community of Agroecological cross-expertise.

It’s fully customizable, organized by farming relevant indicators.

Outcomes ?

It creates context-reliable actionable R&D, including for Climate Change adaptation.

It enables co-creation of clusters of technical innovation by industry and territory.

It powers scaling of Agroecology by building-up transferable knowledge.

Process ?

Pilot farmers report on their practices that act as field experiments.

This is integrated with Experts & Research input, in real time.

Incoming farmers benefit from the co-created R&D, becoming Pilot Farmers as they implement Agroecology.

All users report and interact in their relevant networks, creating collaborative fast iterations.

All history is saved, all data protected.

Effective for farming practices, disease management, farmers conversion to Agroecology

Tech ?

Landfiles is a social network coupled to an AI and Search Engine to create swarm intelligence, expertise and speed of adoption.

Bonus ?

Backed by field and financial support from grassroot cross-expertise established initiatives.

Increase in profitability and workability retain the farmer after conversion.

Born out of farmers demand, AFAF-French Agroforestry Association is a grassroot organisation dedicated to scaling Agroecology. Leveraging up to 35 years of first-hand field facilitation and participatory research, it rose to be a key player in the French agricultural sector. In 2013, French Water Management Agencies joined in, launching the flagship project Agr'eau, including financing solutions.

Some core obstacles to scaling could still not be addressed at the required speed, neither without Tech and AI, leading to Landfiles's launch in 2017, to which development users engagement is key.

We serve Farmers, for whom sturdiness of the proof of feasibility and advantages is pivotal, because farming is high risk and a strategic responsibility. Researchers, for whom lack of access to all scale field experimentations creates multiple bottlenecks. Policy Makers, whose processes inherited from the Green Revolution make for organisational and policy inadequacy in face of 2030 & 2050 vision and goals. Farmers meet Researchers on their need for synched context-reliable R&D, and Policy Makers on their need for seamless implementation.

Landfiles is a web of participatory Agroecology R&D networks. It syncs and analyses multiple streams of information, to deliver adequate actionable knowledge in real time to each category of users.

Landfiles is the only agricultural platform embracing context intricacies. 90% of farms worldwide are Small Farms in irregular terrains, successful implementation of Agroecology is a matter of contextualizing its practices, and Climate Change adaptation requires skillful insight : context is pivotal to structural change. 

By tapping into the power of cross expertise and swarm collaboration, Landfiles unlocks the dissemination of Agroecology practices to farmers, matching performance with sustainability, food sovereignty, health security, biodiversity and stable carbon sequestration requirements.

By bringing together stakeholders of the agricultural sector into a framework of mutual benefit, it creates sturdy reactivity, continuous improvement and resilience.

The innovation : 

Landfiles is the only agricultural platform that :

• embraces the intricacies of context.
• tackles implementation of Agroecology at scale.
• is dedicated to the 90% of farms producing 80% of the world's food, called Small Farms, that are not fitting the large-connected-machines-on-large-acreage-in-monoculture Big Ag bill.
• is a social network for knowledge creation.
• creates a real time field to research feedback. And multiplies experimentation sites.

The AI we are building :

• is able to handle multi-sourced feeds, and to merge and dispatch them in real time.
• creates a comprehensive Agroecology database & ontology made of all the specific databases & ontologies created by users or connected. Those and their raw data are still accessible for customized pairing, comparison, cross-innovation, and traceability.
• its feeds are directly customizable by users.
• is a Smart Search Engine that can be deployed on any existing database.
• can be readily replicated country by country because the core of our methodology is context.

The AI powers behavioral change for Landfiles to bring stakeholders together into a framework of mutual benefit.

More on why this innovation is needed : http://blog.worldagroforestry....

Comparison with the Competition :

Landfiles is the only agricultural platform combining social network, forms configurable by users, and an AI with its Smart Search Engine.

The following technologies are used to address the core challenges defined in The Problem, by coupling a social network to an AI and Smart Search Engine, to power a process that brings and feeds participatory innovation and implementation :   

• Mobile app : React native
• Web app : React JS
• Back-end and Microservices architecture : Java 8 Springboot, Spring cloud
• Database : Mongo DB
• Scalable Platform : Google Cloud Platform & Kubernetes
• Search Engine : Elastic Search
• Sources management, end-to-end integration and deployment : Jenkins, Bitrise, Bugsnag, Mailgun, Gitlab, Swagger
• Notifications : Onesignal
• Data Science Platform : Google research collab, Python 

All those are state-of-the-art technologies offering the following key advantages :

• highly adaptable and customizable, for insertion of new users and adaptation to users evolutive needs,
• entirely scalable, no change needed in the architecture to serve millions of users,
• secured, 
• ready for Big Data analytics and integration of AI algorithms

This builds a system that is user friendly, addresses our categories of users complex and specific needs, and can merge with external complex AI algorithms.

All techs cited before are used by developers all over the world  : Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Google, Spotify, AirBnB, etc...

Link to a product-demo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

In the following slides, adoption and retention rates, and number of farms and ha converted to Agroecology (excerpt), since launch :

The following diagram lays out the users in their roles and interactions through Landfiles, the output built-up by each category of users in their interactions on Landfiles, the participatory outcomes generated through iterations involving all the outputs, bringing about the final outcome : Deploying Agroecology at scale.

Diagram below and also following this link : https://drive.google.com/file/...

Reminder :

570 million farms worldwide, 90% are Small Farms.

10,3 millions in Europe, 72% of which are Small Farms.

About 2 billion people depend directly on agriculture, there are some 570 million farms in the world, 90% are run by individuals or families producing 80% of the world's food. Europe is 10,3 million farms, 72% of which are less than 100ha.

Overall :

• Develop the AI that is the portal where farmers identify actionable solutions for implementing agroecology, in terms of practices and planning, in their specific pedo-climatic context. This makes the AI the tool for deep and broad transformation of farmers behaviors and thus the whole agricultural sector.
• Deploy at the European and International level.  

1 year :

• leverage pioneering farms and public partners to form strong clusters in all 5 French Watersheds.
• fine tune conversion in existing clusters, to maximize success and accuracy of conversion for following newcomers.
• grow the number of partners, advisors and researchers, and leverage
  public and all partners to plan for a national deployment backed by those clusters.
• form clusters in 5 European countries, Morocco, Australia and Canada.  

5 years :

• replicate in all agricultural industries.
• national deployment in France.
• in accordance with resources, replicate in as many countries as possible.
• within the first 2 years, plan and start deployment of Phase 2 of
  Landfiles : Farm to Fork Supply-Demand reconciliation. In partnership with small outlets, restaurants and mass-market retail. Each increment of Phase 2 implementation must be backed by strong clusters of farmers formed in Landfiles Phase 1 (Deploying Agroecology at scale).

The challenges are :

The overall challenge is to address small farms needs and mentalities, tightly connected to the intricacies of terrain, climate and local culture. 

AI  : boost farmers adoption for drastic increase of traffic on the app, pivotal to power an effective and intelligent AI and Search Engine. Create packages and services tailored to Agriculture R&D and each agricultural industry, crucial for the AI to deliver proper aggregation of data and experiences, and effective networking per context and industry. Boost AI development, relevance of ontologies, tech agility within golden standards, connectivity to outside tools (databases, management tools, CRM, internal platforms, etc). 

Organisational : improve workflow continuity between the 3 main partnering Structures (Landfiles, AFA, Agr'eau), create an organisation that can handle our ambitious deployment goals, structure and staff the workflow to scale for best speed of execution at each stage. 

Adoption & international deployment  : boost adoption by gaining visibility and deploying internationally. Back it up with effective support and channels, using existing technologies and facilitation set-ups, to trigger adoption of this new tool. 

Conservative segment : deliver sturdy proof and timely actionable knowledge thanks to the technology, leverage pioneering farms.   

Financial stability : maintaining free access for farmers while delivering high quality services and transferable knowledge, without using revenues from advertising.

AI : staffing and partnering and subcontracting, to boost adoption and tailored packages creation, for best expertise and speed of development. The AI and Search Engine are the backbone to our endeavour. 

Staff & organisation : structure the workflow with highly skilled and committed professionals, organise teams around versatile key collaborators. Create organisational continuity between the 3 main partnering Structures (Landfiles, AFA, Agr'eau), enhance overall structure. Get organisational consulting to do so and to be able to scale for best speed of execution at each stage. 

Adoption & international deployment  : establish connections and partnerships with European and International players, select preferably those with the highest reach to farmers or highest connections to agriculture policy makers, also historical networks, and the Food Supply Chain. Aim at  Agroecology networks, Producers Associations, Public Institutions, Short and Long Food Supply Chain Businesses. Provide collective and individual support : webinars, tutorial videos, tailored face to face technical support and by phone. Do face to face marketing and advocacy, and workshops, when needed. Regularly organize national challenges per agricultural industry, to trigger adoption.  

Conservative Segment : mobilize existing experts, that are agroecology technical advisors, experts, researchers,  and pioneering farms, and also international such resources, to accurately feed the AI and build a sturdy database of context-reliable proofs and plans for implementation with relevant ontologies. Carry on advocacy through historical networks, usual channels and sectorial stakeholders.  

Financial Stability : see that question

Landfiles is a SAS (type of French business entity), similar to a LLC, which goals align with that of its main and backing partner : the Nonprofit AFAF-French Agroforestry Association.

Full-time Staff
Directly
Landfiles

• project manager : 2
• developers : 5
• web designers : 1

Indirectly
inside AFAF

• Admin / RH 1
• Development Hub coordinators 5
• Field facilitators 5
• Data Scientists 3

Additional Contract Staff
Landfiles : 5
AFAF : 5
to be doubled in 2021

Through Partners
Agr'eau’s structure : network of 30 relevant professionals

AFAF 120 partnering structures : network of 800 relevant professionals

Nicolas Minary, project leader, has 16 years of experience in digital transformation and organizational transformation, and 9 years in commercial development for digital services companies. He created Neolusis in 2011, which generated 1 million euros in turnover in 2016, making it possible to found Landfiles in 2017.

Born to farmers, he has intimate knowledge of farmers needs and the stakes to implementation of agroecological practices.  

20 years of pioneering efforts came to fruition with the founding of AFAF-French Agroforestry Association, dedicated to scaling Agroecology, in 2007. It has grown since to one of the prominent players of the French agricultural sector. It leverages field expertise and R&D, facilitation and advocacy to farmers, and policy making, and weighs a network of 120 partnering structures. 

AFAF led the thorough needs and strategic assessment, done throughout 2016 and 2017 with 200 farms all over France during Landfiles’ ideation phase. Key partner to Landfiles, AFAF positions it at the core of its strategic development to use digital tools to maximize impact, outreach and behavioral change. It backed Landfiles to develop partnerships in a large and versatile network of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Agriculture, and create the first version of its database, all under Nicolas Minary's leadership. 

Landfiles' team comprises digital strategy experts, developers and data scientists. 

It can already claim 70 partnering organisations, almost 8000 users and a foot down in 7 countries, opening the way for deployment to any country provided serious local partners and the right resources.

To have impact, Landfiles technology needs to be effectively and organically connected to the reality of stakeholders, field implementation and gold standards for data authenticity and scientific validation.

Landfiles leverages the expertise and structural strengths of the main following key partners, laid out by Name, Expertise and Achievement sought :

and

Landfiles Phase 1 (Deploying Agroecology at scale). Embedded BM : entrepreneur support, because it creates and makes available appropriate knowledge and implementation support for its users ; and cooperative, because this knowledge comes from participatory R&D by the users that share the need for Agroecology for profit and climate action.

Business Model : https://drive.google.com/file/...

We provide the Landfiles app to our users. By category of user, the services provided and the detailed value proposition will be :

Farmers :

• context-reliable, timely, actionable R&D, including for Climate Change adaptation
• real time Assessment and Feedback
• industry, context and territory relevant networking & clusters with farmers and experts
• valorisation of their farming practices as research
• decrease in costs, increase in efficiency, yields and  profitability, improvement of work conditions

Researchers and Research Institutions :

• all scales context-reliable field experimentation, data, reporting & feedback, in real time
• increased number of experimentations
• data and research fast integration
• broad and fast outreach
• at low cost

Agriculture Institutions, businesses & Consulting businesses, Policy Makers :

• a communication management and facilitation tool
• data analytics and research for transformation of their organisations and policies, and alignment with national and international vision & goals for 2030 and 2050
• improvement of Public Health, Climate Change and biodiversity Indicators
• increased efficiency of public fundings and investments
• decreased costs of sanitation and depollution

Key partners, chief of is AFAF, provide stakeholders outreach, and field facilitation.

Landfiles Phase 2 (Farm to Fork, Supply-Demand Reconciliation). BM is both market intermediary and market linkage.

The founding blocks are in place on every continent for the great shift from the Agriculture inherited from the Green Revolution to Agroecology.

The seminal knowledge for each farming industry and each type of climate is present.

Grassroot organisations started by the pioneers, gathering farmers, researchers, advocates and skilled professionals, have grown in number and size and established credibility across the board. 

A small but already significant part of production has shifted towards Agroecology (also called Regenerative Agriculture), and has already impacted policies and the food supply chain locally, but in a significant enough way to already make its point.

The threshold to Growth is near, and can be crossed with the proper Tech allied to the proper Organisational Power to leverage this Tech, forming first strong clusters of behavioral change that will soon expand exponentially to achieve structural change.

Our solution needs access to a versatile hub with global and skilled outreach like Solve. 

Namely access to : 

• partners at all levels of the Agricultural Sector and the Food Supply Chain, public and private, to build-up co-expertise and gain broad exposure,

• AI and Tech expertise and capacity,

• funders,

• organisational consulting.

Boost adoption and traffic on the app for high quality training of the AI and Smart Search Engine.

Make our tech a fully functional AI.

Acquire the organisational and networking power to fast-track international deployment, for stable global implementation. 

Trigger and support structural change in Agriculture and the Food Supply Chain.

We want to identify organisations that are willing to work hand in hand with us on transformative processes to effect global change and  drastically improve adoption and implementation of Agroecology (also called Regenerative Agriculture). 

Be it public or private, stakeholder organisations, producers associations, networks of farmers, universities, research hubs. 

We also need partners in each region on each continent, for deployment and localization of the Tech and processes.

We welcome partners working on empowering farmers using approaches different from ours, like for example revenue for Carbon Farming for farmers.

Key partners sought :

Agricultural Sector :

• FAO, and GACSA
• European Commission Department for Agriculture and Rural Development and Department for Environment
• USDA
• Indigo
• Nori
• Soil Capital
• Regen Network
• IFPRI

IT :

• IRT System X (France)
• Google, Facebook, Microsoft
• MIT Computer Science Departments
• other international Computer Science Research Centers

How we qualify for AI for Humanity :

Agriculture must transform to match performance with sustainability, food sovereignty, health security, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. And it must transform fast. 

Agroecology is the solution in practice to achieve this. And Landfiles is dedicated to deploying Agroecology at scale. 

Implementing Agroecology at scale at the required speed cannot be achieved, even with institutional partners and adequate public policies, without the use of an AI coupled to a Smart Search Engine. 

And that's because Agroecology is a matter of context in 2 main ways. First, there are some 570 million farms in the world, 90% are run by individuals or families producing 80% of the world's food. In Europe are 10,3 million farms, 72% of which are less than 100ha (small farms). Small Farms mean diverse pedo-climatic contexts in irregular terrains in a diversity of cultures. Second, successful implementation of Agroecology is a matter of contextualizing its practices, to align them with the pedo-climatic context. Finally, Climate Change adaptation in agriculture requires skillful detailed insight. In addition to this, farmers agreement is key to change their practices, and sturdiness of the proof of feasibility and proof of advantages delivered directly to the farmer is pivotal to obtain it because farming is high risk and a strategic responsibility. 

Context is pivotal to the structural shift of Agriculture, AI is pivotal to create and effectively disseminate the information that allows for farmers behaviors to change, and Landfiles is the only agricultural platform that embraces the intricacies of context.

Only agricultural platform that combines a social network to a dedicated AI and its Smart Search Engine, with forms configurable by users, Landfiles is a knowledge-creation and decision-making participatory app. It creates context-reliable actionable R&D organised by farming relevant criteria. It enables co-creation of clusters of technical innovation by industry and territory. It powers scaling of Agroecology with collaborative fast iterations between Pilot Farmers, Experts and Other Farmers that drive behavior change, implementation and continuous improvement.

 Process :

• Pilot farmers report on their practices that act as field experiments.
• This is integrated with Experts & Research input, in real time.
• Incoming farmers benefit from the co-created R&D, becoming Pilot Farmers as they implement Agroecology.
• All users report and interact in their relevant networks, creating collaborative fast iterations and clusters of innovation.
• All history is saved, all data protected.
• Effective for farming practices and disease management.

The AI we are building :

• is able to handle multi-sourced feeds, and to merge and dispatch them in real time.
• creates a comprehensive Agroecology database & ontology made of all the specific databases & ontologies created by users or connected. Those and their raw data are still accessible for customized pairing, comparison, cross-innovation, and traceability.
• its feeds are directly customizable by users.
• is a Smart Search Engine that can be deployed on any existing database.
• can be readily replicated country by country because the core of our methodology is context.

The technologies we're using offer the following key advantages :

• highly adaptable and customizable, for insertion of new users and adaptation to users evolutive needs,
• entirely scalable, no change needed in the architecture to serve millions of users,
• secured,
• ready for Big Data analytics and integration of AI algorithms.

Landfiles is a social network coupled to an AI and Search Engine to create swarm intelligence, expertise and speed of change and adoption, while providing solid ground for Climate Change adaptation, transformation of the food supply chain, and building resilient communities of stakeholders in each territory.

How we will use the AI for Humanity Prize : 

Traffic on the app is key to developing the AI and Smart Search Engine.

We will use the Prize to promote our solution to funders and partners at all levels of the Agricultural Sector and the Food Supply Chain, public and private, to gain exposure and boost adoption and traffic on the app for high quality training of the AI and Smart Search Engine. 

And to develop the needed algorithms, boost relevance of ontologies, with connectivity.

How we qualify for Future Planet Capital Prize :

The Volume of Food produced and sold is heading towards steep increase. “The world’s population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion by 2050, boosting agricultural demand – in a scenario of modest economic growth – by some 50 percent compared to 2013.” FAO 2017 http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6583e....

But How it is produced and sold is going to change drastically. If we are to tackle current global challenges and Climate Change, Agriculture and the Food Supply Chain must transform to match performance with sustainability, food sovereignty, health security, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. And they must transform fast. 

Agroecology is the solution in practice to achieve adequate Supply in this perspective. And Landfiles is dedicated to deploying Agroecology at scale. Doing this at the required speed cannot be achieved, even with institutional partners and adequate public policies, without the use of an AI coupled to a Smart Search Engine. 

And that's because Agroecology is a matter of context in 2 main ways. First, there are some 570 million farms in the world, 90% are run by individuals or families producing 80% of the world's food. In Europe are 10,3 million farms, 72% of which are less than 100ha (small farms). Small Farms mean diverse pedo-climatic contexts in irregular terrains in a diversity of cultures. Second, successful implementation of Agroecology is a matter of contextualizing its practices, to align them with the pedo-climatic context. Finally, Climate Change adaptation in agriculture requires skillful detailed insight. In addition to this, farmers agreement is key to change their practices, and sturdiness of the proof of feasibility and proof of advantages delivered directly to the farmer is pivotal to obtain it, because farming is high risk and a strategic responsibility.

Context is pivotal to the structural change of Agriculture and the Food Supply Chain, AI is pivotal to create and effectively disseminate the information that allows behaviors to change (farmers, retail procurement,supply-demand reconciliaition), and Landfiles is the only agricultural platform that couples a social network to an AI and its Smart Search Engine to embrace the intricacies of context.

It thus creates, renders and delivers the accurate knowledge and information for implementation of Agroecology, and builds strong cross-expertise clusters of innovation and resilience on which to build real time Supply-Demand reconciliation. Our endeavour consist of 2 phases :

• Landfiles Phase 1 : Deploying Agroecology at scale. Launched in 2017. 
• Landfiles Phase 2 : Farm to Fork Supply-Demand reconciliation. Launching in 2020.

Moreover : 

Drastic change is coming in all sectors of the economy, and it will also affect the definitions of Capital, Profit and Revenue.

Additionally to the Knowledge Capital and Swarm Intelligence Capital described  above, Agroecology and our solution also provide Carbon Capital, Resilience Capitals (Social, Environmental), Health Capital.

Scalability of our system : 

• can be readily replicated country by country because the core of our methodology is context,
• no change needed in the architecture to serve millions of users,
• ready for Big Data analytics and integration of AI algorithms.
• highly adaptable and customizable, for insertion of new users and adaptation to users evolutive needs.
• secured.
• the AI we are building  is a Smart Search Engine that can be deployed on any existing database.

How we will use the Future Planet Capital Prize :

 Traffic on the app is key to developing the AI and Smart Search Engine, which are key to scaling. 

We will use the Prize to promote our solution to funders and partners at all levels of the Agricultural Sector and the Food Supply Chain, public and private, to gain exposure and boost adoption and traffic on the app for high quality training of the AI and Smart Search Engine. 

And to acquire the organisational and networking power to fast-track international deployment, for stable global deployment.