# Agriculture and food > Trace crops and inputs from smallholder farms through cooperatives, processors and export, with the farm, finance and logistics data needed to plan, lend and prove origin. Vertical ontology, workflows and compliance notes for agriculture and food in Africa. Canonical URL: https://www.boltcliq.com/industries/agriculture-and-food Part of: https://www.boltcliq.com/llms.txt Trace crops and inputs from smallholder farms through cooperatives, processors and export, with the farm, finance and logistics data needed to plan, lend and prove origin. - Sector pack: Starting ontology for farms, plots, cooperatives and lots - Field to export: Typical sources: farm surveys, cooperative ledgers, weighbridge, export files - Traceability rules: Regulators in scope: data protection, agriculture and export bodies - SMS + offline: Channels: SMS, USSD, WhatsApp and offline field apps ### The challenge - Agricultural value chains in Africa begin with millions of smallholders who often have no formal records. Farm details sit in cooperative notebooks, agent surveys and NGO programs, each with its own list of farmers. Inputs such as seed and fertilizer are sold through dealers or supplied on credit. Crops are weighed at collection points and moved by truck to aggregators, processors and ports. Export buyers now ask for proof of origin, deforestation checks and food safety records. - Without a shared farmer and plot record, lenders cannot judge risk, so smallholders pay more for credit or get none. Input loans are repaid in kind and lost in the paperwork. Cooperatives cannot show which lot came from which farms. Traceability for export is assembled by hand before each shipment. Weather and price signals reach farmers late or not at all. Each program that collects its own farmer list adds cost and drops the data when the project ends. ### The ontology **Objects** - 13 core things - The nouns of the sector. Each object has an identity, properties and a history, and maps to records in the source systems. - Farmer - Household - Cooperative - Plot - Crop season - Input - Input loan - Collection point - Lot - Shipment - Buyer - Certificate - Weather event **Links** - 8 core relationships - How the objects connect. Links turn separate tables into a graph that people and agents can walk. - Farmer belongs to Cooperative - Farmer works Plot - Plot grows Crop in a Crop season - Input loan finances Inputs for Farmer - Collection point receives Lot from Farmers - Lot is aggregated into Shipment - Shipment is sold to Buyer - Certificate covers Plot, Lot or Cooperative **Actions** - 6 governed actions - What people and approved agents may do. Each action has rules, an approver where needed and a log entry. - Register a farmer and plot - Approve and disburse an input loan - Record a delivery and issue a receipt - Combine lots into a shipment - Generate a traceability file for a buyer - Send an advisory message to a group of farmers ### Use cases - Input financing - A cooperative wants to give members fertilizer on credit, repaid at harvest. The lender has no history on most members and cannot tell which plots are viable. - Farmer, plot, delivery and repayment records are joined. The system proposes a limit per farmer from past deliveries and plot size, and tracks each loan until repayment in cash or crop. - The cooperative board and the lender approve limits. Field officers can override with notes when they know local conditions. - Export traceability - An exporter must show buyers that coffee, cocoa or cashew came from registered farms with no illegal land clearing. Today the file is rebuilt from collection books before every shipment. - Each lot links to collection points, farmers and plots. The system checks that records are complete and generates the evidence pack in the buyer's format. Gaps are listed for follow-up. - The compliance manager reviews the file and decides whether to ship. Disputed plots are reviewed by a person in the field. - Field advisory - Extension officers are stretched thin. Farmers get advice on planting dates, pests and prices late, and usually in a language that is not their own. - Messages are drafted from crop stage, local weather and price data and sent by SMS, voice or WhatsApp in the farmer's language. Replies and questions are collected and sorted. - Agronomists approve advisory content and handle questions the system cannot answer safely. - Collection and weighing - At a collection point, clerks weigh each farmer's crop and write the weight in a book. Payments are reconciled days later and disputes are common. - A simple offline app captures weights against the farmer record and issues a receipt. When connected, it syncs to the lot and payment records. Odd weights and duplicates are flagged. - The collection manager resolves flagged entries and approves payment runs. ### Data you already have - We read from your existing systems first and write back only through approved actions. Every source has a named owner. Where connectivity is weak or records are on paper, we plan for queued sync and OCR with human review. - Cooperative membership lists and ledgers - Farmer and plot surveys, including GPS boundaries - Input supplier and dealer records, and loan books - Weighbridge and collection point receipts - Processor, warehouse and port records - Weather, satellite and soil data - Certification and audit documents - Mobile money payments to and from farmers ### Compliance and residency - Nigeria - NDPA 2023 - Farmer registries hold personal and location data, so consent, purpose and security measures apply. - Kenya - Data Protection Act 2019 - Farmer and group data needs a lawful basis, and sharing with buyers or lenders needs clear purpose. - Ghana - Data Protection Act 2012 - Registration and principles on collection and retention apply to farmer data, including commodity board programs. - Rwanda - Law on Personal Data Protection 2021 - Cross-border sharing of farmer data with buyers may have conditions. - Export markets - Buyer and import rules on traceability - Rules such as deforestation checks in some export markets can shape evidence requirements. - Commodity boards, land and agriculture ministries, and import market regulations add further rules. Treat this list as examples. Confirm applicable law with counsel in each country and market. Examples only, not legal advice. Confirm with counsel. ### Boltcliq products **Zeus** - Model plane - Models farmers, plots, lots and shipments so lenders, cooperatives and exporters share one record. Zeus also provides the dashboards for harvest, repayment and traceability. **Odin** - Trust plane - Controls which cooperative officers, agents, lenders and buyers can see which farmers and lots, so sharing is scoped and can be revoked. **Monolith** - Control plane - Governs advisory and loan-support agents, so they use approved agronomy content and permitted farmer data, and cannot disburse credit alone. **Argus** - Runtime plane - Runs the platform and holds field data privately, including offline sync from collection points, with portable hosting for the country in question. **Cyclopes** - Observation plane - Keeps an audit trail of changes to lots, weights and certificates, which supports traceability claims and dispute resolution. ### Frequently asked questions - Do smallholders need smartphones? - No. SMS, USSD and voice are designed in from the start. Field agents may use simple offline apps. - Can the system work offline at collection points? - Offline-first capture with later sync is a design requirement. Specific devices and flows are scoped per engagement. - How is farmer data protected? - Access is role based, sharing with buyers and lenders is scoped, and every access is logged. Data can be hosted in country. - Does this prove an export is deforestation free? - It organizes evidence such as plot boundaries and delivery records. A buyer or regulator decides whether evidence meets their standard. - Can we use our existing cooperative software? - Yes. We connect to existing ledgers and files, and add the shared model above them.