Ripple has teamed up with Mercy Corps Ventures and Colombian agri-tech startup WËIA on a new pilot project aimed at solving real problems for small farmers — using blockchain not as a buzzword, but as a tool to make a real difference on the ground.
The idea is focused on a pressing issue: most smallholder farmers in Colombia live and work in the informal economy. No credit history. No paper trail. And that means no access to loans or financial services.
Around 79% of the rural population can’t get a basic credit line. The result? Farmers earn well below what’s needed for a decent living, often just 70% of Colombia’s minimum wage.
At the same time, the food supply chain has its own set of headaches. Buyers want to know where their products come from and whether they’re produced sustainably. But with no way to track that, trust breaks down. Globally, food fraud costs the industry around $50 billion a year.
This is where WËIA’s blockchain platform steps in. Built on the XRP Ledger, it helps trace agricultural goods — like panela, Colombia’s beloved unrefined cane sugar — from seed to harvest. Every stage of the process is logged, and each product comes with a QR code that shows exactly where it came from and how it was grown.
The pilot will work with 300 farmers, nearly half of them women, well above the national average. Together, they’re expected to process 240 tonnes of panela each month.
Ripple and its partners want to see if this tech can lead to real gains: better prices for verified products, more satisfied buyers, and stronger business ties. But beyond the metrics, this project is about something much simpler — giving farmers a fairer shot.
If it succeeds, it could offer a new blueprint for how blockchain can do more than power currencies — it can power real change, starting from the ground up.
