Pundi X and HARA partnership brings blockchain to farming for increased productivity, financial inclusion

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pundi X, a global developer of blockchain-based technology solutions, and HARA, the Indonesian company dedicated to revolutionizing global agriculture with data, will jointly deploy thousands of blockchain-based point of sales ("POS") devices to farmers to facilitate data collection and financial inclusion across developing economies.

HARA collects real-time data from across the agricultural and food value chain in developing markets to boost productivity, profits, and livelihoods for farmers and employees. Farmers, NGOs, and other on-the-ground partners are incentivized to provide data on ecological, crop, and market conditions with HARA Tokens, which can in turn be monetized.

In a partnership announced today, the Pundi X POS, a point of sales device enabling transactions in digital currencies, will be used by farmers to collect and exchange these incentives.

The XPOS will be deployed initially across Indonesian villages at an approximate density of one device for every 200 farmers in participating areas.

In the past year, HARA has collected the agricultural data from about 10,000 farmers across Indonesia, with the support of Indonesian regional governments and directly-elected local government leaders known as regents or 'Bupati'.

The collected data will not only be exchangeable for incentives but can also be leveraged to focus agricultural resources more efficiently and to avoid wastage. These gains directly benefit farmers' livelihoods, with the World Bank estimating every one percent gain in agricultural productivity results in a commensurate decrease in the number of people living in poverty.

HARA will target a further seven other priority agriculture markets across South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Africa, with a projected future international total base of up to 2 million users.

The HARA-Pundi X partnership will also help promote financial inclusion among farmers who can use the blockchain-based POS independently of financial institutions. More than 50 per cent of consumers in Indonesia's economy are 'unbanked' despite the existence of more than 200 banks nationally.

"A founding aim of Pundi X was to bring the benefits of blockchain technology and digital payments to the unbanked and to promote financial inclusion and independence," said Constantin Papadimitriou, the President and co-founder of Pundi X. "We are proud that the Pundi X POS will soon be rolled out among HARA's already-impressive network of farming partners and can help facilitate their plans to better such a significant sector of the world economy and the lives of the hundreds of millions of people who depend upon it".

The collected data is of commercial use to consumers increasingly interested in the provenance of foodstuffs, insurers in need of data about market and farming conditions, and governments and interests across a fast-growing global smart agriculture market forecast to reach $12 billion (USD) by 2021.

Regi Wahyu, the CEO and co-founder of HARA, said: "HARA has dedicated itself to connecting the missing pieces in global agriculture for the benefit of everyone involved in the supply chain. The data we are already collecting from farmers brings benefits to transportation, to consumers, to commercial interests and to governments.

"The addition of the Pundi X POS to our ecosystem allows us to connect another missing link, which is the processing of digital payments for the large unbanked populations in global agriculture we're aiming to serve".

Listiyono, the head of Bakalan Village, Kapas District, said: "HARA can help with financial inclusion because they guarantee valid farmers' data, which makes the process for the banks easier.

"For example, a bank requires a land certificate, whereas a lot of farmers don't have that. Sometimes they even require proof of tax payment, but most farmers don't even have [a tax registration number]".

To raise capital, HARA is currently in the process of conducting an Initial Token Sale. The token sale is conducted through the Liquid ICO Market and Tokenomy Launchpad platforms. The pre-sale period will last until November 13th at 8:59 AM (GMT+7), followed by a public sale period which will last from November 13, 2018 (GMT+7 9:00 AM) until November 30, 2018 (GMT+7 9:00 AM).

The Pundi X POS, a world-leading blockchain-based POS, is being shipped to thousands of pre-order customers in markets such as Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil and Colombia and was recently announced as the chosen technology to run digital payments for Dubai's government-backed official credit bureau. The company is aiming to deliver 100,000 devices by 2021.

About HARA

HARA is a blockchain-based data exchange from Indonesia that is focused on improving the food and agriculture sector. The purpose of HARA is to create a prosperous data exchange economy that drives the use of informed data-driven decisions in society.

Starting with agriculture and food sector, HARA is an end-to-end solution for all stakeholders in the data exchange market for the world's most socially impactful sectors. It offers the near-time valuable data that is crucial to increase productivity, reduce losses, and make the market more efficient.

The HARA Ecosystem has already been deployed locally with great results. With the data collected by HARA in several pilot projects, numerous farmers have already been able to successfully apply for microcredit from banks. Getting access to financial institutions is the first step in the process of significantly increasing the farmers' productivity, ultimately leading to increasing their prosperity.

For more information, please visit https://haratoken.io/.

About Pundi X

Pundi X is a leading developer of blockchain-powered devices, including the world's first point-of-sales ("POS) solution enabling merchants and consumers to do transactions on the blockchain in the physical stores.

Its POS, the XPOS, has been shipped to markets including in the UK, Switzerland, Korea, Colombia, Taiwan and Brazil; 100,000 of the devices are being targeted for a rollout to the global retail market by 2021.

Headquartered in Singapore its international presence includes offices in London, Jakarta, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Tokyo.

The company is also a member of Singapore Fintech Association, Fintech Association of Hong Kong, ACCESS, and Swiss Finance and Fintech Association.

For more information, please visit https://pundix.com/.

SOURCE Pundi X

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