National digital ID-based digital farmer ID for inclusive and resilient agriculture in West Africa

West African farmers, who comprise 70% of the population, face widespread fraud and exclusion in accessing financial support from the government. Intermediaries divert about 40% of agricultural subsidies, while land conflicts account for 60% of rural disputes.

This use case idea proposes a platform that uses a biometric authentication service provided by the national digital identity system to address these challenges. Farmers must register on the platform using their national digital ID. Once registered, a farmer's digital ID is issued, and farmers can authenticate with fingerprints at mobile kiosks or use USSD with a PIN or OTP to link their bank account with the platform. This allows direct subsidy payments and removes intermediaries.

The farmer’s digital ID is also used to authenticate them and link their profile to their land title records. This platform also enables the sharing of farmers’ credit scores with financial organizations, based on past data. The platform also supports harvest traceability for individual farmers, which enables access to microloans for unbanked farmers. Each harvest receives a digital “product passport” linked to the farmer ID, which enables market access via QR codes. Farmers can use USSD on basic phones without the Internet, as long as GSM coverage is available. For areas that lack network connectivity, agent devices support offline data capture and synchronization once connectivity is restored.