Ripple donates 25,000 RLUSD stablecoin to provide drought relief to Kenyan herders
The firm is partnering with Mercy Corps Ventures and DIVA Donate to subsidize livestock feed for Kenyan farmers in drought.
Global blockchain platform Ripple has partnered with Mercy Corps Ventures and DIVA Donate in a pilot program to help Kenyan herders affected by drought.
The partnership will see these livestock herders receive stablecoin donations to help subsidize food and water costs for their animals in periods of crippling drought, the type that ravages Kenyan rural communities.
The details
- Ripple announced the development in a press release last Friday, adding that the donations will be made in its recently launched USD-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD through the Ethereum blockchain.
- According to DIVA Donate, Ripple has contributed 25,000 RLUSD to the program. It plans to add this to $12,000 previously donated by Mercy Corps Ventures and Arbitrum to expand the program’s reach.
- The program aims to support more than 500 farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of Laikipia County in Northern Kenya over a period of six months.
Key quote
- Ripple announced:
“In partnership with Mercy Corps Ventures and DIVA Donate, Ripple is supporting a pilot project that will use blockchain technology to deliver financial support in the form of Ripple USD (RLUSD)...to pastoral communities in Kenya affected by drought.”
How it works
- Pastoralists, farmers who make a living rearing grazing animals, are often threatened by changes in weather conditions, which affect the growth of pasture and threaten the survival of their livestock.
- In recent years, these weather conditions have taken a turn for the worse, with Kenya seeing its worst drought since the 1980s between 2020 and 2023.
- To help farmers fight these harsh conditions, DIVA Donate uses the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to determine vegetation density and predict drought conditions.
- It then uses smart contracts that trigger payout to farmers once the NDVI’s sensors reach the drought threshold in the specified area.
- The program pays $75 to each pastoralist, but the funds are only released based on the NDVI’s drought level readings, with some farmers only eligible for a portion of the funds while others get the full package.
