Janet

lead developer

AgroShield is a decentralized parametric crop insurance platform for smallholder farmers, starting with maize farmers in Makueni County, Kenya. Farmers buy a policy directly from their phone with a few taps, paying a small premium in USDC. Instead of filing claims, coverage is backed by a smart contract that automatically settles payouts when an on-chain rainfall oracle confirms drought conditions — if rainfall in the farmer's registered region falls below an agreed threshold (e.g. under 25mm over 30 days) during the coverage window, the payout triggers without any claim form, assessor, or adjuster. Built on Stellar with Soroban smart contracts, AgroShield issues real on-chain insurance policies (not off-chain promises backed by a company's balance sheet), so funds are provably escrowed and payouts are transparent and auditable by anyone. Farmers interact via a mobile-first web app with multi-wallet support and sub-cent transaction fees, keeping premiums and payouts economically viable at small ticket sizes.

Outcomes: Built and working: Deployed Soroban smart contracts on Stellar testnet implementing the full parametric policy lifecycle: policy purchase with premium escrow, oracle rainfall reporting, threshold-triggered settlement, and policy state reads Weather oracle integration feeding rainfall data on-chain, with multi-source consensus to prevent false triggers Mobile-responsive farmer dashboard covering coverage, payouts, weather signals, and profile Multi-wallet support via Stellar Wallets Kit (Freighter, Albedo, Xverse, and mobile wallets) so farmers aren't locked to one provider Full test suite for contract logic and frontend components Impact goals for the pilot in Makueni County: Payouts delivered within seconds of trigger confirmation instead of weeks-to-months, landing in time to fund the next planting season Premiums small enough for farmers working at subsistence scale, enabled by Stellar's sub-cent fees A portable, on-chain insurance and claims history that can later serve as credit attestation for lenders — helping farmers unlock better financing terms Direction: extending coverage beyond maize to sorghum, beans, and wheat across Kenya and East Africa, with SMS-based early weather alerts so farmers can act on drought signals before losses occur.