Urban Farmer Education Series

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This project proposes to create a series of educational videos that teach all of the processes involved in the growing of microgreens, herbs, and baby lettuces in indoor hydroponic farm settings. The videos will be published into the Urban Farmer dApp on the Cardano Blockchain.

The growing demand for fresh, local produce is creating a need for more sustainable and efficient ways to grow food. Indoor hydroponic farming is one such method that is gaining popularity due to its ability to produce high yields in a small space, even in urban areas. However, there is a lack of educational resources available on how to set up and manage an indoor hydroponic farm. By adding these educational resources directly into the Urban Farmer dApp, we are steps closer to democratizing access to growing food in new and measurable ways.

This project will create a series of educational videos that will teach viewers everything they need to know about indoor hydroponic farming while utilizing the dApp to monitor and maintain their produce grows, leading to better success and longer term adoption of personal food growing. The videos will cover the technical topics required in hydroponic indoor farming such as:

Planting techniques for different substrates.
Specific growing management videos on 30 different plants grown as microgreens, baby plants, or potted herbs.
Harvesting techniques
Sanitation techniques
Storage techniques

The videos will be produced in a clear and concise way that is easy to understand for both beginners and experienced farmers. They will be published into the Urban Farmer dApp on the Cardano Blockchain, which will make them accessible to a global audience.

This project will create a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning about indoor hydroponic farming. The videos will be informative, engaging, and accessible to a global audience. The project will also help to increase awareness of indoor hydroponic farming and its benefits. The Cardano community will benefit from increased adoption of tools on the blockchain.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Our solution addresses the challenge in the area of Climate Change - Solutions that help to solve environmental issues. Democratization of access to food builds resilience against climate change, and teaching techniques that can work in small indoor spaces will help to build that resilience.

The benefits of this project include:

Increased awareness of indoor hydroponic farming tecniques
Improved access to educational resources
Increased productivity of small indoor hydroponic farms
Reduced environmental impact of food production
Increased blockchain activity on the Cardano blockchain.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Our project will be successful when the videos are completed and added to the Urban Farmer dApp.

The outputs of our videos will be available directly in the Urban Farmer dApp and free to use for the entire community. The videos will also be published to YouTube, with the <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/> license.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Our team includes Lloyd & Melannie Duhon, long time supporters of the Cardano community. Melannie served on Catalyst Circle for version 4. Lloyd is a regular contributor to Catalyst Town Halls and has served in both Longmont and Edinburgh in the process of completing the CIP-1694 framework. In addition our senior developer, Paul Spata has developed the entirety of the software needed for managing the growth of microgreens, herbs, and lettuces. You can see the proof of concept software at this link: <https://app.lgu.farm/>

Our media team produces high quality videos and social media content for a number of Cardano projects. We are well suited to deliver this project to the community. You can see one of our earlier education videos that describes our entire app here:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60-2kLkM15s>The Closeout video from Fund 8 is available here:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsGxjMJkQyI>

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goals are to produce the educational videos needed to complete the Urban Farmer dApp. We will validate our approach through sharing our early videos with other microgreen, lettuce, and herb growers to ensure that the process is easily viewed on a wide variety of platforms. We will also send the videos to several willing test candidates who have not grown produce before to allow them to follow the instructions and give us feedback before committing to the creation of all of the remaining videos.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1:

Studio Setup and Initial Video takes
Purchase a Nikon Z mirrorless camera body and the lens required for extreme closeups.
Purchase the appropriate lighting and baffles
Purchase a lavalier microphone to capture audio of the instructor
Video the creation of broccoli microgreens start to finish

Milestone 2:

Community feedback on initial videos
Provide videos to existing farmers
Provide videos to non farmers
Collect feedback for improvements
Recreate Broccoli Microgreen video with feedback, and adapt script for remaining videos

Milestone 3:

Produce remaining videos for 15/30 planting types.
Place videos on YouTube

Milestone 4:

Produce remaining videos for 30/30 planting types.
Place videos on YouTube

Milestone 5:

Full integration of the videos into the Urban Farmer dApp via the education management interface, so that all videos are publicly available through the app.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1: Camera and equipment purchase receipts, and the completion of the first video on YouTube. (1 Month)

Milestone 2: A report of the feedback received from farmers and non farmers who attempt to grow broccoli according to the first video series. A replacement video on YouTube with feedback implemented. (1 Month)

Milestone 3: All videos necessary for 15 plant species grown available on YouTube. (2 Months)

Milestone 4: All videos necessary for 30 plant species grown available on YouTube. (2 Months)

Milestone 5: The education interface of Urban Farmer dApp is loaded with all 30 plant species. (2 Weeks)

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Our team is requesting that the Cardano community provide ADA that covers our work at a deeply discounted rate from our professional rates.

Milestone 1:

Equipment Purchase: 28000 ADA

While we are purchasing nearly $15,000 worth of video, audio, and lighting equipment, we are asking for help with $7000 USD value, assuming a $0.25 ADA price.

Production: 2400 ADA

3 Person (videographer, audio engineer & host) team is $60 USD per hour of work ($20/hour x 3 persons)

Post Production: 2200 ADA

1 Operator $20/hour

1 Editor $25/hour

Milestone 2:

Administrative: 12000 ADA

Production: 2400 ADA

Post Production: 2200 ADA

Milestone 3:

Production: 36000 ADA

Post Production: 33000 ADA

Milestone 4:

Production: 36000 ADA

Post Production: 33000 ADA

Milestone 5:

Administrative: 12000 ADA

Administrative Overhead for Catalyst Fund Reporting Administration: 17500

Total: 285700 ADA or $71,425.00 USD at $0.25 ADA

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Lloyd Duhon - Management/Director/Camera Operator/Host
Melannie Duhon - Administrative/Creative Director/Host
Media Team - Camera Operators/Hosts/Audio Engineers

<u>Key Staff</u>

Melannie Duhon CEO: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/melannie-duhon>

Extensive retail management experience. Entrepreneurship degree with Agribusiness minor from FGCU. Owner/Operator of Living Greens Urban Farm

Eric Montgomery Senior Programmer: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric996/>

Full stack developer with over 30 years of experience building business applications at institutional levels.

Lloyd Duhon Systems Architect: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyd-duhon>

30+ Year IT veteran, CTO experience. Cardano Plutus Pioneer 2nd Cohort. COO DripDropz, Adosia.

Paul Spata Senior Programmer: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/fortifygroup/>

Full stack developer with over 30 years of experience building business applications.

Juno Duhon Hardware Developer: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/juno-duhon-095bb4124/>

Hardware developer with 12 years of experience, with municipal deployment experience.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The value of this project is derived from the following factors:

The increasing demand for fresh grown produce
The lack of educational resources available on indoor hydroponic farming
The potential benefits of indoor hydroponic farming, such as increased productivity, reduced environmental impact, and improved food security
The increase in transaction fees on the Cardano Network which will lead to additional innovation.

The cost of this project is relatively low, considering the potential benefits. The majority of the costs will be incurred in the production of the videos, which will be high-quality and informative. The videos will be publicly available to all and carry the open source license which will allow their reuse in other projects.

bookmarked!