Research Themes

Our research addresses critical challenges in digital agriculture through interconnected programs that combine technical innovation, socio-technical design, field practice, and governance frameworks. We work at the intersection of AI/voice technologies, blockchain systems, and agricultural development in Sub Saharan Africa.

Core Research Areas

Our work spans four interconnected domains, each addressing specific technical and social challenges in bringing equitable digital systems to agricultural markets.

Voice-First & ASR Systems

Developing automatic speech recognition systems for low-resource African languages, with focus on agricultural contexts and low-literacy environments.

Multilingual ASR for Amharic, Afan Oromo, Kiswahili

Edge deployment for offline functionality

Cultural and dialectical adaptation

Integration with agricultural advisory services

Zero-Knowledge Privacy & Tokenization

Building blockchain-based systems that enable transparency and traceability while protecting competitive business data through cryptographic proofs.

ZK-SNARKs for selective disclosure

Tokenization of agricultural commodities

Privacy-preserving compliance verification

Smart contract frameworks for trade

Regulatory Compliance & Digital Product Passports

Researching technical and policy frameworks for regulatory compliance in agricultural trade, including deforestation regulations and traceability requirements.

EUDR compliance automation

Digital Product Passport implementations

Blockchain-EPCIS integration patterns

Cross-border trade facilitation

Supply Chain Finance & Digital Infrastructure

Exploring on-chain financial mechanisms that improve access to working capital for smallholder farmers and SMEs while managing risk.

Tokenized invoice financing

Collateral management systems

DeFi protocols for agricultural credit

Risk mitigation through smart contracts

Research Methodologies

We employ mixed-methods approaches that integrate technical development, participatory field research, and policy engagement.

Technical Development

Model fine-tuning & quantization
Smart contract architecture
Zero-knowledge circuit design
Edge deployment optimization

Field Research

Participatory design with farmers
Usability testing in rural contexts
Impact evaluation & measurement
Community feedback integration

Policy Engagement

Regulatory framework analysis
Multi-stakeholder dialogue
Standards development
Policy brief production

Technical Focus Areas

Our technical research emphasizes practical, production-ready systems designed for resource-constrained environments.

Speech Technologies

Low-Resource ASR

Fine-tuning and quantization of speech models for African languages with limited training data.

Cryptography

Practical ZK Proofs

Implementing zero-knowledge circuits for supply chain privacy and regulatory compliance.

Blockchain

Smart Contract Systems

Designing scalable, secure contracts for tokenization, compliance, and finance.

Edge Computing

Offline-First Systems

Optimizing AI models for edge deployment without internet connectivity.

Data Standards

EPCIS Integration

Blockchain-EPCIS patterns for verifiable supply chain traceability.

DeFi

Agricultural Finance

On-chain mechanisms for working capital access and risk management.

Active Research Projects

Explore our ongoing research initiatives with transparent progress tracking, research questions, and milestone roadmaps.

Open Science & Digital Public Goods

We are committed to open science principles. All language models, datasets, and tools developed through our research are released as digital public goods, enabling Community-led innovation and building sovereign AI capacity.

Open Source Models

Public Datasets

Reproducible Research

Knowledge Transfer