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What do you feel are the strengths of Chiba and its current situation in the course of your business?
Yuichiro Kai (Kai): Chiba's strengths are its proximity to metropolitan areas, easy access, and large population. On the other hand, Web 3.0 and NFT are challenging projects, and I feel that the prefecture and the city have not yet made progress with them. Even if you search for “Chiba NFT,” you will not find many examples. I think that the motivation to take on challenging activities has not yet risen that high.
I see this as an advantage for me, as it makes it easier to take the initiative by working in areas that have not yet been tackled. SEO is important in the digital field, and since there is little competition in the region, I believe we can establish a unique positioning by being proactive.
So you are saying that it is easy to gain an advantage because the environment is still like a “vacant lot”?
Kai: That is exactly what I mean. In fact, these efforts are bearing fruit. We received a request from the Chiba Prefecture Industrial Promotion Center, a public interest incorporated foundation, asking us to come up with a business plan for Web 3.0. Normally, we would propose a plan to them, but we were asked to do the opposite.
These trends indicate that Chiba Prefecture is taking a positive attitude toward Web 3.0 business. Recognizing this as a great business opportunity, we are currently preparing a plan in line with the request. By taking a leadership role in this field, I hope to become a driving force for DX in Chiba.
Please tell us about your DX strategy in Chiba.
Kai: Web 3.0 and NFT are infrastructure, so they can be applied to any industry. When I thought about the affinity with those business areas, I thought that agriculture could not be left out.
Chiba is famous for its pears and peanuts, and a new species of pear, “Akimitsuki,” was developed in 2017 after 12 years of work. I also tasted the new “Akimitsuki” and found it to be delicious, but it is difficult to convey this to other businesses. If it is not communicated to other businesses, it is naturally not communicated to consumers either.
I believe that this situation can be addressed by utilizing technologies such as Web 3.0 and NFT. I believe that by utilizing Web 3.0, we can create an unprecedented form of DX.
What is the purpose of the “Metagri Institute” community that you are involved with at Noujoujin?
Kai: In the beginning, I didn't think about starting a community. I have always loved writing, and I had frequent opportunities to publish e-books.
Just at the end of 2021, when I was in the process of choosing my next subject, I looked into the combination of NFT and agriculture, and there was very little information available. I decided to write a book on “Web 3.0 x Agriculture” from the perspective that there was no competition.
I wondered if I could coin a new term for it, and came up with several, such as “meta-farming” and “meta-farm. I finally settled on “Metagri” when I realized that the “A” part overlaps when “meta” (transcendence) and “agri” (agriculture) are combined in English.
After publishing the book, we received several inquiries. Some of them asked me, “Would you like to do something together? The people who researched Web 3.0 and agriculture, found my book, and inquired about it were people who had ideas similar to mine, and they were very valuable to me.
One of them suggested, “Why don't you create a community?” One of them suggested to me, “Why don't you create a community? So we created a community on Discord last March.
The community started with 5 members and has now grown to 700 members.
Kai: About 10% of the 700 people are involved in agriculture, and the remaining 90% are people who work in fields unrelated to agriculture. We have a volunteer community with many people from different industries, such as those in the medical and educational fields.
The first premise is to transcend agriculture, so everyone has a sense of the issues involved and a determination to evolve agriculture. With this as a common denominator, we are well organized.
Metagri” is a community that has a strong DAO feel to it.
Kai: Until now, one way to utilize Web 3.0 was to say, “If we give out NFTs and tokens, it will motivate people,” but for us it is the opposite. We are all volunteers, discussing what would happen if we applied our knowledge and expertise from different industries to agriculture, and then launching the project.
Currently, Metagri only offers incentives such as the distribution of agricultural products. Since everyone is motivated by the fun and potential of the project, we believe that Web 3.0 incentives such as handing out NFTs are only an afterthought.
Incidentally, we have sold NFTs at Metagri before. In the early days, we sold 20 items, but not all of them were sold. We also sold about 50 items of “Tomato NFTs” and only about 3 or 40 were sold. So, if you look at the project's income and expenditures alone, we made even money at best.
From this perspective, the community, including myself, has reaffirmed that NFT is not a means to make money in the first place.
It is said that the NFT market is currently cooling down, but in our community the opposite is true: it is very active. I think we are stable regardless of the market because our goal is not to make money.
The community's excitement has also led to the project's success, and because of this effect, we have received offers from local governments.
What was the background behind Metagri's launch of the “price your own Ether” project?
Kai: In March of this year, a person working in the TV industry asked me if I would be interested in working with a mango farmer he knew on a project. But at the time, the overall price of NFT had dropped significantly, so I thought that even if the mangoes were delicious, they would not sell well when set with NFT.
So we approached the community and decided to start with a limited offer of 10 people, and after two months of getting direct information from the growers, having them actually try the mangoes, and offering naming rights to those who freeminted the NFT, we asked, “How much would you price them at?” I asked.
That was the beginning of the project, and although there were times when I worried about the meaning and purpose of using NFT, I am glad that it turned out well in the end.
Did you feel any interest in Web 3.0 from the farmers through the project?
Kai: To be honest, I think about 90% of them are reluctant. On the other hand, if they know the name Metagri, I think it is safe to say that they are interested in Web 3.0. At that point, the question of whether or not you are interested in Web 3.0 is cleared. Therefore, we can start a discussion with such people right away via Zoom or other means.
I have a feeling that Metagri will change the image of agriculture and bring about a kind of “agricultural revolution.
Kai: I believe that it is the core group of “professional farmers” like those participating in Metagri that will change agriculture. Although it is still a small portion, I hope that these professional farmers will take the lead in changing the way farmers work in each region. That is our mission.
As a result, I believe it will lead to the evolution of farmers and the revitalization of the entire industry. So, right now, we are committed to getting results from such advanced professional farmers. On top of that, we are currently thinking about “FarmFi”.
Please tell us about the “FarmFi concept.
Kai: FarmFi is a concept that combines agriculture and decentralized finance, and we believe that this will be the form of next-generation agriculture.
First of all, there is a community called DAO, and some people are active here. For example, we will distribute tokens to those who contribute to the community, such as those who create websites or transmit information on SNS.
Then, we are considering distributing NFTs to those who sympathize with the project and support it, such as by making purchases. We envision this as a kind of crowdfunding to accumulate support for farmers.
Also, as the scale of the project grows in the future, there may be people like angel investors who want to invest in this project because it has a future. There is room to consider a system in which NFTs or tokens could be given to such people as collateral for their investment.
DAO has a treasury wallet, which can only be withdrawn by the decision of the community, so we will pool the money there and discuss how to use it.
For example, natural disasters such as typhoons often cause damage to plastic greenhouses and machinery. There may also be a shortage of water, resulting in poor production of eggplants and other vegetables.
In order for these people to resume farming again, they still need cash. In such cases, we make a credit judgment based on the past history and performance of the person in need of assistance, and lend money to them. In other words, the idea is to create a system in which the community, rather than the bank, evaluates the value of the collateral and lends money.
If we were to lend 10 million yen, we are thinking that after five years, when the company is back on its feet, the money would be added to the loan, and the recipient would be asked to return the money plus some additional amount in the form of agricultural products or some other form.
If a system of mutual support within the community can be established, it would have a positive effect not only on the farmers, but also on the consumers.
Currently, the price of vegetables is getting higher due to various reasons such as water shortages, and it is expected that it will become even more difficult to purchase agricultural products in the future.
We are able to rely on imports now, but it is also uncertain how long that will continue in the future. Due to food security issues, we may not be able to buy agricultural products even if we have the money. At such times, it would be ideal if communities could function as an “insurance policy,” and I hope to be able to express that.
It is said that social contribution and DAOs go hand in hand.
Kai: I think that DAOs should not be an end in themselves, but rather a part of a vision that can be used to realize that vision. There needs to be something extra and emotional to form a village society. The FarmFi concept is a way to do both.
What are your future plans and goals?
Kai: In the immediate future, we want to make sure that the people involved in the community are sustainable. Right now, it is a volunteer-type organization, so some people fade away when they get busy with their day jobs. We see this as a major challenge.
Therefore, in the future, we would like to create a system that allows Metagri to monetize its business so that it can generate revenue in the form of a side business. Beyond that, we would like to create a society in which there is no separation between rice work and life work, and both can be realized through a single activity.
Yuichiro Kai
Yuichiro Kai received his M.A. in Rural Development from the Manchester Graduate School of Economics and Management in the U.K. He then worked as a local intern for a Cambodian NGO. After graduating from the internship program, he joined a specialized trading company and was involved in the launch of a new “plant factory business”. There, he strongly felt the need for “agriculture x IT” and joined a foreign IT consulting company, where he was a member of the IT consultant team. He joined an agricultural venture company in order to realize profitable agriculture overseas through “agriculture x IT,” and was in charge of launching a strawberry production business in Thailand. After the Corona disaster, he returned to Japan and became the representative director of “Noujoujin Co. His goal is to create a system that can produce delicious agricultural products in a sustainable manner over a long period of time under the slogan “Metagri (Meta + Agri)”, which transcends the conventional wisdom of agriculture.
Discord https://discord.com/invite/hyw3AkKa8e
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