Stellar Community Fund

Nila

SCF #45

Description

Nila is on-chain agricultural credit for smallholder women farmers in Tamil Nadu, India: the credit-union model (member deposits, joint liability, member first-loss) re-run on stablecoin rails. Satellite crop verification (Sentinel-2 phenology detection) replaces field agents, bringing cost per loan to ~$1 and making $50-550 seasonal loans economic - the segment MFIs abandoned to informal moneylenders at 60-120%/yr. Farmers stay cash-based; the union operator is the on-chain actor. Live in production on Polygon since December 2025, we are executing a phased full migration of the money layer - funding pools, disbursement, and cash-out - to Stellar, with mainnet and the first live disbursement targeted for December 2026. Objective: a compliant, auditable cash rail into villages, on the chain built for payments.