When people talk about agricultural productivity, they usually focus on things like land, weather, fertilizer, transportation, or access to machinery. Those things matter. But after spending time in the Dominican Republic doing field research, I started thinking more seriously about another part of the system that does not get enough attention: payments.
That may sound like a strange connection at first. What do open payments have to do with agriculture or food insecurity?
A lot, actually.
During my time in the Dominican Republic, I spent time observing agricultural activity, livestock production, and local market dynamics. What stood out to me was that food systems are not only about production. They are also about coordination. Farmers need to buy inputs; sellers need to get paid. Transporters need to move goods; buyers need to make purchases quickly and reliably. When money moves slowly, inefficiently, or at a high cost, the entire supply chain becomes fragile.
That is why I think open payments matter far beyond fintech. In Latin America and the Caribbean, they could become part of the infrastructure that helps improve agricultural productivity and reduce food insecurity.
What did I actually see in the Dominican Republic?
One of the biggest lessons I took from my time in the Dominican Republic is that agriculture operates inside a much larger system. It is not just about what happens on the farm. It is also about how goods get distributed, how people pay one another, and how smoothly transactions happen across the local economy.
In many developing contexts, market systems are fragmented. People often rely on cash. Informal arrangements are common. Delays in payment can affect whether someone can buy feed, restock supplies, or transport goods on time. If one part of that chain breaks down, the effects spread quickly.
For small producers, especially, timing matters. If a farmer does not get paid when expected, that delay can affect the next purchase, the next planting cycle, or the ability to cover basic operating costs. In agriculture, those delays are not minor inconveniences. They can shape output.
That made me realize something important. Financial infrastructure is not separate from agricultural development. It is part of it.
What are the hidden cost of inefficient payments?
In many parts of the Global South, moving money is still harder than it should be. Systems are often disconnected. Fees can be high. Processing can be slow. Access is unevenly distributed. Some people are left using cash because digital systems are either unavailable, unaffordable, or not connected to the platforms others use.
That creates friction.
A farmer who cannot receive payment quickly has less flexibility. A supplier dealing with fragmented payment systems faces more uncertainty. A buyer may delay transactions if the process is expensive or inconvenient. Over time, this weakens trust, slows exchange, and makes local markets less efficient.
In agriculture, where margins are often already thin, even small inefficiencies can have larger consequences.
This is why I find the idea of open payments so interesting.
What could open payments change?
At its core, open payments are about interoperability. They are about making it easier for money to move across systems without forcing everyone into the same closed network. That matters because in many developing economies, fragmentation is one of the biggest barriers to participation.
If payment systems are more open and more connected, several things become easier:
Farmers can receive payments faster.
Suppliers can process transactions with less friction.
Smaller producers can participate in markets without needing access to one specific platform.
Cross border or regional payments can become less costly.
Businesses can spend less time navigating financial bottlenecks and more time operating.
None of this automatically solves development challenges. But it removes one layer of inefficiency that often gets ignored.
When people in agriculture can transact more easily, they are better able to plan, reinvest, and respond to changing market conditions.
Why does this matters for food insecurity?
Food insecurity is not only about whether food exists. It is also about whether food can move through the economy in a stable and accessible way.
If farmers cannot buy inputs on time, production may fall. If sellers cannot move goods efficiently, prices can rise. If local supply chains are weak, shortages become more likely. If transaction costs are too high, small producers are pushed to the margins.
That is why payment infrastructure should be part of the food security conversation.
Open payments are not a substitute for agricultural reform, better roads, improved storage, irrigation, or stronger institutions. But they can support those efforts by making economic exchange more efficient.
That matters most for small producers, who often have the least room to absorb delays, fees, or financial uncertainty.
If the goal is to strengthen local food systems, then we should care not only about how food is grown, but also about how money moves around it.
A development issue, not just a tech issue?
What interests me most about this topic is that it sits at the intersection of economics, development, and real life systems.
It is easy to hear phrases like open payments and assume this is mainly a conversation for developers or fintech people. But after doing fieldwork and studying agricultural systems more closely, I do not see it that way.
I see it as a development issue.
In many low and middle income countries, people are already dealing with weak infrastructure, inflation, market volatility, and uneven access to services. If payment systems add even more friction on top of that, then productivity suffers. Not because people are not working hard enough, but because the system around them makes it harder to operate efficiently.
That is one reason I think open payments are worth paying attention to. They are not just about innovation for its own sake. They are about reducing barriers in economies where barriers already exist at every level.
Final reflections
My time in the Dominican Republic taught me that agriculture is connected to everything. It is connected to markets, transportation, household decision making, inflation, and now, in a way I understand more clearly, financial infrastructure.
That is why I think open payments matter for LAC.
If we want stronger agricultural systems and more resilient local economies, then we have to think beyond production alone. We also have to think about the systems that support exchange. In many cases, that includes the way people send, receive, and use money.
Open payments will not solve food insecurity on their own. But they could help remove one of the quiet inefficiencies that weakens agricultural productivity and holds small producers back.
And in development, sometimes removing friction is just as important as adding new resources.
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