The Role of Blockchain in Agriculture: Enhancing Transparency and Trust

Blockchain is a new world technology that is facilitating various industries to enhance supply chain transparency and traceability. It has revolutionized many sectors like cryptocurrency and the health sector. So, agriculture is not an exception. In the field of agriculture, it helps companies increase their trust in the product. It has improved the traceability of the product by recording the journey from farm to table.

As the global population continues to grow, the demand for food is rising. However, today’s consumer is more conscious than ever before. Terms like quality products, and organic food are the buzzwords in today’s world. Hence, companies all over the world are focusing more on transparency and reliability of the food by recording its origin and journey.

Understanding Blockchain

Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger. It records transactions across the network of multiple computers. This ensures the security and integrity of the data. Once a transaction is recorded on a blockchain, it is nearly impossible to alter, providing a reliable source of truth.

This transparency and reliability make blockchain an ideal solution for building a secured supply chain system.

Key Challenges in Agriculture Today and How Blockchain is Solving These Problems

• Supply Chain Complexity
  The traditional way of tracking the produce journey from its origin to the end consumer is not properly organized. Modern agricultural supply chain has many components such as farmers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers. Hence, traditional tracking cannot give justice to the process.

  However, blockchain has arranged and connected these different players creating a simple and easy-to-track supply chain system. It has helped to reduce the complexity of the supply chain.

• Lack of Transparency
  Traditional supply practices cannot provide precise details about the product's origin and journey from the farm to the table. This leads to misinformation about the product.

  Whereas blockchain assists in maintaining accurate information at every step of the journey. It is almost impossible to tamper with the details of blockchain which makes it a reliable source of information.

• Inefficient Payments
  On-time payment fulfills the need for working capital and helps retain funds for future use. It makes it easy to run any business. So, the farming. However, farmers, especially in developing countries, do not have access to financial services. Hence, due to untimely payments, they suffer a loss many times.

  However, blockchain is based on smart contracts that facilitate automatic payments under predefined conditions like the delivery of goods. Hence, farmers get paid timely, and they become economically independent and healthy.

• Food Fraud and Safety Issues
  Traditionally, there is no or limited traceability of the produce. So, the chances of food fraud or contamination are very high. It may lead to huge economic losses and consumer distrust.

  However, the food supply chain based on blockchain is almost impossible to tamper with. It increases the safety of the food and reduces incidents like food fraud and contamination. Certifications like fair trade or organic produce give consumers a sense of trust which ultimately increases their loyalty toward brands.

• Data Inaccessibility
  Agricultural data is often inaccessible to farmers, reducing their ability to make informed decisions. It leads to the wastage of resources and efforts.

  But nowadays modern technology has influenced the agriculture sector to a greater extent. Devices like IoT sensors are helping farmers to collect precise data on their farming conditions. Integrating these IoT sensors with blockchain technology has made this information available to farmers. Making decisions based on this data has resulted in additional gains for the farmers.

The Road Ahead for Blockchain in Agriculture

Though blockchain technology offers numerous benefits, its use in agriculture is still in the early stages. There are still many challenges to address such as lack of digital infrastructure in rural areas, limited awareness, and the high cost of implementation. Governments, NGOs, and private sectors must work together to provide the necessary resources and education to make blockchain accessible to farmers globally.

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy and many countries in the world. Integrating blockchain with agriculture will resolve many problems like transparency and inefficiency of the supply chain. Also, as it keeps a check on the complete supply chain, consumers will know what it consumes. This will reduce several problems like adulteration of food products or contaminating them.

So, let’s welcome this revolutionary technology to make our agriculture a more efficient, transparent food system.