How Blockchain industry can revolutionize the Agricultural Supply Chain

By Raghav Sawhney

The revolutionary blockchain technology that made a huge impact and has attracted almost every sector possible is now finding its way to revolutionize the agricultural world. In the Blockchain, the information is highly secure and tamperproof. The innovators are highly hopeful of the technology and are expecting a lot like an efficient supply of products, fair pricing, efficient supply and improved product tracking. With this, the farmers would be able to do real-time management of the stock.

It is hard to keep the track of the grocery that you buy on daily basis. You go to the grocery store and buys chicken for his evening meal. He “trusts” that the chicken is safe, that it has been inspected by USDA experts and is okay to eat. But you have a little knowledge about the condition when it was slaughtered if it were very unsanitary and unfavourable conditions or about the origin of the food how it was grown.

There have been numerous scandals that put a spotlight on the issues (the European horsemeat scandal of 2013, for example). It can be said that consumers no longer trust the origin or supply chain of their foods. Certification can be fraudulent and supply chain members are not revealed.

The blockchain has proven to be a promising technology when it comes to securities and transparency for the crypto transaction. The technology can provide a permanent, immutable record of contracts, transactions, documents, supply chain movement and more. All major industries are exploring the potential of blockchain and this includes agribusiness.

In the recent study by the Dutch government, the potential blockchain for the agriculture industry was examined and the result concluded that much more study and research, along with refinement of blockchain technology, must be conducted, the potential is certainly there.

From the researcher’s book, it can be concluded that the use of blockchain could feasibly result in much greater consumer trust and even lower costs, as agribusiness begins to adopt the technology. The consumers would know exactly how a food product was grown/raised – what soil, fertilizers, etc. were used for plant products or how animals were raised, what they were fed, etc.

This issue is not confined to a particular region and the use of blockchain in this particular section is globally helpful. In the case of a natural disaster in one part of the world, everyone is impacted. And countries and companies having disaster reaction plans can play a vital role in easing up the situation. Blockchain has potential here too. The Victims need supplies and companies need suppliers. If smart contracts and predicament plans are developed in advance and recorded through blockchain technology, every “player” in the supply chain will understand his role to play. And the supply chain can be traced as goods and services are transported according to the plan.

Blockchain can further be used as the information starting from seed procurement to harvest for sale at POS system can be stored in the blockchain securely. This will greatly help producers and consumers in quantifying, monitoring, and controlling the risks throughout the agriculture process.