Blockchain in Agriculture: New Vision for Agriculture Industry

Blockchain technology brought us the never-before promise of security, and we have already come to know about the era-defining impact of the technology on several industry niches and sectors. After being embraced by the banking and financial sector, blockchain was adopted by supply chain, retail, administrative purposes, public security, and many others. Though it is still at the very initial stage, blockchain has already been used in the agricultural sector. Blockchain technology, by completely eradicating the mediums in the data chain for all database transfer and transactions, makes way for more transparency while maintaining the immutability of the data. Thanks to this decentralization of data sans the threat of data tampering and data theft, many industries are jumping in the blockchain bandwagon. The agriculture sector is one of the latest to take a leap to blockchain.

What promises are in store for the blockchain technology in agriculture? Well, though the actual uses cases still remained very limited, with the huge impact in mind, we will explain here some of the most potent use cases of blockchain in the farming and agriculture sector.

Boosting productivity in crop yield

As the global hunger index still shows nearly a hundred countries to be reeling with a lack of food security and malnutrition, producing more food and crop with fewer resources became the biggest priority for all the efforts for modernizing agriculture. Yielding more food with less effort while fulfilling the needs of maximum people has already been the focus of many countries, and welfare organizations are working to reduce hunger and malnutrition affected deaths. Fortunately, blockchain technology can really play a major role in pushing crop and food yield.

Blockchain technology, by helping to maintain a smart inventory and database of resources like water, fertilizer, and laborers, can simplify the accessibility of these resources and inventories and thus can boost productivity for agricultural farms. Smart connected inventories, surveillance drones, and connected farming tools are now producing valuable agricultural data that can be utilized for crop yield mechanism.

Boosting agricultural supply chain

Apart from helping farmers and agricultural farms utilizing resources and inventories better for optimum farming output and best yield throughout seasons, blockchain is increasingly playing a great role in making the supply chain of the food and crops better. Thanks to the blockchain food supply chain, now no longer needs the middlemen or agents to supply stuff from the producers down to the stores and the actual users.

Moreover, thanks to the blockchain-based supply chain, the pricing of the crops, date, and time stamp for produces and qualitative aspects can be very transparently maintained and made accessible to all stakeholders. Lastly, by just keeping a record of the previous transactions and by keeping an extensive database of customers, farmers, and the stores, blockchain can help to make products available where there is the highest demand.

Agriculture with community support

As sustainable agriculture keeping the local traditions and farming processes are increasingly getting popular because of the low environmental impact they cause, community-based farming is gaining momentum. Internet, by opening up the global market for the local farm products, further fueled the aspiration of the local farmers and agriculture farms. Blockchain-based operation is helping community-based agriculture farms to get real-time access to the sales opportunities in large stores and marketplaces.

An increasing number of community-supported agricultural farms are now enjoying the popularity of their products in a large market thanks to the transparent business processes powered by an accessible database of their products coming with time stamps and other details. Thanks to blockchain, community farmers now can directly contact their shoppers and customers in cities and create a value proposition.

Enjoying control over natural disasters

Bad weather conditions and natural calamities often make up the biggest roadblocks to sustainable agriculture. This is where blockchain technology can offer some great value solutions. While precise and correct predictions of bad weather and imminent natural challenges can always provide the timely cover against damages, it seems no longer out of reach thanks to the advanced technological capabilities powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain.

Ups and downs in market pricing are also known to have a damaging impact on agricultural product marketing and availability. This is where blockchain technology can play a valuable role by simply maintaining an open and real-time database that make pricing transparent to all stakeholders down the entire supply chain.

Conclusion

Blockchain in the agriculture sector has come with a whole array of never before promises. Once the entire sector embraces blockchain, the definitive impact of the technology will become more visible.

About the Author

Paul Osborne is Chief Technology Officer of Cerdonis Technologie LLC Blockchain Development Company. He is passionate app developer with 9+ years experience has developed apps for major industries and businesses. He loves to read about new technology and likes to share experiences, thoughts and ideas on different technology through writing informative blog.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay