Open AccessBlockchain Technology in Agriculture
Author(s) -
V. V. S. S. Anusha,
Stanzin Padma
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
asian journal of agricultural extension, economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2320-7027
DOI - 10.9734/ajaees/2021/v39i1030669
Subject(s) - immutability , interoperability , traceability , transparency (behavior) , business , blockchain , agriculture , maturity (psychological) , commerce , computer security , computer science , geography , political science , world wide web , software engineering , archaeology , law
The World Economic Forum marked Blockchain technology (BCT) as one of the seven revolutionary technologies of the future. It is a distributed ledger system ensuring transparency, security, immutability, interoperability, and provenance. This article tries to understand the technological aspects, working mechanism and explore different areas where BCT can be applied in agriculture. Data in BCT is stored in a series of blocks contains the hash value (previous and the current), timestamp, and difficulty details, secured cryptographically with a symmetric or asymmetric digital signature to avoid data tampering and fraud. Traceability (supply chain), using Smart contracts (in Agricultural insurance, Crop finance, Land records) achieved by the BCT and the companies (Carrefour, Trace harvest), states (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh), and countries (Kenya, European Union) practicing are discussed. The Farmer producer company- Sahyadri farms keen implementation of blockchain fetched benefits to farmers amid Covid times. Finally, addressing the barriers in practicing the BCT in India- Technology maturity, energy cost, and education. The massive potential of BCT is yet untapped, to reach up to the farmer level, which will flourish in the coming years.