Application of blockchain to agriculture

We are familiar with the promise of changing the financial system with blockchain, about a brighter perspective. However, this technology is really being applied to important areas such as agriculture or supply chain management.

Agriculture is an industry with more than 1 billion workers and produces more than 1.3 trillion dollars worth of food every year. What can blockchain do here, though?

The answer is simple: improve existing processes, from sharing data consistently across stages, to crop protection and food pollution prevention.

Theoretically, a blockchain could be used to record when and where a particular crop is grown, what type of fertilizer is used, when the crop is harvested and where it grows.

By tracking a product's journey from seed to storage shelf, blockchain can also provide useful data for supply chain management with specific and easily traceable information. This technology can even help farmers and distributors to prove that their products are organic and meet food safety and hygiene standards.

But how?

Despite so many uses, can blockchain really change the whole system?

Creating an appropriate system that allows all stakeholders to track and pay for deliveries is one of the major challenges of the agricultural sector. Currently, much of the process is dependent on third parties, responsible for logistics coordination and delivery.

With traditional operations, sellers often hire an agent to ensure goods are delivered safely. The buyer, on the other hand, relies on another agent to pay and audit deliveries. Having more people involved in the process results in higher costs and more time consuming.

If blockchain technology can be applied to the current supply chain, the whole process will be simplified into a distributed ledger, meaning buyers can interact with sellers faster and payment times are also higher. will be greatly reduced.

In addition, companies will save huge sums of money to maintain agents and farmers will bring home a bigger share of their revenue.

Increase crop yields

Blockchain, along with other technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), can also help maximize crop yields. For example, sensors on IoT devices can collect data on water level, soil temperature and fertilizer use rates, and update them to the blockchain in real time. When data is stored on the blockchain, smart contracts can be activated and perform specific actions, improving the quality of farming processes and crops.

Farmers often face unpredictable weather conditions. But with the help of blockchain in monitoring and predicting changes in external conditions, improving the viability of crops, maintaining prices and even saving labor.

Blockchain technology, in addition to the potentials in the financial sector, also shows a lot of promise in the field of supply chain management and agriculture, but to explore and maximize its potential, there are many. Questions need to be answered. For example, smart contracts can certainly activate and perform specific actions after data is stored on the blockchain, improving the quality of the cultivation process and the plants produced, but how to ensure Make sure the input data is correct.

Blockchain may have opened a revolution in thinking, but it remains to be seen whether it will really improve anything in the real world.

Typical examples of blockchain application in agriculture

In mid-2018, My Xuong Cooperative, Dong Thap Province, applied blockchain to manage and trace the Cat Chu mango. Just scan the QR code on the product, users can know the manufacturing process, packaging, shipping, distribution or usage of the product ...

The advantage of blockchain is that it is effectively stored and secured without intervening, so it can avoid the correction and fraud of product information when it reaches consumers. By adopting this technology, all transactions in the agricultural value chain will become public and transparent.

In addition, blockchain is an important market access tool and helps increase supply chain management. Technology helps to check the consumption of agricultural products and inventories, from which farmers can verify the true value of the crop, predict consumers' needs in a specific time and at the same time. production process optimization.

Vietnam is assessed as having potential in agricultural production and development. Export of agricultural products in the country has been constantly on the rise, contributing significantly to increasing export turnover and improving the trade balance. In 2017, the export value of agricultural products reached more than US $ 36.5 billion. By the end of 2018, this figure is expected to be over 40 billion USD.

The situation of poor quality agricultural products with cheap price, with unidentified origins appears rampant, making the value of Vietnamese agricultural products inferior to neighboring countries. The international competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products against foreign brands is limited when 80% of our country's agricultural products, when exported, must be mediated by foreign "brands".

Contact information

EG VIET NAM TRADING SERVICES COMPANY LIMITED

Address: 22 Quach Vu Street, Hiep Tan Ward, Tân Phu Distrist, HCM City

Phone: (+84)86 705 74 79

Hotline: (+84)86 707 74 79

Email: info@egvietnam.com

New update