Exploring Blockchain Use Cases In Agriculture And Food Supply Chain

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INTRODUCTION

The blockchain technology, our very own blockchain technology which was created to facilitate cryptocurrency and is basically known for the significant and crucial role which its plays in the cryptocurrency network and how it facilitates the proper, effective and efficient functioning of the cryptocurrency network.

Apart from that, the blockchain network plays other roles which are of very important and of significant benefit to the different sectors of the world, the blockchain technology with its advanced features and properties can be applied in agriculture and food supply chains facilitating a smooth and more efficient operation.

The need for a more efficient, developed and reliable agricultural operation and supply chain management is increasing as the population of world increases and with the application of blockchain technology and other mechanisms we can really meet up with the demand, in this post I will be explaining and discussing some of the areas in which the blockchain technology can be applied.

IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY AND TRACEABILITY

Improving and enhancing the transparency and traceability of agricultural processes and management of the food supply chain is basically one of the many significant applications and use cases of the blockchain technology, owing to one or some of the innovative features and advancement basically with its immutable ledger the blockchain achieves this.

This basically means that all the problems facing the food supply chain agriculture whether as a result of the fact that it requires and operates with the help of different parties and individuals standing as middle men, its centralized nature or lack of adequate security, the blockchian will eliminate all of these.

Therefore, by implementing the blockchain technology in the food supply chain and agriculture issues such as food fraud and theft, or manipulations in the records of food supply chain, its origin and quality will all become a thing of the past, the blockchains immutable ledger will facilitate the elimination of all these issues.

INCREASING EFFICIENCY OF TRANSACTION PROCESSING

One of the innovative properties and features of the blockchain technology which it applies to managing the agriculture sector and food supply chain is smart contracts, smart contracts are basically self executing contracts or contracts programmed to operate automatically as along as certain conditions which was set has been met.

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Therefore, this smart contract can be implemented to automate, facilitate and streamline the different complex processes involved in agriculture and food supply chains, and as results eliminate the need for different individuals to serve or play the role of an intermediary and with this risk of human committed errors and crimes will be reduced.

Additionally owing to the fact that smart contracts allows for the automation of many transactions and processes like payments of the farmers approving orders and delivery of food and other agricultural produce, as well automatically authenticating and verifying original and quality products, all of these helps to increase the overall efficiency of transaction processing.

SUSTAINABLE AND IMMUTABLE SOURCING

In the food supply chain the final consumers of the food and agricultural produce or poducts usually have certain concerns about whether or not the process or method of operation and service of the agriculture industry which started out to be without fault is sustainable and here to stay or its just to catch consumers.

Wether or not those practices were sustainable I can't say for sure but what I can say is that with the introduction of the blockchain technology these concerns of the consumers would be eliminated seeing as the blockchain will address and provide solutions to those concerns by basically providing a transparent and verifiable record of how and where products are produced and sourced.

In addition to that, the blockchain can also be used and implemented for the purposes or to help verify the authenticity of certificates by so doing ensuring and confirming that products meet up with the required standards even attempts have been made to forge the labels on the products it would fail and as a result help build consumer trust in the sustainability of the supply chain.

INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE SUPPLYCHAIN

Basically when it is applied and implemented, the blockchain technology has the potential to significantly enhance the efficiency of supply chains by basically reducing the need to operate on a manual record keeping format and by the blockchain facilitating and providing a ledger where all transactions can be recorded immutably and verified thereby increasing the efficiency of the supply chain process.

Additionally, by basically implementing and applying the blockchain and all its technology into the food supply chain and agriculture helps to significantly reduce the stress and time which was to be wasted in dealing with paperwork and administrative costs and by automating the documentation process it leads to streamlining the entire process and reducing the risk and possibilities of errors and inefficiencies.

CONCLUSION

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In conclusion, I would like to use this opportunity to say a very big thank to everyone of you bloggers and my fellow steemians who made and took out the time and effort to read and go through this post which I have made, and I hope that you effort is duly rewarded and that you learnt something new as I have explained and discussed four of the use cases and applications of the blockchain technology in agriculture and food supply chain.