APPLICATIONS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN LIVESTOCK SECTOR : THE REVOLUTION TRANSFORMING INDIAN LIVESTOCK SECTOR
A blockchain is a distributed, public archive that records transactions electronically. Blockchain is a technology that can allow individuals and businesses to make instant network transactions without any intermediary (if decentralized). Transactions made on blockchain are completely secure and are kept as a record of what has happened as a function of blockchain technology. Cryptographic encryption algorithms ensure that no blockchain transaction record can be altered after an event occurs. It’s important to remember that the blockchain is still evolving. Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed ledger where blocks containing a set of transactions are linked together by a cryptographic hash. Transactions originating from a node are validated by participating nodes, and a set of transactions is added to the block by the “mining” node. Any mining node with sufficient computes power that solves a cryptographic puzzle can generate and broadcast a new block containing the set of validated transactions.
Blockchain is an emerging digital technology allowing ubiquitous financial transactions among distributed untrusted parties, without the need of intermediaries such as banks. This article examines the impact of blockchain technology in agriculture and food supply chain, presents existing ongoing projects and initiatives, and discusses overall implications, challenges and potential, with a critical view over the maturity of these projects. Our findings indicate that blockchain is a promising technology towards a transparent supply chain of food, with many ongoing initiatives in various food products and food-related issues, but many barriers and challenges still exist, which hinder its wider popularity among farmers and systems. These challenges involve technical aspects, education, policies and regulatory frameworks.
Blockchain was born in 2008 by a person (or group) with the pseudo name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ to set out as the Bitcoin’s public transaction ledger.In layman’s term, blockchain is a digital record of transactions.
What is Blockchain Technology?
Databases are currently using ICT (information and communication technology) to track data and manage information flow. The use of blockchain technology to power these databases is a novel concept. They distribute privileges to all network members rather than having a single server and administrator. Multiple parties can then access and validate new database additions, increasing security and lowering the risk of corruption.
How Blockchain Technology Can Revolutionize Agriculture Sector?
Blockchain is a technology that can bring breakthroughs in the Agri sector with its potential. By allowing information to be traced across the agricultural supply chain, blockchain agriculture enhances food safety. The ability of blockchain to store and manage data allows for traceability, which is used to aid in the development and implementation of intelligent farming and index-based crop insurance systems.
Uses of Blockchain Technologies in Agriculture & ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Blockchain technologies can track all types of information about plants, such as seed quality, and crop growth, and even generate a record of the journey of the plant after it leaves the farm. This data can improve supply chain transparency and eliminate concerns associated with illegal and unethical operations. In the case of a recall, they can also make it easier to track any contamination or other issues back to their source. The primary goals of these technologies are sustainability and food security. When consumers have this amount of transparency, they can make informed purchasing decisions. They frequently utilize this information to reward farmers and producers that implement good farming methods.
Barriers to Using Blockchain Technologies
Concerns have been raised that blockchain technology could be misapplied or misused, putting food security at risk. For example, privately held blockchains are easier to hack and less secure. Because these blockchains are based on private organisation norms, it’s easy to see how the wrong people could take advantage of them. Small-scale farmers, on the other hand, who lack the necessary size, technological know-how, and scalability to take advantage of blockchain technology, may be left behind.Many issues must be resolved before blockchain technology can be completely incorporated into agriculture.
First, blockchain implementation must be decentralized to accommodate small farmers and rural dwellers. Otherwise, food security will remain a problem. Implementation must enable sustainable and equitable food systems, allowing consumers to make a better decisions.
Those who lack the digital literacy required to engage in blockchain technology must be educated. This is part of the system’s decentralisation process. Because of aged infrastructure and a lack of digital literacy, the world’s poor may be unable to participate.
Why blockchain technology can be the game-changer for boostering farming in India?
While the food goes through many different players on its journey from the farm to the food plate, there is a strong urge by consumers today to know what are they eating. Also, as supply chains have become longer, any user becomes more concerned about the origin and journey of the produce.
Blockchain is the only way that traceability can be brought reliably to farm produce with the distributed market architecture.
IoT devices and sensors are being introduced by agritech companies, and blockchain technology can be used to consolidate data on a variety of topics, including seed quality, crop tracking, and the path of crops from the farm to the market.
Apart from increasing transparency in the food supply chain, blockchain technology can also improve security by prohibiting unethical crop production and distribution, which endangers farmers’ livelihoods.
Consumers will be able to make more educated decisions thanks to blockchain’s data collection, and they may even be able to help small-scale farmers who are often in need of food and financial security.
Before the data can be preserved, it must first be formatted and made comprehensible. Blockchain technology makes it easier to add meta information to data and structure. It can be saved after that, making compliance enforcement easier. Data compliance ensures that the information gathered is kept secure and secured.
How Blockchain works?
Before explaining how a blockchain is built, it’s important to understand exactly what makes up the network. Participating computers are called ―nodes,‖ which are simply computers that can store the blockchain’s data, follow the rules of the blockchain’s specific protocol and communicate with the other nodes. Nodes can be physically located anywhere, and for this reason, they’re called ―distributed.‖ Each node follows the same rules and maintains an identical copy of the blockchain data set. Blockchains are a new type of network infrastructure (a new way of organizing how information and value move around on the internet) that creates network ‘trust’ by introducing distributed verifiability, auditability, and consensus. Blockchains operate as a decentralized database, distributed through large peer-topeer networks with no single point of failure and no single source of reality. No individual entity may own a blockchain network, and no single entity may arbitrarily alter the data stored on the blockchain without peer consensus. New data can only be added to the blockchain by agreement between the various nodes of the network, a mechanism known as the Distributed Consensus. Each node of the network keeps its own copy of the blockchain data and keeps the other nodes honest — if one node changes its local copy, the other nodes reject it—blockchains record information about a time-stamped chain that extends infinitely forward. New data will be added to the end and will be permanent once added. Older data can not be deleted or changed, since a snapshot of it is stored in the following data blocks. Blockchains uses mathematics and computer science techniques known as cryptography to sign every transaction (e.g. transfer of assets, such as money, from one person to another) with the unique digital signature of the user who initiated the transaction.
Each block contains data and hash of own and also previous block. When hash between two simultaneous blocks match, it forms a chain.Blockchain technology is still considered to be in its infancy when compared with traditional global financial systems. But if we lay aside the issue of age, the superior features that blockchain has can potentially disrupt existing solutions not only in industry and commerce but in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Agriculture and food supply chains are well interlinked since agricultural goods are almost often used as inputs in a multi-actor supply chain, where customers are typically end-users. More importantly, there is an increasing number of problems that urgently need to be resolved. There is evidence that blockchain applications began to be used in supply chain management shortly after the technology appeared. The blockchain supply chain management is expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 87%, from $45 million in 2018 to $3314.6 million by 2023.
Blockchain Technology in Food Supply Chains
Food Supply Chain
The food chain worldwide is highly multi-actor based and distributed, with numerous different actors involved, such as farmers, shipping companies, wholesalers and retailers, distributors, and groceries. The main phases characterizing a generic agri-food supply chain are described below (Caro, Ali, et al. 2018): 1. Production: The production phase represents all agricultural activities implemented within the farm. The farmer uses raw and organic material (fertilizers, seeds, animal breeds and feeds) to grow crops and livestock. Throughout the year, depending on the cultivations and/or animal production cycle, we can have one or more harvest/yield. 2. Processing: This phase concerns the transformation, total or partial, of a primary product into one or more other secondary products. Subsequently a packaging phase is expected, where each package might be uniquely identified through a production batch code containing information such as the production day and the list of raw materials used. 3. Distribution: Once packaged and labeled, the product is released for the distribution phase. Depending on the product, delivery time might be set within a certain range and there might be a product storage step (Storage). 4. Retailing: At the end of the distribution, the products are delivered to retailers who perform the sale of the product (Retailers). The end-user of the chain will be the customer, who will purchase the product (Customer). 5. Consumption: The consumer is the end user of the chain, he/she buys the product and demands traceable information on quality standards, country origin, production methods, etc.While the blockchain technology gains success and proves its functionality in many cryptocurrencies, various organizations and other entities aim at harnessing its transparency and fault tolerance in order to solve problems in scenarios where numerous untrusted actors get involved in the distribution of some resource (Manski 2017), (Sharma 2017). Two important, highly relevant areas are agriculture and food supply chain (Dujak and Sajter 2019), (Tripoli and Schmidhuber 2018). Agriculture and food supply chains are well interlinked, since the products of agriculture almost always are used as inputs in some multi-actor distributed supply chain, where the consumer is usually the final client (Maslova 2017.
Food Security
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines food security as the situation when “all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Achieving this objective has proven to be extremely challenging under humanitarian crises related to environmental disasters, violent political and ethnic conflicts, etc. Blockchain is regarded as an opportunity for the transparent delivery of international aid, for disintermediating the process of delivery, for making records and assets verifiable and accessible and, ultimately, to respond more rapidly and efficiently in the wake of humanitarian emergencies (AID Tech 2017). Examples include digital food coupons having been distributed to Palestinian refugees in the Jordan’s Azraq camp (Blockchain for Zero Hunger 2017), via an Ethereum-based blockchain (Ethereum 2015), where the coupons could be redeemed via biometric data (Built to Adapt 2018). At the moment, the project is helping 100,000 refugees.
Food Safety
Food safety is the condition of processing, managing and storing food in hygienic ways, in order to prevent illnesses from occurring to human population. Food safety and quality assurance have become increasingly difficult in times of growing global flows of goods (Creydt en Fischer 2019). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that contamination because of food causes 48M Americans to become ill and 3,000 to die every year (CDC 2018), (Tripoli and Schmidhuber 2018). In 2016, Oceana performed a research on seafood fraud, showing that 20% of seafood is labelled incorrectly (Oceana 2013). Lee et al. commented that food supply chains are characterized by reduced trust, long shipment distances, high complexity, and large processing times (Lee, et al. 2017). Blockchain could provide an efficient solution in the urgent need for an improved traceability of food regarding its safety and transparency. As Figure 2 shows, recording information about food products at every stage of the supply chain allows to ensure good hygienic conditions, identifying contaminated products, frauds and risks as early as possible. Walmart and Kroger are among the first companies to embrace blockchain and include the technology into their supply chains (CB Insights 2017), working initially on case studies that focus on Chinese pork and Mexican mangoes (Kamath 2018). Early results from the studies showed that, when tracking a package of mangoes from the supermarket to the farm where they were grown, it took 6.5 days to identify the origin and the path the fruit followed with traditional methods, whereas with blockchain this information was available in just a few seconds (Wass 2017). The integration of blockchain with Internet of Things (IoT) for real-time monitoring of physical data and tracing based on the hazard analysis and critical control points system (HACCP) has recently been proposed (Tian 2017). This is particularly critical for the maintenance of the coldchain in the distribution logistics of spoilable food products. As an example, ZetoChain performs environmental monitoring at every link of the cold chain, based on IoT devices (Zeto 2018). Problems are identified in real-time and the parties involved are notified immediately for fast action taking. Smart contracts are harnessed to increase the safety of sales and deliveries of goods. Mobile apps can be used by consumers to scan Zeto labels on products in order to locate the product’s history.
Controlling Weather Crisis
Farmers usually have to confront unpredictable weather conditions while growing different types of crops. Because of excessive spring rains, many of the crops grown in India cannot tolerate flooding. The level of oxygen concentration reaches zero, making lifesustaining functions such as water uptake, root growth, and respiration difficult for the plants. Moreover, the lack of transparency in the current ecosystems of the food chain can lead to unclear and high price surges. Consumers had no idea when crops were suffering from poor weather and what contributed to higher prices. Because of the ability of blockchain to offer traceability and transparency, farmers and other stakeholders will get a clear understanding of the price differences in the food distribution market. As the weather conditions can be tracked from the blockchain ledger by approved parties, farmers can easily receive claims for crop insurance and livestock insurance through smart contracting.
But how is it beneficial in the dairy sector?
Dairy traceability is used to trace the milk and milk products’ journey via various routes – production to its final consumption. Unlike years ago, there has been a decline in the connection between dairy producers, processors/manufacturers, merchants, and buyers. Very little or no information reaches consumers.
Although the dairy supply chain members retain different data, they mostly lack communication and coordination. Such a lack of interaction amongst the farmers and consumers, accompanied by the dairy industry’s globalization, has raised a demand for a better traceability system for India’s milk and milk products.
In modern scientific literature, the usage of Blockchain technology and the IoT is viewed as the potential solution to enhance traceability in the agri-food supply chain arrangement.
What is Blockchain technology?
A blockchain is a shared, public archive that registers transactions digitally.
Blockchain is a technology that can enable individuals and institutions to make immediate network transactions without any mediator (when decentralized). Transactions conducted on the blockchain are entirely secure and stored as a record of what has occurred as a role of blockchain technology.
Cryptographic encryption algorithms assure that no blockchain transaction document can be modified after a particular event takes place. Blockchain is a decentralized and shared ledger where blocks comprising a collection of transactions are joined together by a cryptographic hash.
Blockchain and the Indian Dairy Sector
Effect of Blockchain Technology in Dairy industry
India has enormous potential in the dairy industry, as we are the world’s largest producer of milk. Several problems are currently facing the industry, such as the lack of nutrient feed, the lack of storage facilities and, to name a few, the lack of technical support. So, we can see that the organization of the supply chain and logistics are the major challenges facing the dairy industry. The good part is that challenges are nothing but disguised opportunities, and proactive steps need to be taken to educate farmers and provide them with a stronger supply chain to rely on to face this challenge head-on. Currently, due to processing malpractice, milk handling and transportation, market-placed dairy consumption can cause mortal harm to human health. In the Game The recent decades have seen a rise in scandals related to milk happening all over the globe. A study conducted by India’s Food Safety and Standard Authority (FSSAI) shows that 68.4 per cent of the country ‘s milk is not in line with the legal norm (Shingh et al. 2020). The traceability of milk can be defined as the capacity to Trace how milk and milk products are moved from its production through different routes until Its final consumption reaches. Unlike in the past, there has been a decline in the relationship between dairy producers, processors/manufacturers, distributors and consumers, with very little to no information passed on to consumers from previous members of the dairy supply chain. The use of Blockchain technology and the Internet of Things is presented in recent scientific literature as a potential solution for improving traceability in the food supply chain system. Today, consumers are far more discerning, more willing to pay for food protection, quality and ethically generated food. Blockchain technology has great potential for transforming the dairy sector, as it can address various challenges in the dairy supply chain system that prevent transparency and traceability. All the associated members should be registered in the Blockchain network for this purpose; they will have a unique digital identity and profile in the network.
We all agree that each one of us holds at least one milk product at home daily, rarely are we conscious of the comprehensive string of steps that the staple product moves through to reach our house.
As the dairy goods in the market are becoming ever more diverse, the supply chain is getting complicated and vast, necessitating trustworthiness. Here precisely, a Dairy Supply chain blockchain appears as the only solution to the trust and quality dilemma.
Unlike the Westward, milk producers in India remain highly unorganized, which ends in incompatible milk quality and composition. They lack granular, actionable information to improve their operations.
India being the world’s largest milk producer, with 22 percent of global production, there is an urgent need to enhance not just productivity, quality but also connectivity and transparency.The use of blockchain in the dairy industry guarantees to build confidence in the goods, which eventually raises the demand for the package. This covers the secure handling and storing of official records and digital authentication to uphold intellectual property rights and patent systems, introduce transparency throughout the supply chain, decrease food fraud, and heighten food safety.
Conclusion
Blockchain is the next disruption in the technology world and is not only being studied but also adopted by various sectors, including business, hospitality, pharmaceutical, banking, all over the world. Incorporating blockchain in the Indian dairy sector will improve food quality and control safety and create a decentralized platform that’ll connect farmers and consumers. Blockchain technology is running the crypto-monetary bitcoin. It is a decentralized transaction environment where all transactions are recorded in a public directory that is visible to all. The objective of Blockchain is to provide anonymity, security, privacy and transparency to all its users. However, these attributes set out a number of technical challenges and constraints that need to be addressed. The government has a bull ‘s eye on the Digital India campaign, and Blockchain technology will make nations dream. India’s government has aimed to introduce Blockchain technology in a number of industries, which is why NITI aayog published India’s own Blockchain Management strategy earlier this year. India has also vision on creation largest blockchain network in the world, namely IndiaChain. Some Indian originated start-up like KhethiNext, aka plus also started adopting blockchain technology on a pilot basis, and they are also collaborating with large tech giants. Blockchain technology being the new technology, business owners don’t know if they get higher payments due to the higher cost of using them. Another big constraint lies in the developing world ‘s dairy production system, where dairy farming is non-commercial and fragmented. A large number of farmers participate in it, but they have a limited herd size. The integration of these farmers into the Blockchain-based dairy supply chain system presents challenges. For this reason, in order to apply Blockchain technology to the dairy sector, it is necessary to carry out a thorough research on these issues. Like all other technologies, this technology also has some flaws, but we need to look for a positive side and overcome its negative effect. In the end, we can conclude that blockchain management is “Ensuring performance, trust and accountability from farms to consumers” in every way.
DR CK SANT, DAIRY ADVISOR, PUNE
IMAGE-CREDIT-GOOGLE
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