AGRICHAIN
The agriculture sector encompasses a large number of areas such as agricultural production, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Forestry, horticulture, and allied sectors such as agricultural research, Procurement & distribution of seeds, fertilizers, and produce, agriculture marketing, food processing, establishment, and maintenance of warehouses. The Logistics system weaves together the various stakeholders – farmers, certification agencies, warehouses, consumers, farm equipment manufacturers, Government – and is a critical component in the movement of the agricultural raw materials and produce.
Apart from reducing pilferages and leakages, the requirement of ensuring quality and ideal conditions during transportation has become the need of the hour. Consumers' awareness has enabled them to question the quality, information on the source of the produce, the farming practices, etc., and expects food companies to have greater accountability and transparency. Traditional systems are in silos and are not able to answer these questions with assurance of tamper-proof data, ability to show the provenance, and track-and-trace the movement of the goods and raw materials.
AgriChain – a Blockchain powered solution is a common platform developed by National Informatics Centre and deployed on the National Blockchain Framework. This will enable all the stakeholders to be able to:
- a) record documents such as lab test reports, certifications, licenses for farmers to confirm the receipt of genuine seed/fertilizer/equipment etc.
- b) Track and trace the movement of raw materials and finished produce
- c) See the provenance of the produce
- d) Be satisfied for having paid premium value for produce grown by adopting Sustainable practice/organic farming practices
The AgriChain can also leverage the property Chain – a platform for secure storage of property details and transactions on it – to take to the next level in tracking details such as the type of land, who the farmer is, and kind of practices employed for cultivation.
