Ensure Smart Farming & Sustainable Agriculture with Blockchain and IOT
The agriculture industry over the years has witnessed many changes. In the last few decades it has witnessed green revolution to inhouse breeding, crop rotation to widespread use of pesticides. Smart Farming becomes the need of the hour, by which the ecological footprint of farming can be reduced. The global food system needs to be resource efficient and at the same time sustainable. Sustainable agriculture methods can be employed to create and nurture systems that are naturally productive, naturally efficient and regenerative.
Farming systems need to be designed to work smarter by reduced energy use, fossil fuel elimination, optimal fertilizer usage and controlled greenhouse gas emissions that will result in it to be more productive with minimized wasted effort or expense. With the advancement of technologies like Smart Phones and smart faming equipment’s like, sensors, IOT devices etc many countries are adopting precision farming techniques for a superior yield with the guarantee of fair price. According to a report by BIS Research, the global smart farming market is expected to reach $23.14 billion by 2022, rising at a CAGR of 19.3% from 2017 to 2022.
Sustainable agriculture and smart farming both need data driven information services. Farm owners and growers want such a technology that produces real time benefits and for the longer term. Blockchain is one such technology which can bring in immense benefits to the sector and make agriculture sustainable.
The primary challenge faced by farmers in traditional farming was maintaining premium quality of produce from harvest to storage to delivery. With IOT devices planted in farms which monitors soil temperature, soil humidity, air moisture etc — any deviation from the optimum can be tracked real time and measures taken to prevent damages. These updates can become part of the Blockchain ledger, with every participating node receiving the update. Blockchain promises a single source of truth about the condition of the farm, inventory as well as contracts from planting to harvesting to storing. By providing a single source of data for a farm, blockchain minimizes the strain of record keeping and maintaining multiple record systems. What makes Blockchain such a natural fit for this, is the decentralized nature of it. Contamination in the food supply chain gets immediately notified and effectively controlled.
As demand for organic and other special production method grows, there is a huge incentive for growers whose products showcase the journey from farm to the plate. Thus, Blockchain will allow growers not only to meet regulatory compliance but consumer expectation as well. An additional benefit comes when it is time to sell the produce to grain buyers or food processors. Growers can ensure the quality of their produce and even manage the asset management exchange including instant payment, via the Blockchain. Blockchain in Agriculture thus improves safety, efficiency and accountability as well as easily manages, tracks and transacts different assets from crops to inventory to even precision data. Thus cementing the sustainable future of Agriculture with a faith born not of words but of deeds.
Originally published at https://medium.com on January 8, 2019.
