Blockchain-based platforms for agricultural supply chains

Abstract

There is a need to design a system to ensure that parties involved in crop production, distribution and consumption have a transparent supply chain management system that guarantees the products' openness, neutrality, reliability and, thus, security. This paper presents a system developed to decentralize agricultural supply-chain management by allowing supply-chain stakeholders to validate supply-chain events and carry out guaranteed payments using blockchain technology in agricultural supplychain management, from farm to table. Blockchain introduces digital trust into the system as important information is recorded in a public space, immutable, transparent, time-stamped and decentralized. This eliminates the need for third parties to be involved. The developed system enhances food safety and integrity through higher traceability and forces dishonest business entities out of business, thereby making the market safe. A peer-to-peer Agricultural crop products supply chain data structure was designed, and a front-end interface for users to sign up to using a crypto wallet was set up, providing a marketplace where farmers receive just compensation for their crops, thereby minimizing the risk of exploitation by dishonest intermediaries. The consumers also benefit as they will not pay inflated prices for their goods through the curbing of artificial inflation of prices by intermediaries.