A Decentralized Blockchain Framework for Access Management in Precision Agriculture IoT

Abstract

The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into precision agriculture has transformed farming practices through real-time monitoring, automated irrigation, and data-driven decision-making. However, centralized access control mechanisms remain vulnerable to single points of failure, scalability issues, and security breaches such as spoofing and replay attacks. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a decentralized blockchain-based framework for access management in agricultural IoT environments. The architecture integrates IoT devices, edge gateways, smart contracts, and a distributed ledger to provide secure identity management, automated authorization, and immutable audit trails. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) are combined to enable context-aware authorization, while Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and end-to-end encryption strengthen resilience against identity theft and unauthorized access. Performance evaluation demonstrates a$\mathbf{6 5 \%}$reduction in authentication latency and an access control accuracy of 98.5 %, confirming the framework's scalability and security effectiveness for large-scale precision agriculture deployments.