In traditional fruit traceability systems, the opacity of the process and the ease of data tampering have always been major challenges. To address this, we propose a fruit traceability system based on blockchain and computer vision in this paper. In terms of data storage, we chose the Ethereum blockchain to ensure the authenticity of the data. As the fruit passes through each node, we upload the fruit image and conduct quality checks. We trained the YOLOv5 model to identify fruit types, and on this basis, we trained an improved Unet model for saliency detection to extract the fruit image area, both of which performed very well. Based on the fruit image, we evaluate from four aspects: saturation, hue, defects, and shape. This system can be used for traceability throughout the fruit supply chain.
Arnold Adimabua Ojugo, Patrick Ogholuwarami Ejeh, Christopher Chukwufunaya Odiakaose, Andrew Okonji Eboka · 5 authors
<span lang="EN-US">Agriculture has since become a major source of livelihood for Nigerians. It also accounts for over 85% of the total food consumed within her borders. The sector has maintained improved productivity and profitability via a concerted effort to address critical issues such as an unorganized regulatory system, lack of food safety data, no standards in agricultural produce, non-adaptation to precision farming, and non-harmony via inventory trace supports. This study proposes blockchain-based trace-support in a continued effort to ensure food quality, consumer safety, and trading of food assets. It uses the radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor to register and track livestocks, farms/farmers, and abattoir processes as well as provisions a databank to trace livestock data. Results show the model adequately perform about 1,101 transactions per seconds with a response time of 0.21 s for queries and 0.28 s for https pages respectively for 2,500 users. Also, it yields a slightly longer time of 0.32 s for queries and 0.38 s for https pages respectively with an increased 5,000 users via the world-state as stored in the blockchain’s hyper-fabric ledger. Overall, the framework can directly query and retrieve data without it traversing the whole ledger. This, in turn, improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the traceability system.</span>
The management of the cold chain in transportation is a crucial issue as it affects the quality and safety of perishable goods such as food, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies. To ensure proper temperature control and monitoring during transportation, the certification of data is essential. Traditional methods for data management, like paper-based records and manual processes, can be unreliable and cause errors, leading to potential food waste. The integration of Internet of Things and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) presents a promising solution for the challenges in cold chain management and can help to improve the overall efficiency of the process. Internet of Things devices can gather and transmit sensor data in real-time, while DLT can ensure the authenticity and immutability of the data. The combination of these technologies can offer a transparent and reliable solution for cold chain management, improving the safety and quality of perishable goods during transportation. Additionally, DLT eliminates the need for intermediaries, enabling direct exchange of data between stakeholders, leading to greater efficiency and accountability. In this paper, we propose a system architecture focused on the cold chain management in transportation that integrates Internet of Things and DLT. In such a system, the Internet of Things component provides real-time data collection whereas the DLT component ensures a secure data management.
This work exploits the potential of two important technologies which are UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and blockchain in the context of Agriculture 4.0. We propose a cattle health monitoring system based on UAVs that collect health measures from IoT devices equipping the animals. The main objectives of our system are twofold. First, the consumer will be aware of the quality of his/her food. Second, the national ecosystem (e.g. agriculture ministry, trade ministry) will get useful information about the quality and the number of cattle that can be put on the market. Thus, smart cattle management strategies could be undertaken afterward. The involved entities in such a system are multiple: the farmer, the veterinaries, the ministry of agriculture, etc… We first start by studying the system’s security by applying the FMEA risk assessment methodology. Our findings motivate us to integrate blockchain technology to manage the data collected as well as the attribution of the UAVs missions via a marketplace. Thanks to its properties, this technology ensures the transparent tracking of cattle status and fairness in the payment of the UAVs managed by private operators. Finally, we develop a proof of concept using the Sui blockchain platform.
A C Ramachandra, P. S. Aishwarya, Aman Sharma, Aman Verma · 5 authors
Coffee is a highly popular and widely traded beverage across the globe. Its consumption is steadily increasing at an annual rate above 2%, as per the 'Coffee development report 2019' by ICO. It has been observed that the coffee market has grown significantly by over 60% since the year 1990. In India, there are around 250,000 coffee growers, out of which 98% are small growers with farms of 10 acres or fewer. Due to limited access to official financial support, middlemen play a crucial role in providing credit, technical support, and trading services to smallholder coffee growers. However, there are risks associated with adulteration, poor storage, and transportation facilities. Moreover, climate changes have also adversely affected coffee production. Conventionally, coffee trade is conducted through middlemen via phone calls and paper documentation, which leaves room for potential fraud and data manipulation. The objective is to resolve these challenges and ensure full transparency in trading through the utilization of advanced technologies. We suggest employing a smart contract for the coffee supply chain by incorporating Blockchain and IoT devices. Blockchain is a tamper-proof digital ledger distributed across the network, containing immutable digital records. This will guarantee complete transparency of data and avoid any manipulation. Throughout this project, we gained expertise in various aspects of the supply chain and acquired technical knowledge of IoT devices and Blockchain. We designed a proposal that could be utilized for industrial purposes and promote societal development. Additionally, this smart contract can be utilized for other products besides coffee, thereby enhancing the complete supply chain of different agri-products throughout the nation.
Abstract Blockchain can help reduce fraud and improve visibility and traceability in supply chains. It has attracted significant investments in commercial practices, especially in the luxury industry. With the recent upgradation of consumption worldwide, consumers care more about the source of information and the value of products. Will tracing products using blockchain technology help competing luxury brands gain consumer trust and cultivate new competitive advantages? This paper proposes a supply chain model comprising two competing manufacturers selling online through retail or direct channels. It also explores whether and how manufacturers implement traceability strategies, including building traceability systems or joining third‐party blockchain platforms, considering blockchain's traceability. The results show that, when only one party adopts the traceability strategy, being the first mover to join a third‐party blockchain platform with high traceability is always beneficial for improving the profits of all parties. In this scenario, the blockchain platform should adopt as high traceability as possible. When both parties choose to trace the product source, a win–win strategy for them is to join third‐party blockchain platforms with low traceability. In this scenario, the untraced party is motivated to implement a traceability strategy. Furthermore, if consumer perceptions of traceability are high, an untraced manufacturer can obtain higher profits using the traceability strategy. Otherwise, low consumer perception of traceability leads to low‐price competition, which is harmful to luxury brands.
At present, the application of blockchain in the traceability system has become a mainstream technology to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products. However, blockchain is designed to ensure open and transparent data and tamper-proof, and there is a deficiency in the privacy protection of data. In this study, a novel blockchain-based model for agricultural product traceability system is proposed, which has good generality and can protect the privacy of the agricultural product information in the traceability system. First, we designed a multi-channel data collection and uploading architecture, with one channel corresponding to the collection and uploading of information of one type of agricultural product, so as to meet the actual traceability needs of various types of agricultural products. Then, the information of agricultural products uploaded by each channel is encrypted by using the hierarchical encryption algorithm, and the encrypted information is stored in the blockchain to realize the secure sharing of agricultural product information. Finally, we evaluated the system model on the Hyperledger Fabric platform.
Due to recurring food quality and safety issues, growing segments of consumers, especially in developed markets, and regulators in agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) require a fast and trustworthy system to retrieve necessary information on their food products. With the existing centralized traceability systems used in AFSCs, it is difficult to acquire full traceability information, and there are risks of information loss and data tampering. To address these challenges, research on the application of blockchain technology (BCT) for traceability systems in the agri-food sector is increasing, and startup companies have emerged in recent years. However, there have been only a limited number of reviews on the application of BCT in the agriculture sector, especially those that focus on the BCT-based traceability of agricultural goods. To bridge this knowledge gap, we reviewed 78 studies that integrated BCT into traceability systems in AFSCs and additional relevant papers, mapping out the main types of food traceability information. The findings indicated that the existing BCT-based traceability systems focus more on fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy, and milk. A BCT-based traceability system enables one to develop and implement a decentralized, immutable, transparent, and reliable system in which process automation facilitates the monitoring of real-time data and decision-making activities. We also mapped out the main traceability information, key information providers, and challenges and benefits of the BCT-based traceability systems in AFSCs. These helped to design, develop, and implement BCT-based traceability systems, which, in turn, will contribute to the transition to smart AFSC systems. This study comprehensively illustrated that implementing BCT-based traceability systems also has important, positive implications for improving AFSC management, e.g., reductions in food loss and food recall incidents and the achievement of the United Nations SDGs (1, 3, 5, 9, 12). This will contribute to existing knowledge and be useful for academicians, managers, and practitioners in AFSCs, as well as policymakers.
As global agricultural production and supply chains become increasingly complex, the demand for food safety and transparency is also growing. Agricultural traceability, as a process of tracing products from production to consumption, can help relevant departments locate the problematic links when agricultural products have issues. However, traditional agricultural traceability carries the risks of tampering with traceability data, as well as problems of information silos and opacity. Blockchain technology provides a reliable solution for agricultural traceability, ensuring data security and transparency, while also improving the efficiency and accuracy of traceability. This paper proposes a method based on blockchain smart contracts for millet information traceability. The method includes the architecture and algorithms of millet traceability based on blockchain smart contracts, as well as the interaction and process between the main participants and the smart contract. In addition, we conducted a performance evaluation of the designed smart contract.
The fish industry experiences substantial illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) activities within traditional supply chain systems. Blockchain technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) are expected to transform the fish supply chain (SC) by incorporating distributed ledger technology (DLT) to build trustworthy, transparent, decentralized traceability systems that promote secure data sharing and employ IUU prevention and detection methods. We have reviewed current research efforts directed toward incorporating Blockchain in fish SC systems. We have discussed traceability in both traditional and smart SC systems that make use of Blockchain and IoT technologies. We demonstrated the key design considerations in terms of traceability in addition to a quality model to consider when designing smart Blockchain-based SC systems. In addition, we proposed an Intelligent Blockchain IoT-enabled fish SC framework that uses DLT for the trackability and traceability of fish products throughout harvesting, processing, packaging, shipping, and distribution to final delivery. More precisely, the proposed framework should be able to provide valuable and timely information that can be used to track and trace the fish product and verify its authenticity throughout the chain. Unlike other work, we have investigated the benefits of integrating machine learning (ML) into Blockchain IoT-enabled SC systems, focusing the discussion on the role of ML in fish quality, freshness assessment and fraud detection.
Ajay Patel, M. N. Brahmbhatt, A.R. Bariya, J. B. Nayak · 5 authors
Livestock products share more than fifteen percent of total agri-foods traded worldwide. A global increase in food demand has increased the risk to food safety. Improvements in food quality, cold chain transit, and preservation are required for safe livestock products. Though, the food safety and regulation authorities demand complete food traceability from farm to fork, but in traditional supply chain it is ignored by fiddling with the transit paperwork and bill invoices. The process of supply chain reformation and activities linked to food recalls during food safety issues are insanely expensive and challenging. Traceability-driven food supply chain management is likely to implement novel technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT). The capability of the Blockchain era within the food sector is emerging with use cases across different regions, as shown via the growing number of studies. Credibility, efficiency, and safety are all improved when food products can be instantly traced from their point of origin through all points of contact on their way to the consumer. Blockchain assures a tamper-proof and transparent system that allows an innovative business solution, together with smart contracts. However, there are significant difficulties with the implementation of blockchain technology for food traceability. It necessitates more and more training platforms as well as trainers, who can make understanding and operability of this technology easy among ground-level participants and food entities. For the tactical application of this technology, it is essential to comprehend the legal and regulatory framework.
Abstract The availability of on-farm storage and processing is a critical challenge facing small farmers, which hinders agricultural productivity. Thirty per cent of the food produced globally is lost after harvest, with the proportion being exceptionally high in low- and middle-income countries due to a lack of on-farm handling and storage facilities. Conventional cold-storage solutions have not taken off at the smallholder level, mainly due to a lack of availability and access to reliable grid electricity. Therefore, off-grid decentralized solar-powered cold-storage units can play a vital role in preserving the produce at production sites and enhancing livelihood and rural development with a minimal carbon footprint. To maintain low temperatures at every step of the agricultural value chain, known as the ‘cold chain’, several technology vendors aim to improve the shelf life and user benefit. Small-scale farmers, which account for two-thirds of all food losses, are another group they focus on. This study examines the existing situation, importance and potential opportunities of decentralized cold-storage systems for fresh fruit and vegetables. In addition to economic, social, technological and environmental limitations, this study examines the triumphs and challenges of incorporating solar-energy-powered cold storage into developing communities. Although the private sector, NGOs and some government agencies are working to promote decentralized cold-storage facilities, relatively little has been done so far to have a significant influence on post-harvest losses and food security. There are still knowledge gaps on decentralized cold-storage facilities. The primary operational constraint is the economic situation of end users and the lack of financing alternatives for smallholder farmers.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, in effect since January 2023, seeks to differentiate products on quality, provide greater transparency on food origin, and on the transactions and the actors involved in the supply chain. At the same time, in Spain, the adoption of new technologies for the digitization of the agri-food sector has been proposed as a solution to address structural issues such as lack of competitiveness and innovation. In fact, systems using blockchain-related technologies for food control and traceability have seen great progress in recent years and, currently, the use of blockchain in supply chain management is almost doubling year on year. In this context, this paper investigates the level of development of blockchain technology in the agri-food sector in Spain and its applications for certifying food production conditions within the supply chain, and how it is supported by public policies. It identifies several challenges that need to be addressed for a widespread adoption could take place, such as data recorded on the blockchain, lack of standards, limited scope of projects, and integration of data capture automatically or with other technologies like RFID and AI. The document proposes to reorient public development policies to address these challenges, such as reusing data from, already in place, European data collections for production control and food traceability, educating users and stakeholders about the use of blockchain technology, and fostering legal and technical provisions which ensure system transparency to facilitate a successful implementation of blockchain.
Food product safety and quality are considered to be of the utmost significance on a global scale. Highly publicized food safety incidents have significantly increased public interest in food traceability, defined as “the ability to track any food, feed, food-producing animal or substance that will be used for consumption, through all stages of production, processing, and distribution” (European Union). The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that governments, producers, and consumers work together to ensure food safety, which calls for the dissemination of pertinent information throughout complex food value networks. Therefore, it is in the best interest of profit-driven businesses to implement information systems for tracking food goods, a significant byproduct of which is the likelihood of increased profitability. This paper aims to explore the ample possibilities for such implementations that are now available thanks to blockchain technology. In particular, the goal is to explore the dynamics of this technology and identify how it helps to create good customer relationships. For this purpose, the case of Lavazza, an important Italian roasted coffee company that has recently introduced a blockchain-tracked product to the market, is analyzed in detail, including all the steps that made the application of the technology possible and how it was finally communicated to the consumer. The case study offers a concrete example that resulted from both stakeholders’ internal need for greater traceability and consumers’ external need for greater transparency regarding the company’s sourcing processes. In this pilot project, collaboration among all the entities that are part of the chain was essential to delivering a formative, customized, and ultimately, easy-to-understand experience to the end consumer. Finally, Lavazza is an example of a company that decided to challenge itself by following a trend that will be increasingly present in future socioeconomic scenarios.
Efficient supply chain management is a laborious task in any company, but in food industry, there is extra complexity and risk of compromising supply chain in food waste management, which may directly affect consumer safety and the shelf life of goods. One possible solution is to use blockchain technology to improve the integrity, security, and transparency of food supply chain. This study intends to present a blockchain-based transparent traceability food supply system that would follow the passage of boxed leftovers from restaurants through nongovernmental organizations and lastly to the underprivileged. Furthermore, the system employs a QR code and an NFC tag to acquire access to secure data pertaining to food packaging. This can help to reduce fraud, theft, and counterfeiting, as well as improve the efficiency of leftover food supply chain.
Smart and sustainable agricultural practices are more complex than other industries as the production depends on many pre- and post-harvesting factors which are difficult to predict and control. Previous studies have shown that technologies such as blockchain along with sustainable practices can achieve smart and sustainable agriculture. These studies state that there is a need for a reliable and trustworthy environment among the intermediaries throughout the agrifood supply chain to achieve sustainability. However, there are limited studies on blockchain technology adoption for smart and sustainable agriculture. Therefore, this systematic review uses the PRISMA technique to explore the barriers and enablers of blockchain adoption for smart and sustainable agriculture. Data was collected using exhaustive selection criteria and filters to evaluate the barriers and enablers of blockchain technology for smart and sustainable agriculture. The results provide on the one hand adoption enablers such as stakeholder collaboration, enhance customer trust, and democratization, and, on the other hand, barriers such as lack of global standards, industry level best practices and policies for blockchain adoption in the agrifood sector. The outcome of this review highlights the adoption barriers over enablers of blockchain technology for smart and sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, several recommendations and implications are presented for addressing knowledge gaps for successful implementation.
The food supply chain, following its globalization, has become very complex. Such complexities, introduce factors that influence adversely the quality of intermediate and final products. Strict constraints regarding parameters such as maintenance temperatures and transportation times must be respected in order to ensure top quality and reduce to a minimum the detrimental effects to public health. This is a multi-factorial endeavor and all of the involved stakeholders must accept and manage the logistics burden to achieve the best possible results. However, such burden comes together with additional complexities and costs regarding data storage, business process management and company specific standard operating procedures and as such, automated methods must be devised to reduce the impact of such intrusive operations. For the above reasons, in this paper we present BioTrak: a platform capable of registering and visualizing the whole chain of transformation and transportation processes including the monitoring of cold chain logistics of food ingredients starting from the raw material producers until the final product arrives to the end-consumer. The platform includes Business Process Modelling methods to aid food supply chain stakeholders to optimize their processes and also integrates a blockchain for guaranteeing the integrity, transparency and accountability of the data.
Pedro Vieira de Azevedo, Jorge Gomes, Mário Rom�ão
Abstract In the current global marketplace supply chains can span a huge number of countries, cross many borders and require interoperation of a multitude of organizations. This vastness of supply chains impacts business competitiveness since it adds complexity and can difficult securing traceability, chain of custody and transparency. We propose that assuring chain of custody and traceability via Blockchain (BC) allows organizations to demonstrate product provenance, integrity and compliance. This work proposes that to effect true traceability the more complete approach is to connect both the Supply Chain Actors (SCAs) and products identifications using digital certificates. A Blockchain is used to manage the traceability of products and validation of the identities. Importing, verifying and storing the certificates uses an off-chain data storage solution for products certificates, IDs and data (i.e., WalliD) . To create, validate the certificates and setup the chain of trust a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) was designed as part of the proposal. Our study follows a Design Science research approach aimed to analyse the requirements and propose a solution to a more complete traceability in supply chains. The results were architectural artifacts, including an Ethereum Smart Contract and a PKI based certificate authentication system. The implementation of these deliverables allow for a supply chain system that can provide decentralized and trustful assurance of the provenance, chain of custody and traceability functionalities for all the Organizations and also for the final consumers. To exemplify the problem and demonstrate the applicability of the solution, its potential and benefits we applied it to a real food supply chain use case that already uses provenance certificates and stored them in the blockchain using the before mentioned SmartContract to assure and demonstrate the chain of custody and traceability of the food produce.
Abstract Blockchain technology serves as a framework for addressing the challenge of tracking and marketing materials in distributed networks. Agricultural traceability systems in food production provide farmers with food safety and smart contracts. Smart contracts establish cryptocurrency evidence of delivery with automated bitcoin payments to all parties. In this paper, we propose circular blockchain-based traceability and bitcoin prediction in agricultural food crop system to accomplish transparency and traceability. Bitcoin prediction using LSTM benefits farmers and stakeholders to buy and sell their food crops when the profit is high. Moreover, the proposed system provides safety, consensus, shared ledger, speedy payment, and decentralization. All activities are processed in a distributed shared ledger with connections to a decentralized file system, which makes the supply chain visible and traceable. All the activities that are tied up in the supply chain are transparent to consumers and stakeholders. Traceability of the agricultural product is done efficiently with QR code, which results in a trustable relationship between the farmer and the consumer. Finally, our research shows that the accuracy of LSTM outperforms by 88.67% compared to traditional machine learning algorithms such as SVM and Naive Bayes with accuracy of 62.025% and 75.32% in forecasting the bitcoin price.