Blockchain + Agriculture? These startups are already implementing this idea

Agriculture is a vital part of the global economy, and blockchain technology is beginning to make inroads in this sector.

Agricultural workers account for about 40% of the world's total population, and now the agricultural industry has also begun to try blockchain. According to Agfunder News, many potential distributed ledger solutions have emerged. These include Filament, a startup that is used to create smart farm concepts, and SkuChain, which tracks food through a distributed ledger in the supply chain.

On Filament's platform, users connect physical objects and existing networks to form "broader networks and applications" to apply smart farm technology to reliable infrastructure. The so-called smart farm is a sustainable agricultural model that aims to improve the quality of the agricultural environment, integrate technologies with natural biological cycle control, and establish the economic feasibility of farm operations. Smart farms using blockchain technology can prevent weather data, SMS reminders, mechanical protocols, GPS positioning and many other precision agricultural data from being tampered with.

Monitoring the food supply chain allows consumers to clearly know the source of food and its production date. Traditional record systems can be easily manipulated, and consumers can rely on an immutable ledger that transparently records some information about food.

Emma Weston from AgriDigital detailed how blockchain technology has the potential to significantly change the agri-food industry. For example, real-time supply chain management, rapid crowdfunding access, and transparency can all be introduced into the food chain. Weston explained the potential of blockchain in agricultural economic growth, stating:

“Consumer demand for ‘clean’ food is skyrocketing, but tracking and verifying the accuracy of data from farm to table is a challenge for producers and manufacturers. Currently, there is no simple, accurate, and efficient way to know if food is contaminated or identify the exact origin of a product, information that consumers are increasingly willing to consume, especially in niche markets like organic food. Blockchain can help. To date, solutions have emerged around certification and regulation, but both increase costs, making these solutions less feasible and potentially confusing for consumers.
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Other startups, such as Provenance and FarmShare, are researching and developing blockchain-based agricultural platforms.

Provenance is a blockchain-based system that tracks goods, such as food, making the information public, secure, and comprehensive. The startup also says its advanced monitoring tools can prove the authenticity of goods and guarantee their quality.

Blockchain technology continues to demonstrate its potential to change various markets and economies, and agriculture will be one of them. These days, the public is paying more and more attention to the transparency of food and agricultural technology, and distributed ledger technology can provide a better solution.