A Survey on Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Management in Agriculture

Abstract

India is one of the fifth largest economies in the world by nominal GDP with 70 per cent of the rural households still depending on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood. India is responsible for 7.39 per cent of total world agricultural production. But the agricultural supply chain used in India is inefficient and caters less to the producer. Farmers who are the producers get very less profit from selling their produce. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the profits are secured by the middlemen who have significant control over the agriculture trade in the country. The lack of communication between different stages in the chain and data transparency is also one of the major reasons why the current supply chain in India is flawed. Proper communication is essential in any system to avoid the spread of any misinformation and at each stage in the supply chain sensors are required to share data with the users so that information is collected and made available to everyone concerned with the particular transaction of goods. The combination of blockchain and IoT in the agricultural sector can provide a better supply chain system from the ground up which addresses communication and transparency issues suffered by the latter systems.