Punjab considers adopting blockchain technology for smart farming solutions: The Tribune India

Tribune news service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, October 23

The state government wants to use blockchain technology to make its agriculture smart. From tracking organically grown crops to tracking pesticide use in other crops and from using smart technology to track seed distribution to creating a database of farmers – everything is being explored by the agriculture department now.

Officials in the state government say they are first investigating the use of this technology for tracking seeds and for growth of potatoes grown organically. The technology, which will record the process of cultivation right from the purchase of seeds to the sale of the products in the market, will also record every transaction in the supply chain and open it to review by farmers, administration and consumers.

Speaking to The Tribune, Agriculture Director Gurvinder Singh said they are also looking at the use of blockchain technology to track procurement and end use of pesticides, besides creating data on farmers and their seasonal operations. “We have not yet decided on the technology partner, but the possibilities for its use are endless and we intend to use it extensively,” he said.

Blockchain is a rapidly growing technology, which can help farmers by accurately predicting weather conditions, rationalizing the use of water for irrigation, increasing yields and improving net profit margins. So far, two of the state governments have started using blockchain technology in agriculture.

Andhra Pradesh has partnered with a Swedish company to develop a blockchain-based platform for registering land records. This will make it possible for the farmers to make direct contact with the authorities, thus saving them from fraud.

The other state, which has taken the lead in its use, is Jharkhand. Blockchain technology is used to track seed distribution there. It tracks seed supply distribution through every stage, from issuance of supply orders by the Directorate of Agriculture to placement of seed demand by the District Agriculture Officer to tracking of seed distribution by empaneled State Seed Producing Agencies among distributors, dealers, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, major Adivasi Multipurpose Societies, Farmers Service Societies and Farmer Producer Organisations, and then finally among farmers.

Vikram R Singh, who heads Antier Solutions, a blockchain consultancy, says blockchain also has the ability to help solve the problem of stubble burning. “Various organizations and companies have been working on affordable stubble machines, but they are still out of reach for farmers. Through meticulous planning and execution, we can put in place an effective rental distribution system for these machines, and it can be managed through streamlining, record keeping and effective rental contracts. This can have a transformative impact in the agricultural sector and has the potential to build an effective supply chain management mechanism far beyond these machines. This digitization can be extended to record information about the quality of the land, the types of crops grown, the types of fertilizers used, etc.,” he said.

How it will work

• Step 1: Farmers buy seeds to plant a crop, and these purchases are recorded on the blockchain
• Step 2: Other details will also be recorded at the same time, such as the time stamp of the seed purchase, the geographical location of the buyers’ country and sales
• Step 3: After finally identifying the seed groups, each one is assigned a specific barcode, which describes the entire journey from farm to final sale

Get profitable results

• Blockchain is a rapidly growing technology that can help farmers by accurately predicting weather conditions, rationalizing the use of water for irrigation, increasing yields and improving net profit margins
• The technology can also share the data based on factors such as climatic conditions in a region in a particular month, topographic features and location to make distribution more specific and accurate