Page 17 - Vol.36-No.8 issue

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT & SERVICE

provement. Computer vision allows us to veloping technologies that allow farmers ship can be recorded promptly without any
have all sorts of unbiased data that will get to maximize yields by controlling every alteration. As a result, the record of a food
summarized into meaningful, actionable variable of crop farming such as moisture item’s journey, from farm to table, is avail-
insights. Data-driven decision making levels, pest stress, soil conditions, and mi- able to monitor in real-time.
leads to better, more efficient, and timely cro-climates. By providing more accurate
decisions that will advance the productiv- techniques for planting and growing crops, The use cases of blockchain in food go
ity of livestock herds. precision agriculture enables farmers to beyond ensuring food safety. It also adds
increase efficiency and manage costs. value to the current market by establish-
Livestock technology can enhance or ing a ledger in the network and balanc-
improve the productivity capacity, welfare, ing market pricing. The traditional price
or management of animals and livestock. mechanism for buying and selling relies
on judgments of the involved players, rath-
Modern Greenhouses er than the information provided by the
entire value chain. Giving access to data
In recent decades, the Greenhouse in- would create a holistic picture of the supply
dustry has been transforming from small and demand. The blockchain application
scale facilities used primarily for research for trades might revolutionize traditional
and aesthetic purposes (i.e., botanic gar- commodity trading and hedging as well.
dens) to significantly more large-scale Blockchain enables verified transactions to
facilities that compete directly with land- be securely shared with every player in the
based conventional food production. food supply chain, creating a marketplace
Combined, the entire global greenhouse with immense transparency.
market currently produces nearly US $350 Precision agriculture companies have Blockchain can be used to solve urgent
billion in vegetables annually, of which U.S. found a huge opportunity to grow. A recent issues such as food fraud, safety recalls,
production comprises less than one per- report by Grand View Research, Inc. pre- supply chain inefficiency, and food trace-
cent. dicts the precision agriculture market to
reach $43.4 billion by 2025. The emerging ability in the current food system.
new generation of farmers are attracted to
faster, more flexible startups that systemat- Artificial Intelligence
ically maximize crop yields.
The rise of digital agriculture and its re-
lated technologies has opened a wealth
Blockchain of new data opportunities. Remote sen-
sors, satellites, and UAVs can gather in-
Blockchain’s capability of tracking own-
ership records and tamper-resistance can formation 24 hours per day over an entire
field. These can monitor plant health, soil
be used to solve urgent issues such as food condition, temperature, humidity, etc. The
fraud, safety recalls, supply chain ineffi- amount of data these sensors can generate
ciency and food traceability in the current
Nowadays, in large part due to the tre- food system. Blockchain’s unique decen- is overwhelming, and the significance of
mendous recent improvements in growing tralized structure ensures verified prod- the numbers is hidden in the avalanche of
technology, the industry is witnessing a ucts and practices to create a market for that data.
blossoming like no time before. Green- premium products with transparency. The idea is to allow farmers to gain a
houses today are increasingly emerging better understanding of the situation on
that are large-scale, capital-infused, and the ground through advanced technology
urban-centered.
(such as remote sensing) that can tell them
As the market has grown dramatical- more about their situation than they can
ly, it has also experienced clear trends in see with the naked eye. And not just more
recent years. Modern greenhouses are accurately but also more quickly than see-
becoming increasingly tech-heavy, using ing it walking or driving through the fields.
LED lights and automated control systems Food traceability has been at the center Remote sensors enable algorithms to in-
to perfectly tailor the growing environ- of recent food safety discussions, particu- terpret a field’s environment as statistical
ment. Successful greenhouse companies larly with new advancements in blockchain
are scaling significantly and located their applications. Due to the nature of perish-
growing facilities near urban hubs to cap- able food, the food industry at whole is
italize on the ever-increasing demand for extremely vulnerable to making mistakes
local food, no matter the season. that would ultimately affect human lives.
To accomplish these feats, the green- When foodborne diseases threaten public
house industry is also becoming increas- health, the first step to root-cause analysis
ingly capital-infused, using venture fund- is to track down the source of contamina-
ing and other sources to build out the tion and there is no tolerance for uncer-
infrastructure necessary to compete in the tainty.
current market. Consequently, traceability is critical for data that can be understood and useful to
The entire global greenhouse market the food supply chain. The current commu- farmers for decision-making. Algorithms
process the data, adapting and learning
currently produces nearly US $350 billion nication framework within the food ecosys- based on the data received. The more in-
in vegetables annually. tem makes traceability a time-consuming puts and statistical information collected,
task since some involved parties are still
tracking information on paper. The struc- the better the algorithm will be at pre-
Precision Agriculture ture of blockchain ensures that each player dicting a range of outcomes. And the aim
along the food value chain would generate is that farmers can use this artificial intel-
Agriculture is undergoing an evolution ligence to achieve their goal of a better
– technology is becoming an indispens- and securely share data points to create harvest through making better decisions
an accountable and traceable system. Vast
able part of every commercial farm. New data points with labels that clarify owner- in the field.
precision agriculture companies are de-
Circle 20 on enquiry card
Vol. 36 No. 8 15