Product & Technology
Product & Technology
One of the most worrying outcomes linked with climate change is the looming spectre of food insecurity. With unseasonal drought, extreme weather patterns and floods becoming more commonplace than ever, experts are raising concerns around the threat of disruptions in our food supply.
In 2021 alone, an additional 30 million people became food insecure in poorer nations, due to climate change influenced food inflation. A temperature rise of 2oC - projected by the end of this century in many climate change models - could lead to catastrophic losses in crop yield, at a time when the global population is projected to exceed 9.5 billion.
Creating much greater efficiencies in the growing, harvesting, and distribution of food – all of which currently have massive scope for optimization – will be necessary to combat this threat. There are numerous applications of Blockchain technology, which can help achieve such enhancements.
Food production and distribution is sector plagued by many ad-hoc arrangements, guesstimates and traditional practices that can be improved upon. Blockchain technology can unlock a lot of avenues for improvement - from accurate assessment of demand that can help farmers diversify their produce profitably, to greater efficiency in inputs, better yields, effective use of storage, and much more.
The market for the use of Blockchain in agriculture and the food supply chain is expected to be valued at $7.38 billion by 2031 - representing a year-on-year CAGR of 43.76%, beginning in 2023. As a sector that includes producers that vary in their scope from subsistence farming to massive industrial scale operations and even state or nation scale cooperatives, accurate and detailed record-keeping can be a challenge. Such records – especially if they can be trusted by all stakeholders – holds the most promise in the context of food security. Of course, Blockchain-based records neatly address this need.
While promising research is underway to incorporate Blockchain-based solutions in actual production –especially in industrial agriculture – let us first consider how the technology can add to the optimization of current models.
Some Blockchain applications that can play a key role in enhancing food security include:
Reduction of Wastage: Blockchain-based supply chain transparency can significantly reduce the wastage of food from farm to table. Real-time monitoring of the entire ecosystem - with data captured and stored using immutable Blockchain-based records - can help in identifying issues before they result in significant wastage. By empowering this transparency across farmland, long-term storage, transport and logistics, and finally wholesale and retail mechanisms, any foreseeable losses can be addressed at the earliest.
More Efficient Use of Resources: lowering the inputs required in agriculture will become increasingly more important as climate-change induced stresses become more prominent. Blockchain technology allows users to track inputs such as chemicals, water, and energy, optimizing both the consumption within a region as well as the costs incurred by individual farmers. This hands-on resource management adds up to maximized production, and consequently greater food security.
Lowering the Impact Of Agriculture on Climate Change: In addition to ensuring that agriculture production is minimally affected by climate change, it is also important to employ more ecological farming practices. The most effective way to ensure the widespread use of such practices is to provide financial incentives. Blockchain-enabled smart contracts can help in effectively rewarding farmers through effective disbursement of subsidies and price premium, once their adherence to eco-friendly protocols has been verified.
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