Enhanced Blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System for Food Crops Products

Enhanced Blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System for Food Crops Products | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Enhanced Blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System for Food Crops Products Dayana D.S, Kalpana G This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-998152/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 3 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The elevated version of the Agricultural Traceability System dealing with food production holds utmost significance in not only assuring food safety and smart contracts to the farmers but also guaranteeing insurance to them in case of any natural calamities. Though the approach is astounding but the stakeholders are many in numbers which makes centralization of the entire data management cumbersome. Hence building a trustworthy Agricultural Traceability System for food production becomes infeasible because of its opacity. Herein there is a proposed and improvised system that catering to food farming traceability dealing with agricultural product and farmers that employs the block chain technique and ensures at par security, consensus, distributed ledger, quick settlement and decentralization, thus achieving the goal of minimizing the cost incurred in the food processing system and building trust. Smart contracts play a pivot role in the field of agricultural insurance. Agricultural insurance based upon ‘block chain’ that comprises of major weather incidents and associated payouts enlisted on a smart contract, connected to the mobile wallets with timely weather updates notified by the field sensors and interrelated with data from proximity weather stations would enable prompt payout during any natural calamity such as flood or drought. The Dataset comprises of data pertaining to crops, weather, irrigation and fertilizers. Implementation of block chain technique in agricultural domain helps in forming trustworthy community amidst the stakeholders. Also, a centralized system which is professionally governed and managed by certain retired officers makes the traceability system more trustworthy. Examination by the Government agriculture department benefits the system in its successful implementation. These professionals can offer wise suggestions to the farmers enabling them to take fruitful decisions. In addition, a proper panel of advisers draws attention of others to join the field and become integral part of the system. Block chain Distributed Ledger Consensus Decentralized Centralized traceability system stakeholders smart contracts agricultural insurance payouts dataset faster settlement trust-based farming system and food safety Panel of advisers Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 1. Introduction Food safety tends to be an over concerning matter which is seeking attention worldwide. Both the agricultural sector and food quality are of utmost necessity without doubt and it’s crucial that the end-user receives a quality product. But without any centralized framework, this is infeasible to achieve. Usually, the food supply chain is quiet long as it involves various sub departments such as farming, producing, transporting and much more. There are many restrictions and formalities which becomes hindrances in addressing the challenges faced and fulfilling the needs of the end customer. Not only the end-users, farmers and transporters are of major concern but there exist other challenges too that can’t be neglected. Factors or entities such as the stake holders, agricultural insurance, Factory staff, wholesales shops as well as the retail shopkeepers are of significant importance in the process of food supply chain and involves many complications which must be closely observed as pointed out by [1]. The initial stage of food supply chain is Farming. If Unscientific farming methods and inefficient agricultural process are being practiced, it will hamper both the production and the quality. Also, the fertilized agricultural area will be affected and neglected by the farmers for carrying out further farming. Another underlying factor is the seed’s quality that will be sowed in the field. In case of small-scale fields, the loss incurred due to poor quality of seed can still be handled. But fields that are in huge acres and caters to voluminous production, cannot take any chance with the quality of the seed. Adopting unscientific means in treating and handling animal-farms can lead to severe diseases in animals and can transmit to humans like the avian flu. Also, if the feed and food are contaminated with chemicals, it can be risky and unsafe for the animals and any other products according to [2]. The market value of the final product production gets affected by the cost incurred and transportation involved says [3]. Once the products are collected from the producers, the overall expenses and transportation overhead is computed and evaluated by the stakeholders which may not be so trustworthy. Such computations are bound to be altered and misleading because of varying fuel cost, bribe and corruption involved thus causing inflation. Due to such deeds, economy of the entire nation is at stake. After the stack holders, the wholesale and retail keepers come into the picture where it’s very likely that the market value of the product can increase further. Inflation affects the trading of food retailers leading to shutdown of stores, rise of independent retails power, polarization of store sizes and the targeting of market struggles as put forth by [4]. Apart from the cost, the food safety too gets hampered with such inflation. In other words, inflation is directly proportional to the loss incurred, higher the loss, higher will be the corruption and higher will be the inflation. Both the quality and quantity get affected right from the stockholders to retail shopkeepers as emphasized by [5]. The reason behind all the above prominent issues is the lack of a well-designed traceability framework comprising of all the departments. The system must cater to and accommodate all the individuals who are an integral part of the food supply chain, right from the seed seller to the end-user says [6]. Missing upon any one entity or not abiding by the said criteria, development of any system will contract black holes thus becoming a failure and inefficient structure in the market. Hence, it’s essential that every single department is taken into consideration along with effective planning. The proposed system includes all the important departments that are essential in the formation of a complete food supply chain. That is starting from the Seed seller à farmer à insurance company à Government panel à Stock holders à final traders and eventually the end-user. The blockchain technique is adopted to frame the above system as per. [7] A blockchain resembles a digital transaction ledger that is controlled using a network of various computing machines without involving the interference of any third party. Management of blocks in a blockchain which represents individual transaction data files is accomplished using certain software platforms that enables data transmission, processing, storing and its representation in human understandable form. This technique works as per certain standard set of rules according to the consensus mechanisms (run by algorithms). In this form of a distributed consensus, a single authority is not designated as trustworthy but the responsibility is distributed across the entire network. There are various consensus mechanisms prevailing. Hash functions, or hashes, produces a digital fingerprint from the input data or referring an entire document. Similar to the human fingerprint that matches a single person, a digital fingerprint uniquely identifies a single data unit. Any minute alteration in the input data will result in a totally different fingerprint. This makes the ledger highly secure against any tampering. Numerous organizations are seeking towards implying the transparency and fault tolerance of blockchain technique for handling situations that involves multiple unreliable entities for the distribution of certain resources. In addition, the ceaseless advancement and performance of the blockchain in various crypto-currencies has won trust of everyone. The agriculture and food supply chain depicts the highly significant domains . There is close connection between the Agriculture and food supply chains as the agricultural products always acts as an input source in the distributed food supply chain with the consumer as the end user. Apparently, as soon as the blockchain technique became apparent, it was promptly employed by the supply chain management. There will be an exponential increase of Blockchain in supply chain management at an annual growth rate of 87% and this is expected to rise from $45 million (which was in 2018) to $3,314.6 million by the year 2023. This is clearly elucidated from the following example, In December 2016, the Agri Digital Company successfully carried out world’s first sale settlement of 23.46 tons of grain on a blockchain. This greatly motivated and spurred others to effectively implement the blockchain technique in the agricultural supply chain. Also, by effectively applying the blockchain technique, Agri Digital has moved further in forming trustworthy and high-performance agricultural supply chains as witnessed by [8]. Every process that takes place along the food chain is there and then recorded to the blockchain. This recorded information is indisputable and is willingly accepted by all the participants. Also, the recorded information is thoroughly verified by the business partners of the food supply chain thus building a consensus or agreement amidst all the participants. Every validated block is then appended to the transaction chain to form a permanent record of the blockchain. There are certain low-cost agricultural insurance schemes that offers social security to numerous farmers whose livelihood are severely impacted due to the natural calamities. Though such insurance schemes are beneficial, they are rarely availed by the poor farmers or rural people. One of the reasons can be that the process of validating the insurance claims and effect payouts tends to be extensively time consuming and thus the small-scale farmers don’t opt for index-based insurance as their first risk mitigation approach. Index insurance that employs smart contracts can be a solution that helps in automating and facilitating instant payouts to the concerned person when affected with such misfortunes. Through the ‘Automatic data feeds’ there is availability of consistent and authentic hyper local data which is recorded in the smart contract thus avoiding the requirement of on-site claim assessment by the surveyor. In an agricultural supply chain, traceability of products involves collection, exchange and handling of critical information by determining the source and all the information communication taking place in food supply chain. This information is dynamic in nature as the products are produced, processed and sent through various intermediaries hence tracking and tracing it becomes infeasible. Product contamination and its implications to public health enforces the essential policy tool of traceability for precise monitoring of food quality and safety. The prevailing traceability tool employed in supply chain confronts data fragmentation and centralized controls that degrades data modification as well as its management. For overcoming the above situation, improvised agricultural traceability system has been recommended that benefits food production and farmers using the effective means of block chain technology. Moreover, the control panel’s timely and consistent advice pertaining to the crop’s status proves to be utmost helpful to the farmers. The present research aims towards revealing the working of blockchain in efficiently tracing the agricultural products, make the transparency between all the participants higher and increase food safety in the food processing system for achieving at par efficiency and information sharing. Parameters such as weather, crops, irrigation and fertilizers for agricultural inputs forms the dataset. The proposed system builds a blockchain based food production system for minimizing transmission expense, raising efficiency and elevating security in the entire food supply chain. This is achieved mainly by improvising the factors such as security, distributed ledger, consensus, quick settlement, and decentralization. Here the hashing technique SHA-26 (Secure Hash Algorithm) is made use of, that determines hash for agricultural inputs. Agricultural insurance based upon ‘block chain’ that comprises of major weather incidents and associated payouts enlisted on a smart contract and which being connected to the mobile wallets for timely weather updates notified by the field sensors and interrelated with data from proximity weather stations would enable prompt payout during any natural calamity such as flood or drought. The entire work is classified into the following: section 2 highlights the literature survey on blockchain technique implemented in agricultural domain, section 3 discusses the recommended technique by elaborating the performance of blockchain in agricultural processing and uplifting the overall trust and security in the food supply chain, Results and discussions are put forth in section 4 and the conclusion is stated in section 5 along with the future works. 2. Related Works It’s very well-known that the present agriculture system experiences many setbacks and the technique of blockchain is the beacon of hope. Though implementing and making best use of this technique still remains ignorant to many. Whereas on the other hand the so called ‘blockchain onlookers’ are vigilant against the restrictions and inadequacies of the blockchain and accordingly apply it in real sense. Hence the need of the hour is to determine the relevant situations in businesses where the implementation of BCT can be revealed in its true sense. There still prevails lack of understanding and doubt regarding the whole concept of BCT exists. Primarily because Blockchain has been accepted as the ultimate solutions to resolve any sort of issue and the visible technical glitches that still needs to be attended. The basic nature of BCT makes its adoption a bit difficult and thought provoking according to [1]. Numerous organizations are seeking towards implying the transparency and fault tolerance of blockchain technique for handling situations that involves multiple unreliable entities for the distribution of certain resources. In addition, the ceaseless advancement and performance of the blockchain in various crypto-currencies has won trust of everyone. The agriculture and food supply chain depicts the highly significant domains as indicated by [2]. It has been more than ten years since the whitepaper “Bitcoin was launched. Introduced by a pseudonymous author, this Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” became the very first crypto-currency that enabled trusted financial transactions without the involvement of any banks or financial institutions. The present research lays foundation for the advancement of Bitcoin according to [3]. This technology in collaboration with Blockchain cracked the issue related to double-spending wherein the digital tokens had drawbacks because of duplicate or erroneous computer files. BCT employs a set of techniques holding a sound year of experience in information technology as well as in commercial domain. Some of them are: public/private key cryptography, cryptographic hash functions, database technologies particularly the distributed databases, consensus algorithms and decentralized processing as put forth by [4]. The prime aim in implementing these techniques is to gain database consistency and integrity with respect to a distributed decentralized database with either controlled or uncontrolled database nodes (such as Bitcoin). Blockchain has gained significant popularity in the agricultural system as it immensely benefits the market agents as put forth by [6] Manufacturers are not in favor of employing state-of-the-art or highly cost techniques since the end user just receives the final product and has to do nothing with the overall food supply chain or the cost incurred in every process. Also, this value does not become monetized. The aforementioned system assures to handle this issue effectively. The blockchain technique attempts to minimize the intermediaries involved from producer to end user through the transparent fixation of all transactions in the logistics chain. Moreover, the technique helps in determining the buyers who are ready to pay additional amount for those products which are superior in quality and requires expensive techniques in their production as observed by [7]. The food and agricultural supply chain must be equipped with proficient logistics management with consistent supervision of development of agricultural products for achieving the safety of the product. Issues pertaining to food safety and contamination calls out the need for improvised traceability in the entire food supply chain as ascertained by [9], [10]. Also, with the trading of agricultural products to different geographical locations, there must be keen tracking and conformance as per the country specific guidelines [11], [12]. In an agricultural supply chain, product’s traceability comprises of information collection and its communication and management by determining its source accurately. There is a potential demand for a blockchain-based certification, which yields an added valuation of nearly 15% its selling price for genetically modified (GM)-free soy pertaining to a business network dealing with grain exports in Brazil. The credit for the added valuation goes to trustworthy and proficient quality assurance process on the grains enabled by blockchain. Also, there was recording of processes carried out in the rice value chain using the Blockchain technique so as to assure the confidentiality and quality of rice in the transportation process. Above all, the blockchain technique effectively manages the essential resources like energy and water and avoids speculation of their trading as per [13]. For the purpose of tracking and tracing the products in PFSC (Perishable Food Supply Chain), complete information of TRUs (traceable resource units) must be available from raw suppliers to end consumers. TRUs helps in determining mutually understand traceable objects that comprises of trade, production, and logistics units required for supply chain activities, as reviewed by [14]. In addition, it is of significant importance in the food traceability that handles the mix and different packaging of food products by allocating unique identities in certain food supply chains. The PFSC comprises of compound entities such as the shippers, consignees, and TRUs, for carrying out the material inflow and since the structure is complex enough, a traceability tree is built for visualizing the overall traceability process. For building the prevailing food traceability systems (or models), following were taken into consideration: (i) information and communication techniques along with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication); (ii) chemical and biological analysis along with isotope analysis and DNA bar-coding as highlighted by [15]. These tools were responsible towards food tracing and tracking along with its identification and monitoring so as to preserve its quality and safety across the entire supply chain. In [16], there is a discussion regarding the integration of blockchain with the IoT along with the possible merits and issues confronted. Integrating the IoT system with the decentralized path may apparently seem fruitful. With the effective approach of blockchain, all the management processes as well as computation can be decentralize which proves to be beneficial for resolving various IoT related challenges, mainly the security. The innovative technique of Blockchain technology highly reinforces BITCOIN and other crypto-currencies. According to the fact and figures, BITCOIN platform maintenance, especially mining engulfs magnanimous computational resource which is figuratively 43.9 MT of CO2 per annum, as per the sources of [17], same as utilized by 6.8M European citizens. Supply chains that are seemingly huge confronts such possible scalability concerns. The food industry blockchain needs a data platform with intense investment in generous IT elevation and infrastructure, covering the essentials like API's for encrypting and recovering data, creating and maintaining ledger, storage, communications and much more. The block must be automatically generated by the ledgers via manufacturing process and further be associated to standard Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Though, governing and paying for such an IT framework is the point of concern as portrayed by [18]. There has been evaluation of various cases pertaining to the supply chain research literature, aiming towards comprehending the blockchain impact on major supply chain parameters namely: transparency, cost, risk reduction, quality, trust, sustainability and flexibility. Blockchain significantly contributes in elevating transparency and accountability thus raising trust and cooperation amidst the supply chain members as surveyed by [19] for reviewing the implementation traits at an individual level, the UTAUT (unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) model has been employed across the USA and India. Allocating blockchain unique digital identifiers to food products, helps tracing them through supply chains as well as determining their growth status, batch numbers and expiry dates. In addition, it helps in avoiding food wastage, enabling consumers to understand the ecological footprint of their food and guiding towards the distribution of excess food. The accurate food and transactions register aids in preventing any sort of fraud as well as determining the source for food borne illness. Moreover, the digital traits of these techniques can enable on-farm data sharing as reported by [20]. Generally, the stakeholders linked to a food supply chain can exhibit the high quality of their processes and products to the customers. This could be smoothly achieved by the blockchain technique by offering one-to-many data integration and process orchestration with respect to transparency, efficiency, confidentiality and privacy amidst the participants. There lies immense scope and advancement for the organizations employing the blockchain technique and the associated service applications. Irrespective of the overall blockchain experience, the developers must inculcate at par measures against security risks right from designing to development according to [21]. Its quiet apparent that the agri-food system comprises of multiple stakeholders such as the farmers, processors, traders, wholesalers, retailers and consumers that desire and seek for superior and safe products along with maximum possible information, as discussed by [22] There are chances that the issue of information asymmetry surfaces. According to the discussion, asymmetric information surfaces when the parties are partially intimated during the economic transaction thus preventing the first-best allocation of resources, which as a result leads to market failure. The proposed traceability system ascertains to be more farmer friendly and gains popularity in contrast to the prevailing traceability systems. Farmers represent the backbone of the food supply chain and hence their presence is supreme most. The system targets towards offering unconditional and timely support to the farmers in a friendly manner so that maximum of them can benefit from it. Farming has been a keen interest and necessity of numerous people worldwide but the risks involved and lack of knowledge regarding the technique’s and process involved, restrain them from doing so as elucidated by [23]. And hence the introduction of a rich experienced panel can uplift the vision and actions of farmers as well as of the entire market. In addition, the farmers can get immensely inspired to independently build their own business. The system would also guarantee better food quality and economical support from insurance agencies in case of any natural calamity, states [24]. 3. Proposed System 3.1 Overview There is proposal of an agriculture traceability system built for various stakeholders that are an integral part of a food supply chain. Towards this, a well-organized and worthy framework has been built which emphasizes on food safety and profit for all the departments involved. The system caters to and includes the primary entity of seed sellers to the final entity i.e., the end-user of the food supply chain. The decentralized feature of the proposed system ascertains the systematic flow of the chain and makes sure that the processes involved are completely scientific oriented. Upon the willingness of the farmer to take up agriculture and get connected to the system, an agreement is made with the insurance company. Various agriculture insurance companies precisely specify their insurance criteria and qualification to the concerned farmers based upon which the farmer can make the decision of selecting one specific company for the policy. This agreement forms the first stage in the system. By examining the consistent information uploaded by the farmer, the insurance company can keep a check on the farmer’s land or crops. This information can be accessed by all the departments in the chain for checking the growth status. Next, comes the process of good breed seed selection. This being an essential and critical step since the further results highly depend on this. As the plant grow, the blockchain technique is employed for managing the further stages. The smart contracts in the blockchain are responsible for triggering alerts and events upon receiving any function calls as a transaction. This helps the relevant entities to consistently supervise, track and receive appropriate alerts in case of any disaster. Resultant, any natural calamity can be timely and effectively restored within the food supply chain. Figure 1 clearly depicts the blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System. The seeds sold to the farmers are allocated standardized identifiers using which digital connectivity and tracking of any transaction between the participating entities can be achieved. Algorithm 1 elaborates the complete registration process of a new farmer. The IPFS helps in recording the consistent and timely growth of the crop. All the captured images related to the crop’s growth are time stamped and the smart contract is utilized for storing the IPFS hash of the file. The hash values are determined through the SHA-26 (algorithm-3). Cereals grown by the farmer are stored in the elevator only after verifying the right humidity, temperature, moisture, heat etc... The processor then buys the cereal for giving the final finish to the product. Thereafter, the finished product is purchased by the distributor for shipping it further to the buyers. 3.2 Methodology 3.2.1 Process of Registration As aforesaid, the achievement of this system hinges around to how many farmers or agri-oriented people have been successfully associated with the proposed system. The suggested traceability system must inculcate and manage full fledge database involving all the participants. Hence, formal and precise registration with authentic information is necessary. As soon as a member request for joining, the database will be updated by the same. The credentials such as username and password are verified and based on its authenticity, a blockchain is generated which is then allocated to the relevant member. It’s assured that the farmer’s information is kept confidential and just the relevant information about a specific farmer is made available to others. Only for the identification of the member’s identity, personal information is made use of and it is ascertained that there is no misuse or privacy breach of this information. For logging into the system, the farmer must use the valid credentials such as the userid and password and upon exiting, it is ensured that the page or account is logged out. This is made compulsory so that there is no misuse of the account. Algorithm 1 depicts the registration process of a new member. Algorithm 1 Registering a New Farmer Input : User Registration Request Nodes N in the current network Output: A newly registered farmer f Step 1: (Kpub,Kpr) = generatekeys() Step 2: uIDàcreate userID();BlockchainAddress() + (Kpub,Kpr) Step 3: Addr àcreate BlockchainAddress() + (Kpub,Kpr) Step 4: (Uid,kpr) àsafelystore(uID,Kpr) Step 5: Waltàcreates BlockchainWallet() + (Kpub, Kpr) Step 6: for each n ϵ N do Step 7: distributeWallet(n,Walt) Step 8: end for Step 9: ußverifiedNewfarmer() 3.2.2 Agreementation The proposed system enables the farmers and insurance companies to carry out the business practices in coordination and in a smooth manner. It cut downs the farmer’s effort and time in identifying the apt insurance schemes and neither the insurance companies require to spend their energy and time in selling their policies. Based on the detail briefing given by the farmer of his plan, the insurance company put forth their norms and condition once the farmer’s plan is verified. The farmer is free to make the policy selection according to his contentment. The decentralized system acts as an evidence for the entire process taking place between the farmer and insurance company. Every single step gets recorded in the database as an evidence. This can be later useful, in case any conflicts or arguments emerges between the parties. The system is upartial against any member and it ensures that no conflicts takes place between them. That is, whether it be farmers, insurance company, processors or any department, all will be treated equally and can benefit from the system in a transparent manner. This helps in building a united, trustworthy and sturdy food supply chain. The system ascertains that, as and when the farmer intimates regarding a natural calamity, a notification or alert is trigerred and transmitted to the relevant company. There is a consistent follow up by the system until the farmer receives the insured amount as per the terms and conditions. Hence, with this fail proof system, there is trusted and transparent relationship is established between all the participants. There may be cases or situations which may not comply with the given norms or conditions, in such scenarios the system automatically agrees or support the company policies rather than the client’s plea. Hence, the system presents the whole agreement in a precise and transparent manner so that both the parties remain vigilant about the same. 3.2.3 Seed Selection Once the registration is completed and the contract is signed, the farmer needs to buy large bulk of good breed seed from the seed seller. This tends to be the most important decision since the entire crop production depends on the quality and fertility of the seed. The farmer gets to choose from the enlisted and registered seed companies present in the system. Algorithm 2 elaborates the process of seed selling by the relevant seed company. On signing up the initial contract, the smart contract verifies the farmer’s registration and subsequently the payment for the seeds bought is done via Agri Insurance. That is the required money for purchasing the seeds is provided by the Agri Insurance to the farmers. If all goes well and successful, then the contract state becomes as Seed Request Submitted, the farmer state becomes Wait for Seeds and seed company state becomes Agree to Sell. This change of ‘state’ is notified and updated to all the participants in the supply chain. If not updated, then the state of contract reverts back to initial state thus terminating the transaction. Algorithm 2: Selling Seed to Farmers Step 1: Let G1, G2....Gn be the registered farmers, Let t1,t2 be the token of farmer and Seed Distributor respectively Consider Quantity, SType, SBrand,SPrice Step 5: Contract State is Created Step 6: Farmer StateàSeedsReq Step 7: Seed Distributor StateàReady Step 8: Restricting access to only registered farmers i.e. g ϵG Step 9: If farmers=G and SPrice=paid then Step 10: Contract stateàSReqSubmitted Step 11: Farmer StateàWaitforSeeds Step 12: SDistributor StateàAgreeToSell Step 13: Notification msg to state sale of seeds Step 14: end Step 15: Else Step 16: Revert contract state and display an error msg Step 17: End 3.2.4 Block Chain Technology Post seed trading process, the farmer enters the blockchain or IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) system. IPFS refers to a protocol within the blockchain and depicts a peer-to-peer network that facilitates file storing and sharing in a distributed file system. It grants users to accept host content and is based upon a decentralized system of user-operators, holding a segment of overall data. The IRSA algorithm is employed for encrypting the information sent by the farmer before it is stored. The information comprises of images pertaining to growth measurement, weather and soil reports which gets digitally recorded in the database. In the blockchain and IPFS system, every information whether it be data, reports or images, are signed digitally and are attributed to a specific actor. The fields have installed cameras for capturing the images automatically which is then transmitted to the blockchain where they get recorded. These cameras are specially crafted and provided to the farmers such that they cannot be tampered. Hence the images captured by them remain unaltered and authentic which can be trusted by all the entities in the blockchain. Moreover, any illegitimate user is strictly prohibited from accessing this information. In fact, the authorized user can also access just the permitted information. Data residing in the blockchain is utilized for performing certain computations such as generating values for the observation including the hash value. These computed values are of utmost significance and directs if the farmer is following the correct method or not. Basically, there are two prime reasons for computing the hash value. First, for determining the growth rate and second, to track if the farmer is proceeding in the suggested and agreed manner. In case of any forgery or misconduct, penalties are imposed on the farmer which is being programmed automatically in the blockchain. Hash value is computed using the SHA-26 (algorithm2). Algorithm 3: Hash Calculation using SHA-26 algorithm Step 1: For loop i =1......N (N=number of blocks in the padded message) Step 2: Initialize registers a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h with the (i-1)st intermediate hash value (=the initial hash value when i=1) Step 3: aà Step 4: bà :: Step 5: hà Step 6: Apply SHA-26 functions Step 7: For loop j= 0 to 63 Step 8: Compute Ch(e,f,g), Maj(a,b,c), Step 9: ß Step 10: ß Step 11: hßg Step 12: gßf Step 13 fße Step 14: eßd Step 15: dßc Step 16: cßb Step 17: bßa Step 18: cßb Step 19: Tß Step 20: end Step 21: Calculate the intermediate hash value Step 22: Step 23: :: Step 24: Step 25 is the hash of M. Step 26: End The traceability system in the food supply that imbibes smart contracts significantly helps in delivering unhampered information to all the entities in the supply chain without the involvement or controlling of any central authority. Each single transaction, right from seed selling, to the amount of crop produced and sold is recorded precisely which can be validated thoroughly. Like for instance, set quantity of cereal sold amidst the stakeholders with respect to the specified norms is not subject to change. Moreover, mixing of cereals with different quality is not allowed for selling. Since it’s difficult to monitor the status of the field and crop growth, the IPFS helps in uploading the crop and land images periodically which can be verified and accepted by all. For assuring elevated Quality Compliance, all the corresponding transactions amidst all the entities is traced. The sensors are highly equipped with the feature of sending consistent alerts pertaining to the crop and land status. The blockchain technique prohibits modification of any info or alerts and permits the accessibility of information to all the authentic entities in a secure and decentralized way without the involvement of any central figure. Apparently, there can be cases of fraud by reporting misleading information by the stakeholders. Such data is automatically verified by the blockchain whether it appears to be fraudulent or not. For guarding and preventing against such frauds, blockchain can be programmed to nullify the supply chain process thereby imposing penalties on such stakeholders. By performing this precise and undoubted traceability presented to the supply chain stakeholders. 3.2.5 Support to the Farmer While carrying out farming, the farmers need wise and effective suggestions from the system. Towards this, it’s essential that the farmers upload timely and precise information and images pertaining to the crops. Certain essential factors that must be reported includes: growth of the crop, temperature, average rain measurement and soil components along with its percentage. As and when the values are fed by the farmer, the database must be updated. The instruction of the farmer is depicted in the figure 2. Using Algorithm-3, the values are computed and the hash value is generated. The database has a collection of information related to the crop. In addition, it has the fertilization requirement for the relevant crops at every level and in varying weather conditions. As the farmer updates regarding his crop, there are suggestions provided regarding the further stages. This enables the farmer to nourish its crop with the right amount of manure thus making the entire farming economical. 3.2.6 Trade in the End After the farmer produces quality crop and there is completion of all the processes, the crop or the end product is ready for selling. Based upon the market value there can be negotiation in the price with the distributor and vice-versa. Each transaction taking place is recorded correspondingly in the system for performing subsequent processes. Upon completing the entire process, the farmer is eligible for selling their products to the distributors. The system even records the overall interaction and trading of the farmer with the distributor. Above all, the system empowers and attempts to fulfil the farmer’s effort without being partial or biased in its protocol. Farmer Satisfaction Index = p ( pr , pg ) *(100- ∑( pd )/ n ) Here ρ(pr,pg) depicts the correlation between pr (pay-outs required) and pg (pay-outs given) and pd resembles the pay-out difference (that is the difference between required pay-out with respect to yield loss and pay-out given with respect to contract design) and n depicts the number of years. The present index factor equivalently caters to under and over-payments that is inconsiderable for the welfare implications of index insurance. Lately, the retailers have flourished their own business with in depth understanding of stock holders and the product they comply with. Only the registered retailers are granted accessibility with respect to these essential attributes provided namely: Manufacturing date of the product, Quantity Sold, and Date of Purchase. Verification is done against the fulfilment of accepted sales agreement and product payment. If verified and true, then the transaction is executed by the contract and the state becomes SaleReqSuccess. The state of the retailer turns to ProdDelSuccessful . For ensuring the successful delivery of the product, the contract notifies the successful delivery to the retailer. In case of any failure, the contract state turns into SaleRequestDenied . Eventually, the customer-retailer purchase or transaction is traced. The end user or the customer depicts the final entity in the entire food supply chain. In the beginning, the state of the customer is ReadyToBuy . The smart contract allows those Customers who have the essential product information such as the Customer token, Retailer token, Purchased date, Sales Id and Product Id. Once the payment is done successfully, the contract state becomes ProdSoldToCust , and the customer state depicts SuccessfulPurchase . In case any sales failure occurs, the contract intimates everyone in the network. 4. Results and Discussion Six test machines in total are imbibed in the blockchain network. Out of which, four machines operate in full node and two machines operate in light-weight nodes. Entire system is built using Java on the Eclipse Luna platform of Windows 7 operating system. Table 1 briefly depicts the test environment. Table. 1 Software Environment Operating System Windows 7 Development Platform Eclipse Luna Blockchain Module Ethereum Geth 1.8.2 Running Environment Java 8.0.1610.12 Two major indices of system performance are: information uploading time and information response time. Figure 3-5, exhibits the system test results of the mentioned indices. Figure 3 clearly reveals that the information upload time gets impacted by the frequency of upload request. The frequency of the upload requests changes from 100 times per second to 900 times per second and based upon that the upload information time witness a rise from nearly 7s to 47s. A genuine rise of 600 to 700 is observed with the upload time rising from around 25s to 42s. The reason may be attributed to the limitation of consensus algorithm of the blockchain, wherein a single block possesses restrictive processing of transactions. Figure 4 and 5 exhibits that information response time is impacted by the quantity of on-chain data as well as the frequency of traceability request. Figure 3 presents the information response time exceeding from 2ms to 5ms with respect to the increase in the volume of on-chain data from 1G to 9G. According to Figure 4, the information response time increases a bit from around 2.2ms to 3.2ms with respect to the traceability request rising from 1,000 times per second to 9,000 times per second with the on-chain data fixed to 1G. The reason behind this is the mode of data query and P2P networking. 5. Simulation Results Online dataset is being utilized for the collection of data and JAVA environment is used for the development purpose. The food production sample screenshot output is depicted in the figure 6. Also entire dataset along with the results generated is managed and stored with the help of My SQL. Attributes such as crop, temperature, wind speed and rainfall are main attributes. Other attributes used are seeds area etc. Figure 7 depicts collection of dataset information taken from Internet dataset. The Dataset are assembled been pre-processed to get the desired output. The dataset uploaded is of weather information’s. Figure 8 Pre-processing of dataset, which removes the unwanted data to get the desired output that are been uploaded from the Internet dataset. Figure 9 depicts for clustering new Crop dataset, 1. Group classify the data based on same soil type, crop and rainfall 2. Group classify data based on soil type crop, soil, and temperature 3. Then Label the crop as Crop Name, soil as Soil Type, Water as ‘Required water’, Rainfall as Average Rainfall, Temperature as Required Temp. Figure 10 Recommends crop based on selected soil type, rainfall and temperature to get the desired output. Figure 11 The blockchain IPFS system is applied in every information which are digitally signed Data residing in the blockchain and is utilized in performing certain computations such as generating values for the observation including the hash value. Figure 12 Decrypt the IPFS folder to get the desired result. 6. Conclusion and Future Works In the recent years, there has been a spurring growth in the blockchain technique. There has been an exponential rise in the techniques associated with the crypto values exhibiting technological aspects and inquisitiveness of commercial organizations by experimenting with such tools. There has been visible and significant rise of the blockchain technique in the agricultural domain. This technique highly claims towards food safety as it emphasizes on the traceability of the source of an agricultural product as well as the validation of the agricultural inputs. There is guard against the traceability of the contamination source. The efficient technique of Blockchain aids in the subsidies distribution to the farmers thus making sure that the farmers gain the desired benefits. Though the Blockchain claims to be impartial but is ensures that the low-income group of farmers are benefitted with modest payment with the help of Agri-Insurance thus resolving the issues pertaining with the sale and registration of the land. The evolving technique of Blockchain is still an innovative concept to be implemented in the agricultural domain which confronts various hurdles. Among diverse challenges, the major one is to regulate such a system worldwide. Undoubtedly, the blockchain implementation in agricultural sector has made its stand. From the future perspective, there are certain highlighted issues that must be attended and resolved. Declarations Data Availability Statement Not Applicable Funding Not Applicable Conflicts of interest Not Applicable References Nguegan Nguegan. C and Mafini. C, "Supply chain management problems in the food processing industry: Implications for business performance", Acta Commercii, (2017) 17(1), DOI: 10.4102/ac.v17i1.485 Chengedzai Mafini, "Traceability in Food Andagricultural Products", International Trade Centre, 2017 Brigadier j matta, doctor of philosophy in management to jiwaji university, Gwalior, A study of supply chain management in food industry, 2016 Richard J. Currie, "Inflation: Its Impact On Retail Trading", Retail and Distribution Management, (1980) 8(2):22-26, DOI: 10.1108/eb018038 Gabriel A. Huppé, Sabrina Shaw, Jason Dion and Vivek Voora, "Food Price Inflation and Food Security: A Morocco case study", International Institute for Sustainable Development, (2013) Chhikara N, Jaglan S, Sindhu N, Anshid V, Charan M and Panghal A, "Importance of Traceability in Food Supply Chain for Brand Protection and Food Safety Systems Implementation", Annals of Biology, (2018) 34(2):111-118. Maslove D, Klein J, Brohman K and Martin P, "Using Blockchain Technology to Manage Clinical Trials Data: A Proof-of-Concept Study", JMIR Medical Informatics, (2018) 6(4): e11949, DOI: 10.2196/11949 Xiwei Xu, Ingo Weber and Mark Staples, "Case Study: AgriDigital: Blockchain Technology in the Trade and Finance of Agriculture Supply Chains", In book: Architecture for Blockchain Applications, (2019) :239-255, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-03035-3_12 Iansiti. M and Lakhani. K, "The Truth About Blockchain", Harvard Business Review, (2017) :118-127. Manski S, "Building the blockchain world: Technological commonwealth or just more of the same?" Strategic Change, (2017) 26(5):511-522, DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2151 Tschorsch. F and Scheuermann B, "Bitcoin and beyond: A technical survey on decentralized digital currencies", IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, (2016) 18(3) :2084-2123, DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2016.2535718 Vukolić. M, "The quest for scalable blockchain fabric: Proof-of-work vs. BFT replication", Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), (2016) 9591:112-125, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-39028-4_9 Chavali. L, Prashanti. N, Sujatha. K, Rajasheker. G and Kavi Kishor. P, "The emergence of blockchain technology and its impact in biotechnology pharmacy and life sciences", Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy, (2018) 12(3):304-310. Aung. M and Chang. Y, "Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives", Food Control, (2014) 39:172-184, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.007 Bosona. T and Gebresenbet. G, "Food traceability as an integral part of logistics management in food and agricultural supply chain", Food Control, (2013) 33(1):32-48, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.02.004 Hobbs. J, "Liability and traceability in agri-food supply chains", in Quantifying the Agri-Food Supply Chain, Springer Netherlands, (2006) :87-102, DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-4693-6_7 Olsen. P and Borit. M, "The components of a food traceability system", Trends in Food Science and Technology, (2018) 77:143-149, DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2018.05.004 Badia-Melis. R, Mishra. P and Ruiz-García. L, "Food traceability: New trends and recent advances. A review", Food Control, (2015) 57:393-401, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.05.005 Kamilaris. A, Fonts. A and Prenafeta-Boldύ. F, "TThe rise of blockchain technology in agriculture and food supply chains", Trends in Food Science and Technology, (2019) 91:640-652, DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2019.07.034 Zhang. Y and Zou. T, "A Review of Food Traceability in Food Supply Chain", Lecture Notes in Engineering and Computer Science, (2017) 2228:797-800. Dabbene. F, Gay. P and Tortia. C, "Traceability issues in food supply chain management: a review", Biosystems Engineering, (2014) 120:65-80, DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2013.09.006 Christidis. K and Devetsikiotis. M, "Blockchains and smart contracts for the Internet of Things", IEEE Access, (2016) 4:2292-2303, DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2016.2566339 Foteinis. S, "Bitcoin’s alarming carbon footprint", Nature, (2018) 554:169, DOI: 10.1038/d41586-018-01625-x Kewell. B, Adams. R and Parry. G, "Blockchain for good?", Strategic Change, (2017) 26(5):429-437, DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2143 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers invited by journal 08 Nov, 2022 Editor assigned by journal 21 Oct, 2021 First submitted to journal 19 Oct, 2021 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-998152","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":150486998,"identity":"a94b5465-4fcb-44af-9c5d-9ea0dc1fca0b","order_by":0,"name":"Dayana D.S","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCA2CSGUQwPgASPHykaGE2AGlhI0ULmwSYJKSD7/gZw88FNdb28rNPp1V+zbGTYWNgfvjoBh4tkmdyjKVnHEtP3HAud9tt2W3JQIexGRvn4NFicCDHQJqH7XCCAQ/vttuS25iBWnjYpPFqOf/G+DfPv8P28j2824olt9UToeVGjpk0b9thxoYzvNsYP247TFiL5I1nZda8fUC/nOHdLM247TgPGzMBv/CdT958m+ebNchhGz/+3FZtz8/e/PAxPi0MDBwGcCYzD5jEqxwE2B/AmYw/CKoeBaNgFIyCkQgA49ZGHWaZauEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"SRM Institute of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dayana","middleName":"","lastName":"D.S","suffix":""},{"id":150486999,"identity":"b2d7e188-8601-4aad-b091-930026f09c56","order_by":1,"name":"Kalpana G","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"SRM Institute of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kalpana","middleName":"","lastName":"G","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2021-10-20 06:53:44","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-998152/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-998152/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":29029427,"identity":"54c5e522-0b50-49c9-9b23-5317f43b15e7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:01:31","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":25949,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArchitecture Diagram for Blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/075a52f76e293c97c6c5e169.png"},{"id":29029424,"identity":"1b8be30f-641e-426f-a039-1273be956426","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:01:31","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":30101,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eInstruction forming to the farmer\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/43d661686eae9d67b4905ab3.png"},{"id":29030032,"identity":"7647c0ed-856a-48ef-bbb7-4ed90e358a89","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:09:31","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":16105,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eRelation between upload time and upload request\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/40760b553df1b4718eab3e25.png"},{"id":29029425,"identity":"beb48374-9f2f-435f-9dfd-21815ef15ba9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:01:31","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":14728,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe Relation between Response Time and On-Chain Data Amount\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/3ee64ae6b8942a94b3540187.png"},{"id":29029430,"identity":"27f5be8e-90c1-4887-8a0f-d11684202812","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:01:31","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":13786,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe relation between response time and query count\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/9cccd7a2f4151f858ba23905.png"},{"id":29031487,"identity":"f7482ffb-9afd-4139-8bfe-5b77c1d7b8cd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:17:31","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":25541,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eImplementation Screen of the Proposed Approach\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"6.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/49295198e7a02488323cc454.png"},{"id":29030029,"identity":"c919f746-03a1-4f01-9ce4-b74904d6ed34","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:09:31","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":48903,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData Collection from Internet Dataset are Uploaded\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"7.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/56166b316a9807dcd37c3b09.png"},{"id":29030034,"identity":"15c75480-6d4d-4260-8f2d-d1ac7857af59","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:09:31","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"Figure 8","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":101651,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePre-processed Dataset\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"8.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/11eecdbbe47072d24978dbb3.png"},{"id":29029434,"identity":"cf7e0599-f8d1-463d-aeae-0e7796634ffc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:01:31","extension":"png","order_by":9,"title":"Figure 9","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":68956,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData are being Clustered\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"9.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/1f1e859f749be8022726de01.png"},{"id":29030030,"identity":"742b1c72-c560-482a-9c58-8e15686203e7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:09:31","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"Figure 10","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":30920,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrediction\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"10.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/da933ffec01681c25588fe72.png"},{"id":29029433,"identity":"02d43687-fb32-481c-9b86-7deb5008e4df","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:01:31","extension":"png","order_by":11,"title":"Figure 11","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":50858,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe blockchain IPFS system is applied in every information which are digitally signed Data residing in the blockchain and is utilized in performing certain computations such as generating values for the observation including the hash value.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"11.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/d1c291e8cd1b35a66b7d272e.png"},{"id":29030033,"identity":"9249ea54-6f6d-4a9f-a0bc-641cb1037efe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:09:31","extension":"png","order_by":12,"title":"Figure 12","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":34488,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e12 Result Extraction\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"12.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/50e83a6546c6cc8bfeee582b.png"},{"id":29031501,"identity":"23e360c7-1581-419a-9f7f-1bde60d13d63","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-14 15:17:38","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":795530,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-998152/v1/9551cbf5-8980-49ba-9329-71487946b057.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Enhanced Blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System for Food Crops Products","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eFood safety tends to be an over concerning matter which is seeking attention worldwide. \u0026nbsp;Both the agricultural sector and food quality are of utmost necessity without doubt and it\u0026rsquo;s crucial that the end-user receives a quality product. But without any centralized framework, this is infeasible to achieve. Usually, the food supply chain is quiet long as it involves various sub departments such as farming, producing, transporting and much more. There are many restrictions and formalities which becomes hindrances in addressing the challenges faced and fulfilling the needs of the end customer. Not only the end-users, farmers and transporters are of major concern but there exist other challenges too that can\u0026rsquo;t be neglected. Factors or entities such as the stake holders, agricultural insurance, Factory staff, wholesales shops as well as the retail shopkeepers are of significant importance in the process of food supply chain and involves many complications which must be closely observed as pointed out by [1].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe initial stage of food supply chain is Farming. If Unscientific farming methods and inefficient agricultural process are being practiced, it will hamper both the production and the quality. Also, the fertilized agricultural area will be affected and neglected by the farmers for carrying out further farming. Another underlying factor is the seed\u0026rsquo;s quality that will be sowed in the field. In case of small-scale fields, the loss incurred due to poor quality of seed can still be handled. But fields that are in huge acres and caters to voluminous production, cannot take any chance with the quality of the seed. \u0026nbsp; Adopting unscientific means in treating and handling animal-farms can lead to severe diseases in animals and can transmit to humans like the avian flu. Also, if the feed and food are contaminated with chemicals, it can be risky and unsafe for the animals and any other products according to [2].\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe market value of the final product production gets affected by the cost incurred and transportation involved says [3]. Once the products are collected from the producers, the overall expenses and transportation overhead is computed and evaluated by the stakeholders which may not be so trustworthy. Such computations are bound to be altered and misleading because of varying fuel cost, bribe and corruption involved thus causing inflation. Due to such deeds, economy of the entire nation is at stake. After the stack holders, the wholesale and retail keepers come into the picture where it\u0026rsquo;s very likely that the market value of the product can increase further. Inflation affects the trading of food retailers leading to shutdown of stores, rise of independent retails power, polarization of store sizes and the targeting of market struggles as put forth by [4]. Apart from the cost, the food safety too gets hampered with such inflation. In other words, inflation is directly proportional to the loss incurred, higher the loss, higher will be the corruption and higher will be the inflation. \u0026nbsp;Both the quality and quantity get affected right from the stockholders to retail shopkeepers as emphasized by [5]. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason behind all the above prominent issues is the lack of a well-designed traceability framework comprising of all the departments. The system must cater to and accommodate all the individuals who are an integral part of the food supply chain, right from the seed seller to the end-user says [6]. Missing upon any one entity or not abiding by the said criteria, development of any system will contract black holes thus becoming a failure and inefficient structure in the market. Hence, it\u0026rsquo;s essential that every single department is taken into consideration along with effective planning. The proposed system includes all the important departments that are essential in the formation of a complete food supply chain. That is starting from the Seed seller\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;farmer\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;insurance company\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;Government panel\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;Stock holders\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;final traders and eventually the end-user. The blockchain technique is adopted to frame the above system as per. [7] A blockchain resembles a digital transaction ledger that is controlled using a network of various computing machines without involving the interference of any third party. Management of blocks in a blockchain which represents individual transaction data files is accomplished using certain software platforms that enables data transmission, processing, storing and its representation in human understandable form. This technique works as per certain standard set of rules according to the consensus mechanisms (run by algorithms). In this form of a distributed consensus, a single authority is not designated as trustworthy but the responsibility is distributed across the entire network. There are various consensus mechanisms prevailing. Hash functions, or hashes, produces a digital fingerprint from the input data or referring an entire document. Similar to the human fingerprint that matches a single person, a digital fingerprint uniquely identifies a single data unit. Any minute alteration in the input data will result in a totally different fingerprint. This makes the ledger highly secure against any tampering.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNumerous organizations are seeking towards implying the transparency and fault tolerance of blockchain technique for handling situations that involves multiple unreliable entities for the distribution of certain resources. In addition, the ceaseless advancement and performance of the blockchain in various crypto-currencies has won trust of everyone. \u0026nbsp;The \u003cem\u003eagriculture\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003efood supply chain\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003edepicts the highly significant domains\u003cem\u003e.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003eThere is close connection between the\u0026nbsp;Agriculture and food supply chains as the agricultural products always acts as an input source in the distributed food supply chain with the consumer as the end user.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApparently, as soon as the blockchain technique became apparent, it was promptly employed by the supply chain management. There will be an exponential increase of Blockchain in supply chain management at an annual growth rate of 87% and this is expected to rise from $45 million (which was in 2018) to $3,314.6 million by the year 2023. This is clearly elucidated from the following example, In December 2016, the Agri Digital Company successfully carried out world\u0026rsquo;s first sale settlement of 23.46 tons of grain on a blockchain. This greatly motivated and spurred others to effectively implement the blockchain technique in the agricultural supply chain. Also, by effectively applying the blockchain technique, Agri Digital has moved further in forming trustworthy and high-performance agricultural supply chains as witnessed by [8].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery process that takes place along the food chain is there and then recorded to the blockchain. This recorded information is indisputable and is willingly accepted by all the participants. Also, the recorded information is thoroughly verified by the business partners of the food supply chain thus building a consensus or agreement amidst all the participants. Every validated block is then appended to the transaction chain to form a permanent record of the blockchain. There are certain low-cost agricultural insurance schemes that offers social security to numerous farmers whose livelihood are severely impacted due to the natural calamities. \u0026nbsp;Though such insurance schemes are beneficial, they are rarely availed by the poor farmers or rural people. One of the reasons can be that the process of validating the insurance claims and effect payouts tends to be extensively time consuming and thus the small-scale farmers don\u0026rsquo;t opt for index-based insurance as their first risk mitigation approach. Index insurance that employs smart contracts can be a solution that helps in automating and facilitating instant payouts to the concerned person when affected with such misfortunes. Through the \u0026lsquo;Automatic data feeds\u0026rsquo; there is availability of consistent and authentic hyper local data which is recorded in the smart contract thus avoiding the requirement of on-site claim assessment by the surveyor.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an agricultural supply chain, traceability of products involves collection, exchange and handling of critical information by determining the source and all the information communication taking place in food supply chain. This information is dynamic in nature as the products are produced, processed and sent through various intermediaries hence tracking and tracing it becomes infeasible. Product contamination and its implications to public health enforces the essential policy tool of traceability for precise monitoring of food quality and safety. The prevailing traceability tool employed in supply chain confronts data fragmentation and centralized controls that degrades data modification as well as its management. For overcoming the above situation, improvised\u0026nbsp;agricultural traceability system has been recommended that benefits food production and farmers using the effective means of block chain technology. Moreover, the control panel\u0026rsquo;s timely and consistent advice pertaining to the crop\u0026rsquo;s status proves to be utmost helpful to the farmers.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present research aims towards revealing the working of blockchain in efficiently tracing the agricultural products, make the transparency between all the participants higher and increase food safety in the food processing system for achieving at par efficiency and information sharing. Parameters such as weather, crops, irrigation and fertilizers for agricultural inputs forms the dataset.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe proposed system builds a blockchain based food production system for minimizing transmission expense, raising efficiency and elevating security in the entire food supply chain. This is achieved mainly by improvising the factors such as security, distributed ledger, consensus, quick settlement, and decentralization. Here the hashing technique SHA-26 (Secure Hash Algorithm) is made use of, that determines hash for agricultural inputs.\u0026nbsp;Agricultural insurance based upon \u0026lsquo;block chain\u0026rsquo; that comprises of major weather incidents and associated payouts enlisted on a smart contract and which being connected to the mobile wallets for timely weather updates notified by the field sensors and interrelated with data from proximity weather stations would enable prompt payout during any natural calamity such as flood or drought.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe entire work is classified into the following: section 2 highlights the literature survey on blockchain technique implemented in agricultural domain, section 3 discusses the recommended technique by elaborating the performance of blockchain in agricultural processing and uplifting the overall trust and security in the food supply chain, Results and discussions are put forth in section 4 and the conclusion is stated in section 5 along with the future works.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2.\tRelated Works","content":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s very well-known that the present agriculture system experiences many setbacks and the technique of blockchain is the beacon of hope. Though implementing and making best use of this technique still remains ignorant to many. \u0026nbsp; Whereas on the other hand the so called \u0026lsquo;blockchain onlookers\u0026rsquo; are vigilant against the restrictions and inadequacies of the blockchain and accordingly apply it in real sense. Hence the need of the hour is to determine the relevant situations in businesses where the implementation of BCT can be revealed in its true sense.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere still prevails lack of understanding and doubt regarding the whole concept of BCT exists. Primarily because Blockchain has been accepted as the ultimate solutions to resolve any sort of issue and the visible technical glitches that still needs to be attended. \u0026nbsp;The basic nature of BCT makes its adoption a bit difficult and thought provoking according to [1].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNumerous organizations are seeking towards implying the transparency and fault tolerance of blockchain technique for handling situations that involves multiple unreliable entities for the distribution of certain resources. In addition, the ceaseless advancement and performance of the blockchain in various crypto-currencies has won trust of everyone. \u0026nbsp;The \u003cem\u003eagriculture\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003efood supply chain\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003edepicts the highly significant domains as indicated by [2].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt has been more than ten years since the whitepaper \u0026ldquo;Bitcoin was launched. Introduced by a pseudonymous author, this Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System\u0026rdquo; became the very first crypto-currency that enabled trusted financial transactions without the involvement of any banks or financial institutions. The present research lays foundation for the advancement of Bitcoin according to [3]. This technology in collaboration with Blockchain cracked the issue related to double-spending wherein the digital tokens had drawbacks because of duplicate or erroneous computer files.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBCT employs a set of techniques holding a sound year of experience in information technology as well as in commercial domain. Some of them are: public/private key cryptography, cryptographic hash functions, database technologies particularly the distributed databases, consensus algorithms and decentralized processing as put forth by [4]. The prime aim in implementing these techniques is to gain database consistency and integrity with respect to a distributed decentralized database with either controlled or uncontrolled database nodes (such as Bitcoin).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlockchain has gained significant popularity in the agricultural system as it immensely benefits the market agents as put forth by [6] Manufacturers are not in favor of employing state-of-the-art or highly cost techniques since the end user just receives the final product and has to do nothing with the overall food supply chain or the cost incurred in every process. Also, this value does not become monetized. The aforementioned system assures to handle this issue effectively. The blockchain technique attempts to minimize the intermediaries involved from producer to end user through the transparent fixation of all transactions in the logistics chain. Moreover, the technique helps in determining the buyers who are ready to pay additional amount for those products which are superior in quality and requires expensive techniques in their production as observed by [7].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe food and agricultural supply chain must be equipped with proficient logistics management with consistent supervision of development of agricultural products for achieving the safety of the product. Issues pertaining to food safety and contamination calls out the need for improvised traceability in the entire food supply chain as ascertained by [9], [10]. Also, with the trading of agricultural products to different geographical locations, there must be keen tracking and conformance as per the country specific guidelines [11], [12]. In an agricultural supply chain, product\u0026rsquo;s traceability comprises of information collection and its communication and management by determining its source accurately.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a potential demand for a blockchain-based certification, which yields an added valuation of nearly 15% its selling price for genetically modified (GM)-free soy pertaining to a business network dealing with grain exports in Brazil. The credit for the added valuation goes to trustworthy and proficient quality assurance process on the grains enabled by blockchain. Also, there was recording of processes carried out in the rice value chain using the Blockchain technique so as to assure the confidentiality and quality of rice in the transportation process. Above all, the blockchain technique effectively manages the essential resources like energy and water and avoids speculation of their trading as per [13].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the purpose of tracking and tracing the products in PFSC (Perishable Food Supply Chain), complete information of TRUs (traceable resource units) must be available from raw suppliers to end consumers. TRUs helps in determining mutually understand traceable objects that comprises of trade, production, and logistics units required for supply chain activities, as reviewed by [14]. In addition, it is of significant importance in the food traceability that handles the mix and different packaging of food products by allocating unique identities in certain food supply chains. The PFSC comprises of compound entities such as the shippers, consignees, and TRUs, for carrying out the material inflow and since the structure is complex enough, a traceability tree is built for visualizing the overall traceability process.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor building the prevailing food traceability systems (or models), following were taken into consideration: (i) information and communication techniques along with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication); (ii) chemical and biological analysis along with isotope analysis and DNA bar-coding as highlighted by [15]. These tools were responsible towards food tracing and tracking along with its identification and monitoring so as to preserve its quality and safety across the entire supply chain.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn [16], there is a discussion regarding the integration of blockchain with the IoT along with the possible merits and issues confronted. Integrating the IoT system with the decentralized path may apparently seem fruitful. With the effective approach of blockchain, all the management processes as well as computation can be decentralize which proves to be beneficial for resolving various IoT related challenges, mainly the security.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe innovative technique of Blockchain technology highly reinforces BITCOIN and other crypto-currencies. According to the fact and figures, BITCOIN platform maintenance, especially mining engulfs magnanimous computational resource which is figuratively 43.9 MT of CO2 per annum, as per the sources of [17], same as utilized by 6.8M European citizens. Supply chains that are seemingly huge confronts such possible scalability concerns.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe food industry blockchain needs a data platform with intense investment in generous IT elevation and infrastructure, covering the essentials like API\u0026apos;s for encrypting and recovering data, creating and maintaining ledger, storage, communications and much more. The block must be automatically generated by the ledgers via manufacturing process and further be associated to standard Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Though, governing and paying for such an IT framework is the point of concern as portrayed by [18].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere has been evaluation of various cases pertaining to the supply chain research literature, aiming towards comprehending the blockchain impact on major supply chain parameters namely: transparency, cost, risk reduction, quality, trust, sustainability and flexibility. Blockchain significantly contributes in elevating transparency and accountability thus raising trust and cooperation amidst the supply chain members as surveyed by [19] for reviewing the implementation traits at an individual level, the UTAUT (unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) model has been employed across the USA and India.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAllocating blockchain unique digital identifiers to food products, helps tracing them through supply chains as well as determining their growth status, batch numbers and expiry dates. In addition, it helps in avoiding food wastage, enabling consumers to understand the ecological footprint of their food and guiding towards the distribution of excess food. The accurate food and transactions register aids in preventing any sort of fraud as well as determining the source for food borne illness. Moreover, the digital traits of these techniques can enable on-farm data sharing as reported by [20].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGenerally, the stakeholders linked to a food supply chain can exhibit the high quality of their processes and products to the customers. This could be smoothly achieved by the blockchain technique by offering one-to-many data integration and process orchestration with respect to transparency, efficiency, confidentiality and privacy amidst the participants. There lies immense scope and advancement for the organizations employing the blockchain technique and the associated service applications. Irrespective of the overall blockchain experience, the developers must inculcate at par measures against security risks right from designing to development according to [21].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts quiet apparent that the agri-food system comprises of multiple stakeholders such as the farmers, processors, traders, wholesalers, retailers and consumers that desire and seek for superior and safe products along with maximum possible information, as discussed by [22] There are chances that the issue of information asymmetry surfaces. According to the discussion, asymmetric information surfaces when the parties are partially intimated during the economic transaction thus preventing the first-best allocation of resources, which as a result leads to market failure.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe proposed traceability system ascertains to be more farmer friendly and gains popularity in contrast to the prevailing traceability systems. Farmers represent the backbone of the food supply chain and hence their presence is supreme most. The system targets towards offering unconditional and timely support to the farmers in a friendly manner so that maximum of them can benefit from it. Farming has been a keen interest and necessity of numerous people worldwide but the risks involved and lack of knowledge regarding the technique\u0026rsquo;s and process involved, restrain them from doing so as elucidated by [23]. And hence the introduction of a rich experienced panel can uplift the vision and actions of farmers as well as of the entire market. In addition, the farmers can get immensely inspired to independently build their own business. The system would also guarantee better food quality and economical support from insurance agencies in case of any natural calamity, states [24].\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3.\tProposed System","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.1 Overview\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is proposal of an agriculture traceability system built for various stakeholders that are an integral part of a food supply chain. Towards this, a well-organized and worthy framework has been built which emphasizes on food safety and profit for all the departments involved. The system caters to and includes the primary entity of seed sellers to the final entity i.e., the end-user of the food supply chain. The decentralized feature of the proposed system ascertains the systematic flow of the chain and makes sure that the processes involved are completely scientific oriented. Upon the willingness of the farmer to take up agriculture and get connected to the system, an agreement is made with the insurance company. Various agriculture insurance companies precisely specify their insurance criteria and qualification to the concerned farmers based upon which the farmer can make the decision of selecting one specific company for the policy. This agreement forms the first stage in the system. By examining the consistent information uploaded by the farmer, the insurance company can keep a check on the farmer\u0026rsquo;s land or crops. \u0026nbsp;This information can be accessed by all the departments in the chain for checking the growth status. \u0026nbsp;Next, comes the process of good breed seed selection. This being an essential and critical step since the further results highly depend on this. As the plant grow, the blockchain technique is employed for managing the further stages. The smart contracts in the blockchain are responsible for triggering alerts and events upon receiving any function calls as a transaction. This helps the relevant entities to consistently supervise, track and receive appropriate alerts in case of any disaster. Resultant, any natural calamity can be timely and effectively restored within the food supply chain. Figure 1 clearly depicts the blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System. The seeds sold to the farmers are allocated standardized identifiers using which digital connectivity and tracking of any transaction between the participating entities can be achieved. Algorithm 1 elaborates the complete registration process of a new farmer. The IPFS helps in recording the consistent and timely growth of the crop. All the captured images related to the crop\u0026rsquo;s growth are time stamped and the smart contract is utilized for storing the IPFS hash of the file. The hash values are determined through the SHA-26 (algorithm-3). Cereals grown by the farmer are stored in the elevator only after verifying the right humidity, temperature, moisture, heat etc... The processor then buys the cereal for giving the final finish to the product. Thereafter, the finished product is purchased by the distributor for shipping it further to the buyers. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2 Methodology\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2.1 Process of Registration\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs aforesaid, the achievement of this system hinges around to how many farmers or agri-oriented people have been successfully associated with the proposed system. \u0026nbsp;The suggested traceability system must inculcate and manage full fledge \u0026nbsp; database involving all the participants. Hence, formal and precise registration with authentic \u0026nbsp;information is necessary. As soon as a member request for joining, the database will be updated by the same. The credentials such as \u0026nbsp; username and password are verified and based on its authenticity, a blockchain is generated which is then allocated to the relevant \u0026nbsp;member. It\u0026rsquo;s assured that the farmer\u0026rsquo;s information is kept confidential and just the relevant information about a specific farmer is made available to others. Only for the identification of the member\u0026rsquo;s identity, personal information is made use of and it is ascertained that there is no misuse or privacy breach of this information. For logging into the system, the farmer must use the valid credentials such as the userid and password and upon exiting, it is ensured that the page or account is logged out. This is made compulsory so that there is no misuse of the account. \u0026nbsp;Algorithm 1 depicts the registration process of a new member.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlgorithm 1 Registering a New Farmer\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInput : User Registration Request\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNodes N in the current network\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOutput: A newly registered farmer f\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 1: (Kpub,Kpr) = generatekeys()\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 2: uID\u0026agrave;create userID();BlockchainAddress() + (Kpub,Kpr)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 3: Addr\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;create BlockchainAddress() + (Kpub,Kpr)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 4: (Uid,kpr)\u0026nbsp;\u0026agrave;safelystore(uID,Kpr)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 5: Walt\u0026agrave;creates BlockchainWallet() + (Kpub, Kpr)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 6: for each n ϵ N do\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 7: distributeWallet(n,Walt)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 8: end for\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 9: \u0026nbsp;u\u0026szlig;verifiedNewfarmer()\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2.2 Agreementation\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe proposed system enables the farmers and insurance companies to carry out the business \u0026nbsp;practices in coordination and in a smooth manner. It cut downs the farmer\u0026rsquo;s effort and time in identifying the apt insurance schemes and neither the insurance companies require to spend their energy and time in selling their policies. Based on the detail briefing given by the farmer of his plan, the insurance company put forth their norms and condition once the farmer\u0026rsquo;s plan is verified. The farmer is free to make the policy selection according to his contentment. The decentralized system acts as an evidence for the entire process taking place between the farmer and insurance company. Every single step gets recorded in the database as an evidence. This can be later useful, in case any conflicts or arguments emerges between the parties. The system is upartial against any \u0026nbsp;member and \u0026nbsp; it ensures that no conflicts \u0026nbsp; takes place between them. That is, whether it be farmers, insurance company, processors or any department, all will be treated equally and can benefit from the system in a transparent manner. This helps in building a united, trustworthy and sturdy food supply chain. The system ascertains that, as and when the farmer intimates regarding a natural calamity, a notification or alert \u0026nbsp;is trigerred and transmitted to the relevant company. There is a consistent follow up by the system until the farmer receives the insured amount as per the terms and conditions. Hence, with this fail proof system, there is trusted and transparent relationship is established between all the participants. \u0026nbsp;There may be cases or situations which may not comply with the given norms or conditions, in such scenarios the system automatically agrees or support the company policies rather than the client\u0026rsquo;s plea. Hence, the system presents the whole agreement in a precise and transparent manner so that both the parties remain vigilant about the same.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2.3 Seed Selection\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce the registration is completed and the contract is signed, the farmer needs to buy large bulk of good breed seed from the seed seller. \u0026nbsp;This tends to be the most important decision since the entire crop production depends on the quality and fertility of the seed. \u0026nbsp;The farmer gets to choose from the enlisted and registered seed companies present in the system. Algorithm 2 elaborates the process of seed selling by the relevant seed company. On signing up the initial contract, the smart contract verifies the farmer\u0026rsquo;s registration and subsequently the payment for the seeds bought is done via Agri Insurance. That is the required money for purchasing the seeds is provided by the Agri Insurance to the farmers. \u0026nbsp;If all goes well and successful, then the contract state becomes as Seed Request Submitted, the farmer state becomes Wait for Seeds and seed company state becomes Agree to Sell. This change of \u0026lsquo;state\u0026rsquo; is notified and updated to all the participants in the supply chain. If not updated, then the state of contract reverts back to initial state thus terminating the transaction.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlgorithm 2: Selling Seed to Farmers\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 1: Let G1, G2....Gn be the registered farmers,\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet t1,t2 be the token of farmer and Seed Distributor respectively\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsider Quantity, SType, SBrand,SPrice\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 5: Contract State is Created\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 6: Farmer State\u0026agrave;SeedsReq\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 7: Seed Distributor State\u0026agrave;Ready\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 8: Restricting access to only registered farmers i.e. g\u0026nbsp;ϵG\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 9: If farmers=G and SPrice=paid then\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 10: Contract state\u0026agrave;SReqSubmitted\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 11: Farmer State\u0026agrave;WaitforSeeds\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 12: SDistributor State\u0026agrave;AgreeToSell\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 13: Notification msg to state sale of seeds\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 14: end\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 15: Else\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 16: Revert contract state and display an error msg\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 17: End\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2.4 Block Chain Technology\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePost seed trading process, the farmer enters the blockchain or IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) system. IPFS refers to a protocol within the blockchain and depicts a peer-to-peer network that facilitates file storing and sharing in a distributed file system. It grants users to accept host content and is based upon a decentralized system of user-operators, holding a segment of overall data. The IRSA algorithm is employed for encrypting the information sent by the farmer before it is stored. The information comprises of images pertaining to growth measurement, weather and soil reports which gets digitally recorded in the database. In the blockchain and IPFS system, every information whether it be data, reports or images, are signed digitally and are attributed to a specific actor. The fields have installed cameras for capturing the images automatically which is then transmitted to the blockchain where they get recorded. These cameras are specially crafted and provided to the farmers such that they cannot be tampered. Hence the images captured by them remain unaltered and authentic which can be trusted by all the entities in the blockchain. Moreover, any illegitimate user is strictly prohibited from accessing this information. In fact, the authorized user can also access just the permitted information. Data residing in the blockchain is utilized for performing certain computations such as generating values for the observation including the hash value. These computed values are of utmost significance and directs if the farmer is following the correct method or not. Basically, there are two prime reasons for computing the hash value. First, for determining the growth rate and second, to track if the farmer is proceeding in the suggested and agreed manner. \u0026nbsp;In case of any forgery or misconduct, penalties are imposed on the farmer which is being programmed automatically in the blockchain. \u0026nbsp;Hash value is computed using the SHA-26 (algorithm2).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlgorithm 3: Hash Calculation using SHA-26 algorithm\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 1: For loop i =1......N (N=number of blocks in the padded message)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 2: Initialize registers a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h with the (i-1)st intermediate hash value (=the initial hash value when i=1)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 3: a\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 4: b\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e::\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 5: h\u0026agrave;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 6: Apply SHA-26 functions\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 7: For loop j= 0 to 63\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 8: Compute Ch(e,f,g), Maj(a,b,c), \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 9: \u0026nbsp;\u0026szlig;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 10: \u0026nbsp;\u0026szlig;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 11:\u0026nbsp;h\u0026szlig;g\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 12: g\u0026szlig;f\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 13 f\u0026szlig;e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 14: e\u0026szlig;d\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 15: d\u0026szlig;c\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 16: c\u0026szlig;b\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 17: b\u0026szlig;a\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 18: c\u0026szlig;b\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 19: T\u0026szlig;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 20: end\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 21: Calculate the \u0026nbsp; intermediate hash value \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 22: \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 23: \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e::\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 24: \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 25 \u0026nbsp; is the hash of M.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep 26: \u0026nbsp;End\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe traceability system in the food supply that imbibes smart contracts significantly helps in delivering unhampered information to all the entities in the supply chain without the involvement or controlling of any central authority. Each single transaction, right from seed selling, to the amount of crop produced and sold is recorded precisely which can be validated thoroughly. Like for instance, set quantity of cereal sold amidst the stakeholders with respect to the specified norms is not subject to change. Moreover, mixing of cereals with different quality is not allowed for selling. Since it\u0026rsquo;s difficult to monitor the status of the field and crop growth, the IPFS helps in uploading the crop and land images periodically which can be verified and accepted by all.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor assuring elevated Quality Compliance, all the corresponding transactions amidst all the entities is traced. \u0026nbsp; The sensors are highly equipped with the feature of sending consistent alerts pertaining to the crop and land status. The blockchain technique prohibits modification of any info or alerts and permits the accessibility of information to all the authentic entities in a secure and decentralized way without the involvement of any central figure. Apparently, there can be cases of fraud by reporting misleading information by the stakeholders. Such data is automatically verified by the blockchain whether it appears to be fraudulent or not. For guarding and preventing against such frauds, blockchain can be programmed to nullify the supply chain process thereby imposing penalties on such stakeholders. By performing this precise and undoubted traceability presented to the supply chain stakeholders.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2.5 Support to the Farmer\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile carrying out farming, the farmers need wise and effective suggestions from the system. Towards this, it\u0026rsquo;s essential that the farmers upload timely and precise information and images pertaining to the crops. \u0026nbsp; Certain essential factors that must be reported includes: growth of the crop, temperature, average rain measurement and soil components along with its percentage. As and when the values are fed by the farmer, the database must be updated. The instruction of the farmer is depicted in the figure 2. \u0026nbsp;Using Algorithm-3, the values are computed and the hash value is generated. The database has a collection of information related to the crop. In addition, it has the fertilization requirement for the relevant crops at every level and in varying weather conditions. As the farmer updates regarding his crop, there are suggestions provided regarding the further stages. This enables the farmer to nourish its crop with the right amount of manure thus making the entire farming economical.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2.6 Trade in the End\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the farmer produces quality crop and there is completion of all the processes, the crop or the end product is ready for selling. Based upon the market value there can be negotiation in the price with the distributor and vice-versa. Each transaction taking place is recorded correspondingly in the system for performing subsequent processes. Upon completing the entire process, the farmer is eligible for selling their products to the distributors. The system even records the overall interaction and trading of the farmer with the distributor. Above all, the system empowers and attempts to fulfil the farmer\u0026rsquo;s effort without being partial or biased in its protocol.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFarmer Satisfaction Index = p\u003c/em\u003e(\u003cem\u003epr\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003epg\u003c/em\u003e) *(100-\u0026nbsp;\u0026sum;(\u003cem\u003epd\u003c/em\u003e)/\u003cem\u003en\u003c/em\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere \u0026rho;(pr,pg) depicts the correlation between pr (pay-outs required) and pg (pay-outs given) and pd resembles the pay-out difference (that is the difference between required pay-out with respect to yield loss and pay-out given with respect to contract design) and n depicts the number of years. The present index factor equivalently caters to under and over-payments that is inconsiderable for the welfare implications of index insurance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLately, the retailers have flourished their own business with in depth understanding of stock holders and the product they comply with. Only the registered retailers are granted accessibility with respect to these essential attributes provided namely: Manufacturing date of the product, Quantity Sold, and Date of Purchase. Verification is done against the fulfilment of accepted sales agreement and product payment. If verified and true, then the transaction is executed by the contract and the state becomes \u003cem\u003eSaleReqSuccess.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e The state of the retailer turns to \u003cem\u003eProdDelSuccessful\u003c/em\u003e. For ensuring the successful delivery of the product, the contract notifies the successful delivery to the retailer. In case of any failure, the contract state turns into \u003cem\u003eSaleRequestDenied\u003c/em\u003e. Eventually, the customer-retailer purchase or transaction is traced. The end user or the customer depicts the final entity in the entire food supply chain. In the beginning, the state of the customer is \u003cem\u003eReadyToBuy\u003c/em\u003e. The smart contract allows those Customers who have the essential product information such as the Customer token, Retailer token, Purchased date, Sales Id and Product Id. Once the payment is done successfully, the contract state becomes \u003cem\u003eProdSoldToCust\u003c/em\u003e, and the customer state depicts \u003cem\u003eSuccessfulPurchase\u003c/em\u003e. In case any sales failure occurs, the contract intimates everyone in the network.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"4. Results and Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eSix test machines in total are imbibed in the blockchain network. Out of which, four machines operate in full node and two machines operate in light-weight nodes. Entire system is built using Java on the Eclipse Luna platform of Windows 7 operating system. Table 1 briefly depicts the test environment.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTable. 1\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eSoftware Environment\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv align=\"\"\u003e\n \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"53%\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"50.505050505050505%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOperating System\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"49.494949494949495%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWindows 7\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"50.505050505050505%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDevelopment Platform\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"49.494949494949495%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eEclipse Luna\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"50.505050505050505%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBlockchain Module\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"49.494949494949495%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eEthereum Geth 1.8.2\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"50.505050505050505%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eRunning Environment\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"49.494949494949495%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eJava 8.0.1610.12\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;Two major indices of system performance are: information uploading time and information response time. Figure 3-5, exhibits the system test results of the mentioned indices.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 3 clearly reveals that the information upload time gets impacted by the frequency of upload request. The frequency of the upload requests changes from 100 times per second to 900 times per second and based upon that the upload information time witness a rise from nearly 7s to 47s. A genuine rise of 600 to 700 is observed with the upload time rising from around 25s to 42s. The reason may be attributed to the limitation of consensus algorithm of the blockchain, wherein a single block possesses restrictive processing of transactions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 4 and 5 exhibits that information response time is impacted by the quantity of on-chain data as well as the frequency of traceability request. Figure 3 presents the information response time exceeding from 2ms to 5ms with respect to the increase in the volume of on-chain data from 1G to 9G. According to Figure 4, the information response time increases a bit from around 2.2ms to 3.2ms with respect to the traceability request rising from 1,000 times per second to 9,000 times per second with the on-chain data fixed to 1G. The reason behind this is the mode of data query and P2P networking.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"5. Simulation Results ","content":"\u003cp\u003eOnline dataset is being utilized for the collection of data and JAVA environment is used for the development purpose. The food production sample screenshot output is depicted in the figure 6. Also entire dataset along with the results generated is managed and stored with the help of My SQL. Attributes such as crop, temperature, wind speed and rainfall are main attributes. Other attributes used are seeds area etc.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 7 depicts collection of dataset information taken from Internet dataset. The Dataset are assembled been pre-processed to get the desired output. The dataset uploaded is of weather information\u0026rsquo;s.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 8 Pre-processing of dataset, which removes the unwanted data to get the desired output that are been uploaded from the Internet dataset.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 9 depicts for clustering new Crop dataset, 1. Group classify the data based on same soil type, crop and rainfall 2. Group classify data based on soil type crop, soil, and temperature 3. Then Label the crop as Crop Name, soil as Soil Type, Water as \u0026lsquo;Required water\u0026rsquo;, Rainfall as Average Rainfall, Temperature as Required Temp.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 10 Recommends crop based on selected soil type, rainfall and temperature to get the desired output.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 11 The blockchain IPFS system is applied in every information which are digitally signed Data residing in the blockchain and is utilized in performing certain computations such as generating values for the observation including the hash value.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFigure 12 Decrypt the IPFS folder to get the desired result.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"6. Conclusion and Future Works","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn the recent years, there has been a spurring growth in the blockchain technique. There has been an exponential rise in the techniques associated with the crypto values exhibiting technological aspects and inquisitiveness of commercial organizations by experimenting with such tools. There has been visible and significant rise of the blockchain technique in the agricultural domain. This technique highly claims towards food safety as it emphasizes on the traceability of the source of an agricultural product as well as the validation of the agricultural inputs. There is guard against the traceability of the contamination source. The efficient technique of Blockchain aids in the subsidies distribution to the farmers thus making sure that the farmers gain the desired benefits. Though the Blockchain claims to be impartial but is ensures that the low-income group of farmers are benefitted with modest payment with the help of Agri-Insurance thus resolving the issues pertaining with the sale and registration of the land. The evolving technique of Blockchain is still an innovative concept to be implemented in the agricultural domain which confronts various hurdles. Among diverse challenges, the major one is to regulate such a system worldwide. Undoubtedly, the blockchain implementation in agricultural sector has made its stand. From the future perspective, there are certain highlighted issues that must be attended and resolved.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData Availability Statement\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot Applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot Applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConflicts of interest\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot Applicable\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNguegan Nguegan. C and Mafini. C, \u0026quot;Supply chain management problems in the food processing industry: Implications for business performance\u0026quot;, Acta Commercii, (2017) 17(1), DOI: 10.4102/ac.v17i1.485\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChengedzai Mafini, \u0026quot;Traceability in Food Andagricultural Products\u0026quot;, International Trade Centre, 2017\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBrigadier j matta, doctor of philosophy in management to jiwaji university, Gwalior, A study of supply chain management in food industry, 2016\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRichard J. Currie, \u0026quot;Inflation: Its Impact On Retail Trading\u0026quot;, Retail and Distribution Management, (1980) 8(2):22-26, DOI: 10.1108/eb018038\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGabriel A. Hupp\u0026eacute;, Sabrina Shaw, Jason Dion and Vivek Voora, \u0026quot;Food Price Inflation and Food Security: A Morocco case study\u0026quot;, International Institute for Sustainable Development, (2013)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChhikara N, Jaglan S, Sindhu N, Anshid V, Charan M and Panghal A, \u0026quot;Importance of Traceability in Food Supply Chain for Brand Protection and Food Safety Systems Implementation\u0026quot;, Annals of Biology, (2018) 34(2):111-118.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMaslove D, Klein J, Brohman K and Martin P, \u0026quot;Using Blockchain Technology to Manage Clinical Trials Data: A Proof-of-Concept Study\u0026quot;, JMIR Medical Informatics, (2018) 6(4): e11949, DOI: 10.2196/11949\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eXiwei Xu, Ingo Weber and Mark Staples, \u0026quot;Case Study: AgriDigital: Blockchain Technology in the Trade and Finance of Agriculture Supply Chains\u0026quot;, In book: Architecture for Blockchain Applications, (2019) :239-255, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-03035-3_12\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIansiti. M and Lakhani. K, \u0026quot;The Truth About Blockchain\u0026quot;, Harvard Business Review, (2017) :118-127.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eManski S, \u0026quot;Building the blockchain world: Technological commonwealth or just more of the same?\u0026quot; Strategic Change, (2017) 26(5):511-522, DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2151\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTschorsch. F and Scheuermann B, \u0026quot;Bitcoin and beyond: A technical survey on decentralized digital currencies\u0026quot;, IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, (2016) 18(3) :2084-2123, DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2016.2535718\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVukolić. M, \u0026quot;The quest for scalable blockchain fabric: Proof-of-work vs. BFT replication\u0026quot;, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), (2016) 9591:112-125, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-39028-4_9\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChavali. L, Prashanti. N, Sujatha. K, Rajasheker. G and Kavi Kishor. P, \u0026quot;The emergence of blockchain technology and its impact in biotechnology pharmacy and life sciences\u0026quot;, Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy, (2018) 12(3):304-310. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAung. M and Chang. Y, \u0026quot;Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives\u0026quot;, Food Control, (2014) 39:172-184, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.007\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBosona. T and Gebresenbet. G, \u0026quot;Food traceability as an integral part of logistics management in food and agricultural supply chain\u0026quot;, Food Control, (2013) 33(1):32-48, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.02.004\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHobbs. J, \u0026quot;Liability and traceability in agri-food supply chains\u0026quot;, in Quantifying the Agri-Food Supply Chain, Springer Netherlands, (2006) :87-102, DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-4693-6_7\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOlsen. P and Borit. M, \u0026quot;The components of a food traceability system\u0026quot;, Trends in Food Science and Technology, (2018) 77:143-149, DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2018.05.004\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBadia-Melis. R, Mishra. P and Ruiz-Garc\u0026iacute;a. L, \u0026quot;Food traceability: New trends and recent advances. A review\u0026quot;, Food Control, (2015) 57:393-401, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.05.005\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKamilaris. A, Fonts. A and Prenafeta-Boldύ. F, \u0026quot;TThe rise of blockchain technology in agriculture and food supply chains\u0026quot;, Trends in Food Science and Technology, (2019) 91:640-652, DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2019.07.034\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eZhang. Y and Zou. T, \u0026quot;A Review of Food Traceability in Food Supply Chain\u0026quot;, Lecture Notes in Engineering and Computer Science, (2017) 2228:797-800.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDabbene. F, Gay. P and Tortia. C, \u0026quot;Traceability issues in food supply chain management: a review\u0026quot;, Biosystems Engineering, (2014) 120:65-80, DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2013.09.006\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChristidis. K and Devetsikiotis. M, \u0026quot;Blockchains and smart contracts for the Internet of Things\u0026quot;, IEEE Access, (2016) 4:2292-2303, DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2016.2566339\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFoteinis. S, \u0026quot;Bitcoin\u0026rsquo;s alarming carbon footprint\u0026quot;, Nature, (2018) 554:169, DOI: 10.1038/d41586-018-01625-x\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKewell. B, Adams. R and Parry. G, \u0026quot;Blockchain for good?\u0026quot;, Strategic Change, (2017) 26(5):429-437, DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2143\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"wireless-personal-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"wire","sideBox":"Learn more about [Wireless Personal Communications](https://www.springer.com/journal/11277)","snPcode":"11277","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11277/3","title":"Wireless Personal Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Block chain, Distributed Ledger, Consensus, Decentralized, Centralized, traceability system, stakeholders, smart contracts, agricultural insurance, payouts, dataset, faster settlement, trust-based farming system and food safety, Panel of advisers","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-998152/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-998152/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The elevated version of the Agricultural Traceability System dealing with food production holds utmost significance in not only assuring food safety and smart contracts to the farmers but also guaranteeing insurance to them in case of any natural calamities. Though the approach is astounding but the stakeholders are many in numbers which makes centralization of the entire data management cumbersome. Hence building a trustworthy Agricultural Traceability System for food production becomes infeasible because of its opacity. Herein there is a proposed and improvised system that catering to food farming traceability dealing with agricultural product and farmers that employs the block chain technique and ensures at par security, consensus, distributed ledger, quick settlement and decentralization, thus achieving the goal of minimizing the cost incurred in the food processing system and building trust. Smart contracts play a pivot role in the field of agricultural insurance. Agricultural insurance based upon ‘block chain’ that comprises of major weather incidents and associated payouts enlisted on a smart contract, connected to the mobile wallets with timely weather updates notified by the field sensors and interrelated with data from proximity weather stations would enable prompt payout during any natural calamity such as flood or drought. The Dataset comprises of data pertaining to crops, weather, irrigation and fertilizers. Implementation of block chain technique in agricultural domain helps in forming trustworthy community amidst the stakeholders. Also, a centralized system which is professionally governed and managed by certain retired officers makes the traceability system more trustworthy. Examination by the Government agriculture department benefits the system in its successful implementation. These professionals can offer wise suggestions to the farmers enabling them to take fruitful decisions. In addition, a proper panel of advisers draws attention of others to join the field and become integral part of the system.","manuscriptTitle":"Enhanced Blockchain based Agricultural Traceability System for Food Crops Products","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-11-14 15:01:26","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-998152/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2022-11-08T15:31:10+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2021-10-21T05:57:17+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Wireless Personal Communications","date":"2021-10-20T02:53:34+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"wireless-personal-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"wire","sideBox":"Learn more about [Wireless Personal Communications](https://www.springer.com/journal/11277)","snPcode":"11277","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11277/3","title":"Wireless Personal Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d772c5a7-dd39-4d83-ad59-a311b5ea95d1","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 14th, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2022-11-14T15:01:26+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2022-11-14 15:01:26","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-998152","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-998152","identity":"rs-998152","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"_2-kVJe1T_tPrBINL-cwx","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}