Food and Agriculture

The agriculture sector is the mainstay of India’s economy. In the past decade, India made remarkable progress in exports of niche items like capsicum chilly, castor oil, tobacco extracts and sweet biscuits, apart from basmati rice, meat and marine products. With around fifteen agro-climatic zones and different cultivation practices, India will benefit from advances in modern approach farming. In fact, blockchain technologies enhance transparency and traceability that can be leveraged to create more efficient supply chains. Aggregating and organising the supply chain will further promote better standardised agri-market practices. Therefore, the collection of agro intelligence data through the modern practises, help to enhance micro-financing, credit facilities for farmers, and creating faster access to traceability solutions. 

Digital technologies can make supply chains functional and resilient. New technologies can, therefore facilitate the supply-demand interface. India’s agri-food systems support half its workforce and associated small, medium and large industries. These enterprises are connected to other sectors that use raw material from agriculture and inputs to it. Therefore, upgrading agricultural operations is very much essential. All along the supply chain, agri traditional practises innovations are increasingly important. Thus, there is a need to understand the respective role of government and private sector in strengthening agriculture and facilitating the adoption of more neo practices at the farm and agro-food firm level. 

ETgarage is focused on integrating its platform to the industry in order to streamline the process and maximising productivity. The use of automation, artificial intelligence, and robotic involves the conversion of farm data into actionable insights. This would enable mass data communication in real-time among various stakeholders.  This will ensure about the food safety, biosecurity and traceability by benefitting all stakeholders in the supply chain.

Seed traceability is aimed to help farmers during their purchase of seeds, helping them identify the seed’s origin, such as from where the seed has arrived or produced. There are around 135 seed testing labs and 25 seed certification authorities in India. India has always faced problems with low-quality seeds which causes loss to farmers and ultimately the economy. Many incidents have taken place in the past.  This has caused extensive damage to crops and have destroyed the livelihood of many farmers. The seed is the basic input of any agricultural process and plays a significant role in attaining higher crop yields and sustained growth. The distribution of quality seeds is as critical as their production. The vast majority of Indian farmers do not have access to high-quality seeds, due to their exorbitant prices. Another challenge is the availability of spurious seeds. Around 60 to 65% of seeds used in the country are unlabelled. In India, around 35% of seeds in use are from the cultivated crops, saved by the farmer. Only 45% go through the ICAR system, with certifies the products. The balance comes from private companies and doesn’t go through an authorised certification process. 

Blockchain technology is both for the consumers and the farmers. Farmers get to track their produce along the supply chain, including details such as where the product is sold and at what price. The certification, QR coding tagging during packaging and warehousing would help the farmers in determining the authenticity of the produce. Traceability thus helps in building trust and confidence amongst all these players within the supply chain, which includes the customers, agricultural companies, wholesalers and the farmers. 

Food Traceability is the ability of a business to track the movement of various food products (raw materials, food components, finished food products) throughout the entire supply chain stage, from manufacturing to processing and on to market distribution. The necessity of food traceability ensures Food Safety; Real-time location of the food product; Corrective Action(recalls); Compliance and Regulatory frameworks. Food production traceability has emerged as an important link in global food trade and in making agriculture more environment-friendly. According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global food traceability market is expected to garner $22.27 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 9.3% from 2018 to 2025. This is due to rise in demand for traceable solutions across various industries and mandatory usage of barcodes, QR codes, data matrix codes, and dot codes for packaging in food & beverages, personal care, pharmaceutical, and other industries.

Along with empowering consumers, food traceability is also enhancing the value of a brand. The consumers look up to such brands with trust and consider their products authentic. Food traceability is imperative; the growing need of every country, company and consumer. 

ETgarage, with its collaborative blockchain technology, GIS, enable consumers with transparency of understanding the route of food from farm to fork, constituting up of the entire value chain. This creates the trust and reliability of the consumers, helping in the strengthening of the brand.