Page 34 - Banking Finance November 2020

ARTICLE

BLOCKCHAIN

TECHNOLOGY FOR

AGRICULTURE:

APPLICATIONS

AND RATIONALE

Introduction sets of recordings, or 'blocks', are added to it. Each block
contains a timestamp and a link to the previous block, so
The use of data and information becomes increasingly crucial
for the agriculture sector to improve productivity and they actually form a chain. The database is not managed
sustainability. Information and Communication Technology by any particular body; instead, everyone in the network
(ICT) substantially increases the effectiveness and efficiency gets a copy of the whole database.
of collecting, storing, analyzing and using data in agriculture.
Old blocks are preserved forever and new blocks are added
It allows agricultural practitioners and farming communities
to the ledger irreversibly, making it impossible to manipulate
to easily obtain up-to-date information and thus make by faking documents, transactions and other information.
better decisions in their daily farming.
All blocks are encrypted in a special way, so everyone can
have access to all the information but only a user who owns
Definition a special cryptographic key is able to add a new record to a
Blockchain is a distributed database existing on multiple particular chain.
computers at the same time. It is constantly growing as new
Blockchain is a digitized, decentralized ledger of all
transactions. The transactions are replicated across multiple
About the author computers and linked to each other to make any tempering
with records virtually impossible. This immutable way of
Alekh Kumar Sahoo managing records eliminate the need for any central entity
Chief Manager (Faculty) managing the transactions. Blockchain should not be
MBA (Finance), CAIIB confused with the bitcoins. Blockchain is the platform while
Staff Training Centre bitcoin is just one of the many applications that uses
Bhubaneswar
Blockchain platform just the way internet is to email.

34 | 2020 | NOVEMBER | BANKING FINANCE