Page 36 - Banking Finance November 2020

ARTICLE

and requires a lot of effort to send this data to other
service providers.

Blockchain technology would allow farmers to store all
of their data in one place so that it can easily be
accessed by those who need it, simplifying the entire
process and saving valuable time and energy. For
instance, they'd be able to keep track of things such as:
Y Their business goals and how they plan to reach
these goals.
Y The number of animals, health issues with animals,
what they eat, and how often they should be fed.
the sensors to provide useful insights. Predictive models
Y How many different crop varieties are there, when
can drive several high-value use-cases including: Crop they were planted, and how they are performing?
Identification, Crop Quality Recommendations, Crop
Yield Prediction, Grow Score (Automated crop growth Y Their employee schedule, how much each
factor), Crop Demand Prediction. Blockchain combined employee needs to be paid, and how many hours
with IoT can facilitate farmers and other stakeholders each employee has worked.
in taking optimum decisions. Y Income and expenses.

(b) Agricultural Insurance Keeping track of everything on a single application
Weather extremes threaten agricultural production, instead of having a variety of different methods clarifies
putting food security at risk. Both, crop and livestock the process and diminishes the chance of valuable
production are affected, and climate change is expected information getting lost.
to further exacerbate weather extremes in the future.
(d) Food supply chain
In case of the damage during a weather crisis, farmers Blockchain acts as a record keeper for multiple
can quickly apply for the crop insurance claim amount industries; it can keep track of everything so increases
through the blockchain. The transparent and transparency in the food supply chain. The blockchain
immutable behavior of the blockchain will enable technology enables the traceability of information in the
insurance companies and other authorized parties to food supply chain and thus helps improve food safety. It
access the data captured by the smart weather station provides a secure way of storing and managing data,
easily. They can directly query the blockchain to fetch which facilitates the development and use of data-driven
the required information with the help of smart innovations for smart farming and smart index-based
contracts. After the insurance claim request is approved, agriculture insurance. In addition, it can reduce
farmers will automatically get the requested amount transaction costs, which will benefit farmers' access to
in their respective wallets. Therefore, a blockchain- markets and generating new revenue streams. It brings
enabled solution can help farmers get the compensation trust and transparency in the food supply chain
seamlessly and quickly. Here, farmers pay an insurance ecosystem, ensuring food safety for everyone.
premium before the cropping cycle begins and receive
an insurance payout whenever they experience a loss (e) Transactions of agricultural products
on their farm. Blockchain technology may provide proper solutions for
many aspects of problems faced by traders and
(c) Increased Efficiency for Farmers consumers. It can link the data of all aspects of planting
Most farmers use a combination of multiple apps and harvesting of agricultural products safely and
developed by software Development Company, unchangeably by maintaining information security. It
spreadsheets, and notes to record their data and could enable supply chain management more efficiently
manage their processes. However, this is complicated than traditional monitoring mechanisms. Every link in

36 | 2020 | NOVEMBER | BANKING FINANCE