Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications
Increasingly, blockchain technology is attracting significant attentions in various agricultural applications. These applications could satisfy the diverse needs in the ecosystem of agricultural products, e.g., increasing transparency of food safety and IoT based food quality control, provenance tra...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2020-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9159588/ |
| _version_ | 1818616865035911168 |
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| author | Weijun Lin Xinghong Huang Hui Fang Victoria Wang Yining Hua Jingjie Wang Haining Yin Dewei Yi Laihung Yau |
| author_facet | Weijun Lin Xinghong Huang Hui Fang Victoria Wang Yining Hua Jingjie Wang Haining Yin Dewei Yi Laihung Yau |
| author_sort | Weijun Lin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Increasingly, blockchain technology is attracting significant attentions in various agricultural applications. These applications could satisfy the diverse needs in the ecosystem of agricultural products, e.g., increasing transparency of food safety and IoT based food quality control, provenance traceability, improvement of contract exchanges, and transactions efficiency. As multiple untrusted parties, including small-scale farmers, food processors, logistic companies, distributors and retailers, are involved into the complex farm-to-fork pipeline, it becomes vital to achieve optimal trade-off between efficiency and integrity of the agricultural management systems as required in contexts. In this paper, we provide a survey to study both techniques and applications of blockchain technology used in the agricultural sector. First, the technical elements, including data structure, cryptographic methods, and consensus mechanisms are explained in detail. Secondly, the existing agricultural blockchain applications are categorized and reviewed to demonstrate the use of the blockchain techniques. In addition, the popular platforms and smart contract are provided to show how practitioners use them to develop these agricultural applications. Thirdly, we identify the key challenges in many prospective agricultural systems, and discuss the efforts and potential solutions to tackle these problems. Further, we conduct an improved food supply chain in the post COVID-19 pandemic economy as an illustration to demonstrate an effective use of blockchain technology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T16:56:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dbd1266e97634817bf07e54d7f1bcb38 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T16:56:35Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-dbd1266e97634817bf07e54d7f1bcb382022-12-21T22:23:52ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-01814392014393710.1109/ACCESS.2020.30145229159588Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to ApplicationsWeijun Lin0Xinghong Huang1Hui Fang2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9365-7420Victoria Wang3Yining Hua4Jingjie Wang5Haining Yin6Dewei Yi7Laihung Yau8Institute of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Guangzhou, ChinaInstitute of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Guangzhou, ChinaComputer Science Department, Loughborough University, Loughborough, U.KInstitute for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, U.KComputer Science Department, Loughborough University, Loughborough, U.KInstitute of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Guangzhou, ChinaSAP China, Shanghai, ChinaDepartment of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.KAsia Pacific Applied Nano Technology Research Centre, Hong KongIncreasingly, blockchain technology is attracting significant attentions in various agricultural applications. These applications could satisfy the diverse needs in the ecosystem of agricultural products, e.g., increasing transparency of food safety and IoT based food quality control, provenance traceability, improvement of contract exchanges, and transactions efficiency. As multiple untrusted parties, including small-scale farmers, food processors, logistic companies, distributors and retailers, are involved into the complex farm-to-fork pipeline, it becomes vital to achieve optimal trade-off between efficiency and integrity of the agricultural management systems as required in contexts. In this paper, we provide a survey to study both techniques and applications of blockchain technology used in the agricultural sector. First, the technical elements, including data structure, cryptographic methods, and consensus mechanisms are explained in detail. Secondly, the existing agricultural blockchain applications are categorized and reviewed to demonstrate the use of the blockchain techniques. In addition, the popular platforms and smart contract are provided to show how practitioners use them to develop these agricultural applications. Thirdly, we identify the key challenges in many prospective agricultural systems, and discuss the efforts and potential solutions to tackle these problems. Further, we conduct an improved food supply chain in the post COVID-19 pandemic economy as an illustration to demonstrate an effective use of blockchain technology.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9159588/Blockchain technologyagricultural applicationsfood supply chains managementdata integritytraceability |
| spellingShingle | Weijun Lin Xinghong Huang Hui Fang Victoria Wang Yining Hua Jingjie Wang Haining Yin Dewei Yi Laihung Yau Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications IEEE Access Blockchain technology agricultural applications food supply chains management data integrity traceability |
| title | Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications |
| title_full | Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications |
| title_fullStr | Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications |
| title_short | Blockchain Technology in Current Agricultural Systems: From Techniques to Applications |
| title_sort | blockchain technology in current agricultural systems from techniques to applications |
| topic | Blockchain technology agricultural applications food supply chains management data integrity traceability |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9159588/ |
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