
March to May is that time of the year when Indian households purchase grains, pulses and spices in bulk and store them to last through the year. Amongst many choice criteria, the most prominent one affecting final decision is the variety of produce. For instance, in my part of the country a specific variety of wheat is considered the best – Sharbati wheat from Sehore, Madhya Pradesh. So, when I am purchasing wheat, I have only two sources to tell me that the bag of wheat is indeed Sharbati wheat: the vendor and the packaging. For, on opening the bag, all I see is wheat grain, and if you tell me it’s from Punjab or Kazakhstan, I would believe you. So you see, my dilemma as a consumer is intense, and how I just wish the wheat grains would tell me their true source of origin.
Let me try and give wings to my wishes!!
Most of the agriculture is unorganized and fragmented, leading to heavy dependency on intermediaries, and exploitation of farmers. With the Vocal for Local clarion call issued during the pandemic, there will be an increased focus on self-reliance. And there is already a push towards disintermediation in agriculture.
The solution lies in deploying Hyperledger Fabric to create a seamlessly integrated modular architecture connecting the consumer to the farmer. What we need is a company with farm to fork supply chain capabilities. With regionally located warehouses serving as sourcing and servicing nodes, farmers can register themselves with the procurer who in turn validates the farmer’s credentials and authorizes the use of his app on the farmer’s cell phone, in vernacular language. Every lot which the farmer sells is tagged with a unique id created by the farmer, and tagged to the pack. Further identifiers are applied and validated at the regional sourcing centers, and the major distribution centers from where the bags of wheat are then either delivered directly to the consumer, or travel through the wholesaler – dealer route. At each node, the proprietary application being accessed by third parties adds a record to the ever-growing ledger, albeit all private transactions. Ultimately, the consumer can scan the identification code and know the name of the farmer and his village from where his wheat originated. And once the chapattis come out fine, he can even send a gift or tip directly to the farmer’s account, which would greatly increase the income at the supplier’s end.
The farmer benefits from better supply chain and higher remuneration, the company enhances its credibility by being totally transparent about its merchandise, and I can finally say that the wheat grains told me they are from Sehore, Madhya Pradesh.
Be it agriculture or academics, banking or B2B trades, we have the capabilities to make perfect use of blockchain and Hyperleder technologies to deliver scale, efficiency, pace and transparency. We at i-Pangram believe in employing technology capabilities to empower producers, marketers and consumers; and invite organizations to collaborate with us for a better tomorrow.
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