Express News Service
HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has decided to use blockchain technology to arrest the unhealthy trend of spurious seeds entering markets and landing farmers in losses. The IT Department, in coordination with the Agriculture Department and Professor Jayshankar Technical State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), is introducing this technology for the Telangana State Seed Supplies Corporation. Through this, the government will monitor the supply and quality of seeds in the State.
Not just in Telangana, but in the country too, maintaining seed purity is proving to be a challenge. “Well-tagged seed bags are tampered with and adulterated with low quality seeds, which causes heavy losses to farmers,” said a document. Here’s where the blockchain-based supply chain with QR codes can make things better for farmers. In this system, information is decentralised and stored at every supply point, where the customer (in this case the farmer) can digitally trace the origins of the seed. Tampering will be hard through blockchain as the information will be available at various points and any discrepancy can be traced to its source.
According to the IT Department’s proposal, the information from the inspection of a seed farm will have to be stored in an immutable blockchain ledger. Field inspections will have to be carried out at the pre-pollination, pollination, fruit development and pre-harvesting stages. The information, again, has to be stored in a blockchain format. Following this, the details of the post-harvest inspection and laboratory tests also have to be stored in blockchain.
Finally, when it comes to certification, the IT Department has proposed: “On certification of the seed, a QR code has to be generated that can be pasted on certified seed through which all the production parameters can be easily traced. The certificates have to be stored in a secure file system using blockchain ensuring tamper-proof certificates. All details about the issuer, time stamp, inspection details of all stages and certificate is maintained for any future reference.”
The same platform with QR codes will also track the purity of seeds to the customer, and its movement from the seed processing plant of private companies to its distributors and retailers. The State government has invited startups to pitch their proposal with solutions in this technology.
Tampering gets tougher
Info is decentralised and stored at every supply point, where the farmer can digitally trace the origins of the seed. Tampering will be hard through blockchain
Stages of the blockchain solution for seed supply
Verification of seed source
- Location survey
- Field inspection
- Supervision at post harvest
- Analysis of seed samples
- Certification, labelling and sealing