IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - October 2022 - 37

B
lockchain technology swiftly rose to prominence
in a wide range of applications within
the smart agriculture field. The necessity to
construct smart peer-to-peer systems capable
of validating, securing, monitoring, and analyzing
agricultural data has prompted discussions regarding
the development of blockchain-based Internet of Things
(IoT) systems in smart agriculture. Blockchain technology
plays a critical role in the transformation of traditional
means of storing, sorting, and exchanging agricultural data
into a more trustworthy, immutable, transparent, and
decentralized method of sharing data. Smart farming will
benefit from the integration of the IoT and the blockchain,
which will take us from having merely smart farms to having
an Internet of smart farms as well as provide better
control over supply chain networks in general. As a consequence
of this combination, smart agriculture will be managed
more autonomously and intelligently, resulting in
greater efficiency and optimization of operations.
This study presents a detailed assessment on the
relevance of combining both blockchain and the IoT in
the development of smart applications in smart agriculture.
The research is divided into three sections. In
the first section, we provide a systematic
survey and bibliometric analysis related to
blockchain in agriculture. Then we provide
challenges faced by Indian farmers and provide
research objectives with research questions.
Finally, the article develops a unique
blockchain model that has the potential to
be employed as a significant solution to critical
difficulties in IoT-based smart agricultural
systems. The research also evaluated
and thoroughly addressed the major roles
and strengths of the common blockchain
platforms used in managing different subsectors
in smart agriculture, such as crops,
livestock grazing, and the food supply chain,
among others.
Blockchain Applications
in Agriculture
Blockchain technology has become a most
popular technology within the last decade as
many companies and institutions have shown
interest in its fruitful characteristics and features.
Blockchain technology gained more
attention after the publication of a white
paper titled " Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Cash System, "
authored by a person pseudonymously
named " Satoshi Nakamoto " in 2008 [1]. In this
paper, the author explained the trustworthy
implementation of cryptocurrency (Bitcoin)
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSMC.2022.3197914
Date of current version: 20 October 2022
using blockchain technology. After the popularity of Bitcoin,
several digital cryptocoins have been developed for
trading. Due to the immutable property of blockchain
technology, various different areas are going to be discovered
day by day to find out the solution against the
challenges of that field. Some of the discovered fields
where blockchain technology has been implemented are
in financial services, industrial products, telecommunication
and manufacturing, energy and utilities, health
care, government, and entertainment and media, among
others. In the recent past, blockchain technology has also
found application in the agriculture sector.
When the word " agriculture " comes to mind, we are
forced to think about the thousands of farmers who feed
millions of people with the hard work that they do under
the worst climatic conditions. Simultaneously, a thought
also comes about the people who consume these products
as well as the nutritional value of agro products. Before
reaching the customers, these products are processed with
various types of chemicals. Because the agro products are
processed multiple times, the nutritional value of the products
becomes degraded to a high percentage, and the products
also contain synthetic chemicals used in agriculture in
the form of pesticides or fertilizers [2]. For these reasons,
the need for transparency and traceability is raised. It
requires building an efficient and effective architecture to
provide transparency and traceability for the development
of the agriculture field in many ways. In this way, the quality
of food may be maintained, and the scandals and fraud
related to this sector also could be lessened.
In recent times, blockchain technology is the latest
method to be combined with the IoT to resolve the challenges
of the field of agriculture in an effective and efficient
manner. Blockchain technology is significant in a
number of areas, for example, in smart farming, monitoring
and tracking of supply chain management, weather
observation, soil analysis, finance management, and so on.
Technologies in Agriculture
With the help of technologies like big data, the IoT, radiofrequency
identification (RFID), and so on, many researchers
have done a lot of work to achieve the transparency
and traceability of goods and services. For traceability,
precise data and a protected storage platform are required
[3]. Sensor technology and the IoT provide secured and
fast methods for the collection of data. These methods
also are used for component scanning, item identification,
storage, and shipment as well as for the intelligence gathered
throughout the complete process [4].
The main purpose of transparency and traceability in a
food supply chain-management system is to avoid fraud and
scandals regarding farm products in terms of food quality,
food distribution, and so on. To avoid losses, regular systems
are now becoming automated systems through RFID,
the IoT, and cloud computing. Sensor tags are considered to
be the main element of any tracking system. These sensor
October 2022 IEEE SYSTEMS, MAN, & CYBERNETICS MAGAZINE 37
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IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - October 2022

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