Traceability and certification of seed potato by blockchain technology

The use of blockchain technology for the seed supply chain will bring a real change to seed management. It provides the ability to track the purity of the seed. The unique digital identity created for every batch of seeds provides a complete history of the seed supply chain providing transparency and visibility to the buyer. Potato is designated as “ Future Food” for food and nutritional security to the developing world by FAO in 2008 In Indian Agri-scenario potato’s is the fourth most important food crop after Rice, wheat, and maize. Potato, a vegetatively propagated crop, and its yield is affected by several factors. Among them, quality seed is one of the most important factors. Input cost for seed purchase goes upto 40 to 50 percent of the total input cost of the crop. The average yield increase from 30 to 50 percent by the use of good quality seed as compared to farmers’ seeds was reported by FAO in a document on potato in the Asia Pacific (https://www.fao.org/3/i0200e/I0200E05.htm). Punjab has earned the status of “Seed Bowl of Potato” which meets 90% of the total disease-free potato requirement of the country (Status report Department of Horticulture, Punjab). It stands 6th in total potato production of 2.87 million tonnes, recording productivity (28.70 t/ha) from an area of 1.06 lakh ha in 2019-20 (Horticulture Statistics Division, Department of Agri. & Cooperation). The government of Punjab (Department of Agri &farmers welfare) in the Year 2019 initiated the certification and traceability of seed potato to ensure optimum transparency. This task was entrusted to Punjab Agri Export Corporation (PAGREXCO) along with a Bangalore based company- Cropin Technology Solutions as the technology partner. Blockchain technology will be used to undertake certification and traceability of seed potato right from nucleus to seed level (harvest). In the crop season, 2019-20 a group of 23 farmers/seed producing agencies come under the umbrella with 1809.80 acres of seed potato of different varieties registered for certification. In the years 2020-21, the area under different stages of certification stands at 1499.63 acres.