Blockchain technology to be used in traceability of organic rice

[webfact]

Blockchain technology to be used in traceability of organic rice

By The Nation

 

The Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO)'s director-general. Pimchanok Vonkorpon

 

The Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) has announced that it will use blockchain technology for production-to-export traceability of agricultural products, starting with organic rice, so as to build confidence among buyers.

 

The TPSO’s director-general Pimchanok Vonkorpon said the project will start as soon as the Office receives the operating budget for fiscal 2020 and TPSO will also accelerate discussions with blockchain experts, related authorities, and financial institutions to speed up the development of blockchain system.

 

“We already talked with farmers and some 5,000 growers from Surin province will participate in this project,” she said. “We expect that the project will start in the middle of the next year, and if successful, we will extend it to other agricultural products.”

 

The blockchain system will be able to trace the process from cultivation, which involves a camera being installed in the rice fields to check where it was grown and whether it is really organic rice, while the production or packaging process can verify where it was produced.

 

The certification process checks the department that serves as the inspector and issues the certificate, while the financial institutions who act as the payment intermediary after the rice is sold provide the information on the buyer and the country of export.

 

“This system will help instill confidence in Thai organic rice, reducing problems of buyer’s rejection, product adulteration, and licence subrogation in order to increase the bargaining power and add more value to the product, as well as creating opportunities for expanding export markets,” said Pimchanok.

 

“The buyers can check the source of organic rice. If they have a problem such as finding that it is not organic rice, they will be able to reject it.”

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378722

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-11-25

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[DrTuner]

Blockchain is useless unless it's verified by independent parties, such as the miners in the bitcoin chain. Otherwise it's just another easily falsified ledger. Too much hype over a basic piece of software.

[Cadbury]

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

The blockchain system will be able to trace the process from cultivation

Will blockchain trace the under the table purchase of official organic certification?  

[Scot123]

Don't you need people in other countries buying your rice first before you can go on about tracing it? 

[stereolab]

Solving a problem that does not exist. How exactly will a camera in a field assist?

[Pravda]

Can this block-chain technology also be used to trace watches and submarines?

[yellowboat]

17 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Blockchain is useless unless it's verified by independent parties, such as the miners in the bitcoin chain. Otherwise it's just another easily falsified ledger. Too much hype over a basic piece of software.

Yes, what they are describing is something a run of the mill open source database can do.  Credit card and banks use databases.  Why does this project need block chain?

 

17 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Will blockchain trace the under the table purchase of official organic certification?  

If they link it to Bitcoin or facebookcoin, it could facilitate that. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by yellowboat

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

The certification process checks the department that serves as the inspector and issues the certificate, while the financial institutions who act as the payment intermediary after the rice is sold provide the information on the buyer and the country of export.

Lol... I can just imagine where this is going to lead!

 

[rwill]

Let us use a complicated solution to a simple problem to make it seem like we are technologically advanced.

[Reigntax]

16 minutes ago, rwill said:

Let us use a complicated solution to a simple problem to make it seem like we are technologically advanced.

But we all know nothing will happen. They all just talk <deleted> to make themselves look important.

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, rwill said:

Let us use a complicated solution to a simple problem to make it seem like we are technologically advanced.

Ah, a perfect description. I shall steal your piece of wisdom and use it every time somebody foams at the mouth about blockchains.

[kwonitoy]

Blockchain for rice

AI to solve traffic problems

Bio scanners at the airport

The hub of hi-tech is right here, right now.

 I can't keep up with all the innovation here.

I'm so glad I'm leaving next spring, to backwards old Canada.

 

[Redline]

A camera doesn’t make it organic-will they scroll through all the footage ???? Thailand must be the laziest place on earth.  Test all the batches-the cameras will be night vision?  Sad

[Redline]

26 minutes ago, kwonitoy said:

Blockchain for rice

AI to solve traffic problems

Bio scanners at the airport

The hub of hi-tech is right here, right now.

 I can't keep up with all the innovation here.

I'm so glad I'm leaving next spring, to backwards old Canada.

 

I’ll be heading out in the next few years ????

[davehowden]

 

That's sorted then, next problem !

[DLock]

"Bitrice" is one of the dumbest ideas ever.

 

I don't even understand how such a stupid idea can get to Press. It makes zero sense, technology overkill and jus't wont work...and I suspect will never happen.

 

Pimchanok is far beyond her level of competence.

 

 

[Srikcir]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

“This system will help instill confidence in Thai organic rice,

It will not simply because the certification is yet to become law under the proposed Rice Bill. 

Farmers have objected to the bill because they essentially 'want to do their own thing' regarding seed variations. Whereas the government under the proposed seed certification program would only allow farmers to grow rice from certified seeds. 

While field cameras might spot physical dispersion of chemical pesticides (which farmers are lobbying a six-month delay in pesticide ban), it cannot identify a seed's DNA. Nor can a camera identify the quality of water used in rice crops.

[donnacha]

I agree that the use of the term "blockchain" is mainly a PR move but, actually, product traceability is a pretty good use for some sort of public ledger.

If the aim is to make it possible to reliably trace each bag back to a specific farm and set of inspection personnel, the use of a publicly accessible UID makes it much harder to slip other rice into the system, and much easier to determine fault when quality issues arise. That strikes me as entirely worthwhile.

So, what they are probably talking about here is something relatively simple, not actually using blockchain tech at all, and I could see this becoming a standard for almost all Thai products, both agricultural and manufactured. It would appear to be high tech, but would mainly be needed because Thai culture so often lacks an innate sense of responsibility or integrity.

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by donnacha

[donnacha]

3 hours ago, DLock said:

Pimchanok is far beyond her level of competence.

Judging by the photo, applying her own make-up may be beyond her level of competence.