During the Kharif season, the department covered seed distribution via blockchain. (representative)
Jharkhand:
In a significant development that would revolutionize agriculture in the country, the Directorate of Agriculture, Jharkhand and global blockchain technology company, SettleMint, India jointly announced the successful launch of seed distribution to farmers based on blockchain technology.
In the two years of operations in India, SettleMint has made significant progress and has taken rapid steps towards enabling blockchain adoption in India. The successful implementation of blockchain-based seed distribution to farmers in Jharkhand is a testimony to that.
“Jharkhand is the first state to implement blockchain in the country which is used to track seed distribution. The blockchain platform tracks seed supply distribution – from issuance of supply orders by the Directorate of Agriculture, placement of seed demand by District Agriculture Officer, tracking of seed distribution from empaneled state seed producing agencies to distributors, dealers , LAMPS/PACS, FPOs, and finally to the farmers. The move to implement blockchain is aimed at bringing transparency and authenticity to seeds that farmers receive under the seed exchange scheme and other schemes.”
It is envisaged to implement blockchain technology to track distribution of seeds, inputs, implements etc. under all the schemes implemented by the Directorate of Agriculture such as State Seed Distribution Scheme, NFSM, PMKSY and NHM.
It will play a decisive role in the transparent implementation of schemes, while eliminating intermediaries, as it enables traceability, real-time monitoring and effective management of the schemes.
“It is the highest priority of this government to make quality seeds available to the farmers at the right time, along with filtering of middlemen, identification of the beneficiaries and creation of farmers’ database.” Jharkhand Agriculture Director Nesha Oraon said.
Commenting on the development, Shahzad Fatmi, CEO of SettleMint India said, “We are excited to partner with Jharkhand as it becomes the first state in the country to distribute seeds through blockchain technology. Blockchain is proving to be a game-changer in the agriculture sector. It revolutionizing agricultural supply chains by making them more transparent and traceable.”
Oraon elaborates on the benefits of using blockchain for seed distribution, “This will enable timely availability of seeds to distributors, dealers and most importantly, the farmers. Each farmer is first registered in the blockchain system along with their Aadhar card number and mobile number. Seed distribution is logged into the system after entering the OTP in the registered mobile number of the concerned farmer The objective of implementing blockchain is to enable the distribution of seeds and other schemes in a transparent manner The platform provides information on a real-time basis to monitor activities such as LAMPS/PACS/FPO- show seed distribution to farmers in different districts, amount/variety of seeds purchased by farmers, number of times seeds are purchased by a farmer, etc. Through the use of blockchain, the state envisions creating a robust farmer database that can be used to improve delivery of various agricultural and horticultural schemes and enable m. icro monitoring of each district in the state.Same n with this it is planned to enable e KYC for authentication of aadhar number of farmers,” she further added.
By implementing the blockchain solution, the state of Jharkhand has become the first state in the country to implement a blockchain-based seed distribution program at production level. The government is committed to include all stakeholders ie suppliers, distributors and farmers to invest in their training and use of technology.
Every year the Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Co-operative distributes 300+ seed varieties of 30+ crops in both Kharif and Rabi seasons to the farmers at a subsidized price.
During the current Kharif season, the department has covered seed distribution of cereals, pulses, oilseeds and mixed grains completely via blockchain technology. Till date more than 3 lakh farmers, 600 LAMPS/PACS/Private distributors and 160 FPOs have been registered on the platform.
Around 30,000 quintals of seeds have been distributed: Due to the current drought-like situation, the total seed distribution is estimated to be around 35,000 to 40,000 quintals for this kharif season. As the use of blockchain multiplies, the entire seed distribution process will be theft-free, allowing farmers to verify the variety and quantity received through their app.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
