The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has awarded four grants to support the use of blockchain in agriculture across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP).
With CTA’s support, Bioversity International, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Erba 96, and Nitidae will implement blockchain projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda.
With blockchain, every transaction within a supply chain can be traced from the moment produce leaves a farm to the point of purchase. The technology can be applied to entire value chains, reducing reliance on intermediaries, improving efficiency, reducing waste and improving food traceability and safety.
“At CTA we are focused on the innovative use of technology for the digitalisation of key value chains. In supporting new use cases we seek to accelerate the transformation of agriculture and believe the use of blockchain may play a valuable role in accomplishing this,” said Ken Lohento, Senior Programme Coordinator ICT4Ag at CTA.
“We are thrilled about this partnership with CTA as it supports our objective of increasing quality and promoting excellence in cocoa farming and the creation of trust, transparency and traceability from farmers to consumers across three countries,” said Brigitte Laliberte of Bioversity International. She is a scientist in cacao genetic resources and coordinator of the Cocoa of Excellence Programme.
Bioversity International’s project will focus on the use blockchain technology for cocoa farming quality; CIAT on deploying spatial risk indicators for supply-chain management; Ebra 96 on vegetable traceability; and Nitidae on cocoa traceability.
The grants were awarded following a call for proposals in September 2018. The implementation of the four projects kicked off following a workshop held at CTA’s headquarters in Wageningen, Netherlands, in May 2019.
For more information or to request an interview, contact Toby Johnson, Team Leader Communications, CTA, +31 (0) 6 10 88 50 80, johnson@cta.int
