In a significant development that will revolutionize agriculture in the country, the Directorate of Agriculture, Jharkhand, and global blockchain technology company, SettleMint, India jointly announced the successful launch of blockchain-based seed distribution to farmers.
SettleMint has made significant progress and made rapid strides towards the enablement of blockchain adaptation in India in its two years of operations. The successful rollout of blockchain-based seed distribution to farmers in Jharkhand attests to this.
"Jharkhand is the first state in the country to use blockchain to track seed distribution." The blockchain platform tracks seed supply distribution from the Directorate of Agriculture issuing supply orders, District Agriculture Officer placing seed demand, tracking seed distribution from impanelled government seed producing agency to distributors, retailers, LAMPS/PACS, FPOs, and finally to farmers. The move to implement blockchain is intended to increase the transparency and authenticity of seeds received by farmers through the seed exchange scheme and other schemes.
It is planned to use blockchain technology to track the distribution of seeds, inputs, and implements under all of the schemes run by the Directorate of Agriculture, such as the State Seed Distribution Scheme, NFSM, PMKSY, and NHM. As it enables traceability, real-time monitoring, and efficient scheme management, this will play a critical role in the transparent execution of schemes while eliminating middlemen.
"It is the highest priority of this government to make quality seeds available to farmers at the right time, as well as to filter middlemen, identify beneficiaries, and create a farmers' database," stated Nesha Oraon, Director of Agriculture in Jharkhand.
"We are delighted to partner with Jharkhand as it becomes the first state in the country to distribute seeds through blockchain technology," said Shahzad Fatmi, CEO of SettleMint India. In the agricultural sector, blockchain is proving to be a game changer. It is transforming agricultural supply chains by making them more transparent and traceable."
Oraon elaborated on the advantages of using blockchain for seed distribution, saying, "This will enable timely availability of seeds to distributors, retailers, and, most importantly, farmers. Each farmer's Aadhar card number and mobile number are first entered into the blockchain system. After entering the OTP in the registered mobile number of the concerned farmer, seed distribution is logged into the system. The goal of implementing blockchain is to enable the transparent distribution of seed and other schemes.”
The platform provides real-time information to monitor activities such as LAMPS/PACS/FPO-wise seed distribution to farmers in different districts, quantity/variety of seed purchased by farmers, number of times seed is purchased by a farmer, and so on. The state intends to use blockchain to build a robust farmers' database that can be used to improve the delivery of various agriculture and horticulture schemes and enable micro monitoring of every district in the state. Along with this, it is planned to enable e KYC for authentication of farmers' Aadhar numbers," she added.
Jharkhand has become the first state in the country to deploy a production-grade blockchain-based seed distribution programme by implementing the blockchain solution. The state is committed to bringing all stakeholders on board, including suppliers, distributors, and farmers, and to investing in their training and technology adoption.
Every year, the Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Co-operative distribute 300+ seed varieties of 30+ crops to farmers at a subsidized rate during both the Kharif and Rabi seasons.
During the current Kharif season, the department used blockchain technology to completely cover the seed distribution of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, and coarse cereals. More than 3 lakh farmers, 600 LAMPS/PACS/Private distributors, and 160 FPOs have registered on the platform as of today.
Around 30k quintals of seeds have been distributed: due to the current drought-like situation, total seed distribution for this kharif season is estimated to be between 35k and 40k quintals. As blockchain adoption grows, the entire seed distribution process will be free of pilferage, allowing farmers to confirm the variety and quantity received via their app.
