Exploring Blockchain in Food and Agricultural Supply Chains

Abstract

The food and agricultural supply chains (F&ASCs) are made up of the operations and stakeholders involved in food production, processing, storage, trading, distribution, and consumption. It is argued that F&ASCs have various challenges that have a negative impact on supply chain bottom lines. It is also argued that blockchain technology (BcT), one of the disruptive technologies, is a remedy that enables open information sharing on a business network in F&ASCs to address those challenges. BcT helps to ensure real-time business transactions, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of supply chain networks. This chapter aims to provide a general discussion on how BcT can be used in the context of F&ASCs by drawing attention to the issues addressed by the most recent studies in the literature. To this end, the challenges to the traditional F&ASCs and how BcT responds to these challenges are discussed first. Then, the methods used in these studies are also clustered. Finally, future research opportunities are provided. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Irem Onder and Fulya Acikgoz; individual chapters, the contributors.