International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Jaydip Dilip Barse, Professor Bangar Abhishek P., Professor Bhosale Sachin B., Professor Karad V.A.
Abstract: Agricultural produce passes through the farmer, processor, distributor, retailer and consumer before it is eaten, and fragmented, manual or centrally held records make it difficult to verify the origin, quality and movement of a product. Blockchain, a distributed ledger that keeps time-stamped, tamper-resistant records, has therefore been widely proposed to improve transparency and traceability in agri-food supply chains. This paper presents a focused narrative review of verified peer-reviewed studies on blockchain-based traceability of agricultural produce. It examines four connected themes: blockchain and distributed ledger foundations; smart contracts for automated, batch-level recording of supply-chain events; consumer-facing verification through QR codes; and integration with Internet of Things (IoT) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensing for data capture. The literature shows that blockchain, smart contracts and IoT can be combined into working farm-to-consumer prototypes, and that review articles consistently point to benefits for traceability, trust and food safety. However, most studies are prototypes or conceptual frameworks, and the reviewed work offers limited evidence on large-scale deployment, scalability, cost, farmer adoption, regulatory fit and, above all, the trustworthiness of data entered at the source, since a ledger can preserve but not verify what is written to it. The review contributes a comparative analysis of representative studies, a proposed conceptual architecture linking batch-level ledger records, smart contracts, QR-code access and IoT sensing, and a prioritised agenda of research gaps and future directions.
