A Blockchain Technology Solution to Enhance Operational Efficiency of Rice Supply Chain for Food Corporation of India

Abstract

Rice and wheat are the staple food grains among the major commodities that are procured and securely stored by Food Corporation of India (FCI), which is the responsible body to implement the decisions made by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (MCAFPD). The Government of India (GOI), alongside other state offices, attempts procurement of wheat and rice under price support scheme. Food grains are procured from farmers from mandis, and then they are moved to various FCI depots through rail or road and finally distributed to state agencies for public distribution. FCI has been able to make sure the availability of sufficient foodgrains in depots of all states by proper planning and efficient supply chain operations. For effective SCM, FCI has implemented IIFSM (Integrated information system for food grain management) and FAP (Financial accounting package) to make the increasing demand of the population and food security. We have studied the existing FCI’s supply chain management for rice, and the extensive literature review was also done to understand the supply chain management in the food sector. To escalate and track the productivity of paddy and increase the security and efficiency of rice supply chain operations of FCI, we have proposed a Blockchain technology model of RSCM (Rice Supply Chain Management) in this paper.