Assessment of Role of Innovative Technology through Blockchain Technology in Ghana’s Cocoa Beans Food Supply Chains

Abstract

Innovative technology is known of its crucial role towards cocoa production. Just as other cash crops, cocoa also generates income as well as offers direct or indirect employment to majority of people. Ghana is the second leading producer of cocoa beans in the world and has been earmarked as 2019 world’s fastest growing economy by IMF in its World Economic Outlook. IMF predicts a growth rate of 8.8% for Ghana and 7.5% for Cote D’Ivoire as the second runner up. This research therefore assessed the role of innovative technology in cocoa beans food supply chain.The main objective of this study was to evaluate the contributions made by innovative technology through the application of blockchain technology towards effectiveness of cocoa bean food supply chain. The study also looked into how blockchain technology contributed in addressing common unethical issues in cocoa production. To achieve these objectives, a secondary source of data was analyzed and questionnaire was also administered to various cocoa farmers.Earlier findings from the literature review and other existing academic sources suggested that cocoa bean food supply chain is quite cumbersome and complex. However, it was found that, the application of blockchain technology has increased traceability and transparency in cocoa bean supply chains. The study also revealed that unethical activities in cocoa industry have decreased drastically.The contributions made by the study to the existing body of literature are twofold: (1) it made us understood how innovative technology through blockchain positively affects cocoa production; (2) it also showed how blockchain technology can be incorporated into cocoa bean food supply chains to enhance transparency, traceability and mitigate unethical activities in cocoa production.