Agricultural Supply Chain Research Articles

ABSTRACT Blockchain technology improves transparency and security in agricultural food supply chains (FSC) but faces challenges related to data privacy and emerging computational threats. These issues limit the efficiency and security of permissioned blockchain systems. To address these, a novel cryptographic framework, Permutations Supersonic Ligero Elliptic eXtended Merkle Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, is proposed. In permissioned blockchain-based FSC, metadata exposure and cross-entity data aggregation create privacy risks, allowing adversaries to infer sensitive operational insights by analyzing transaction patterns and correlating data fragments across entities. To mitigate this, the Permutations Supersonic Ligero Fractal (PSLF) is introduced, which ensures transparent, scalable, and compact proof generation, while preserving metadata privacy and preventing adversaries from reconstructing sensitive insights. Also enforces privacy-preserving protocols to limit data exposure across multiple participants and prevent leakage. Additionally, quantum threats, specifically through Shor’s algorithm, threaten the security of cryptographic systems used in FSC. To counter this, the Elliptic eXtended Merkle Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EXMC-DSA) is presented, which combines quantum-resistant key exchange and signature schemes, ensuring robust security against quantum attacks. This hybrid cryptographic approach ensures both current efficiency and future-proof resilience. As a result, the proposed model outperforms the existing methods in terms of low execution time, low proof generation, and verification time.

ABSTRACT To address the core challenges of information asymmetry, privacy leakage, and low storage efficiency in rice supply chains, this study proposes an enhanced traceability system that integrates blockchain, adaptive encryption, and lightweight zero‐knowledge proofs. The system features a dynamic role‐based encryption model, where encryption levels are determined by both data sensitivity and role‐based weights. This model was designed and validated through surveys involving 50 stakeholders. By adopting an on‐chain and off‐chain collaborative storage architecture that leverages Merkle trees and IPFS, the system achieves a 67% reduction in storage overhead. Furthermore, an optimized Groth16‐based ZKP protocol ensures rapid verification in under 180 ms on ARM‐based devices. Experimental results demonstrate that, at a scale of 100,000 records, the system attains a transaction processing capacity of 328 TPS and an information entropy of 3.87, representing a 51% improvement over single‐layer encryption schemes. The monthly deployment cost remains affordable for smallholder farmers, ranging from $2 to $5. The system also supports interoperability with external traceability frameworks through cross‐chain channels and adaptation to the GS1 EPCIS standard, facilitating trusted collaboration in transnational rice supply chains. By effectively balancing data integrity and privacy protection, this solution significantly enhances system scalability and offers a novel pathway for the digital transformation of agricultural supply chains.

Financing and carbon emission decisions in an agriculture supply chain with demand information asymmetry

Green premiums or economic pitfalls? Unraveling the profitability puzzle of credence attributes in agricultural supply chains

Bridging data gaps in organic agriculture: Life cycle assessment of large-scale organic maize and soybeans production in Brazil.

The traditional agricultural supply chain in India often depends on middlemen who drive up consumer prices while giving farmers little profit. This imbalance leads to financial instability, with some cases resulting in farmer suicides. Consumers also suffer, paying more for produce that often loses freshness and quality before it reaches them. To tackle these issues, this paper introduces AgroGo, an Android-based mobile app built with Kotlin and Firebase Fire store. The app creates a direct digital marketplace between farmers and consumers, reducing the need for middlemen. AgroGo allows farmers to upload product details with images, manage their inventory in real time, and set fair prices. It integrates with the Razor pay API to provide secure and flexible digital payment options. For consumers, AgroGo offers access to fresh, seasonal produce through easy search and filtering features, real-time order tracking, and options for delivery or pickup. AgroGo also includes product listing, orders dashboards, smart inventory management, especially for rural communities. By promoting transparency and supporting digital integration, the platform boosts farmer profits, builds consumer trust, and encourages rural digitization. In summary, AgroGo is more than just a transactional platform. It is a socio-technical innovation that helps transform agriculture into a sustainable, transparent, and fair ecosystem. The system empowers farmers to engage in the digital economy while enhancing food security and efficiency in the agricultural supply chain.

Demographic and climatic changes, changes in resource distribution and soil condition of compost, depleting water resources, greater demand for customized products, need for traceability to maintain food safety and hygiene; all warrant the use of sophisticated modern technologies all along the food supply chain (SC). The integration of IoT, AI and such other technologies with blockchain can significantly improve operational efficiency of agriculture, allowing traceability and ensuring safety and quality control. Such integration also helps to realize maximum benefits from application of modern technologies to make entire agri SC more resilient. Successful application of various technologies hinges on efficient data analytics and technology integration and can be achieved using middleware for technology integration and seamless data flow within the SC. Though promising, it presents significant challenges that need to be handled to realize its full potential. This article establishes middleware data platform’s potential in integrating AI, IoT and blockchain technologies and enhancing operational efficiency of agri SC through enhanced transparency, efficiency, and security. Using a systematic AI-driven data analytics platform Middleware provides diagnostic intelligence to the farmers. Realizing middleware’s potential and utilizing it can greatly enhance functionality and performance of ASC, making it an essential tool for both developers and users. However, the technology being nascent, there is significant dearth of data, literature and evidence regarding the user experience and success rate of middleware, hence a significant knowledge gap. This article contributes towards bridging the gap, setting the floor for further research.

Background and Study Areas: Southern Bangladesh faces challenges related to nutritious food production, quality inputs, and technological solutions. Agro-input companies are key players in providing seeds, fertilizers, and services to promote agricultural farming and diverse, nutritious food production. The study examined the role of agro-input companies in enhancing nutritious, diverse food production and consumption for Khulna and Faridpur districts. Methods: This study examines the role of agro-input companies in promoting nutrition-sensitive agriculture, diverse food production, and consumption in southern Bangladesh, focusing on the Faridpur and Khulna districts. A mixed-method approach was applied, combining quantitative household surveys with qualitative assessments, and the findings were triangulated with secondary data to strengthen the results. Results: The study revealed that 89.00% of farmers learned nutrition-sensitive food production methods from agro-input companies, while 52.49% increased their knowledge of diversified production techniques. Additionally, 74.50% of farmers used improved vegetable varieties, 64.00% adopted new technologies, 69.31% used high-yielding seeds, and only 13.21% cultivated stress-tolerant varieties. As a result, 80.71% of households consumed nutritious and diverse foods. At the household level, 43.85% of households consumed all their produce, 26.08% sold surplus, and 29.35% shared excess with the neighbors. Access to agricultural inputs was generally high, with 83.98% of households confirming the availability of quality inputs in both districts. Overall, the findings highlight that agro-input companies play an important role in promoting nutrition-sensitive and diversified food production by supporting the adoption of innovative technologies, increasing household dietary diversity, and reinforcing the agricultural input supply chain, thereby fostering sustainable food systems in southern Bangladesh. Limitation: The study is limited by its focus on only two districts, which may not represent all of southern Bangladesh. Conclusion: Agro-input companies remarkably promote quality seeds, fertilizer, new technologies, farming education, and market linkages to enhance nutritious and diverse food production in southern Bangladesh. The training and embedded services boost farmer adoption, contributing to increased production and dietary diversity, surplus sales, and sustainable agricultural practices.

Application of resource-based view theory in enhancing rice agricultural supply chain sustainability in Northern Ghana

This paper explores what impact of sharing economy logistics platforms on improving the transport of agricultural products in rural Indonesia. It reviews the challenges facing rural agricultural supply chains and examines how shared logistics services (e.g. Lalamove platforms) can reduce costs and inefficiencies. Using Lalamove as a case study and analysis of agricultural logistics data are used to show how sharing economy logistics platforms like Lalamove help farmers transport goods faster and reach markets more easily. Early results show that while such platforms can significantly enhance delivery speed and reduce transportation costs, their overall impact depends on supportive infrastructure, technology adoption, and policy environment. The study also discusses broader implications for rural development, including policy changes, technological infrastructure, and social impacts.

Efficiency and Redistribution in Environmental Policy: An Equilibrium Analysis of Agricultural Supply Chains

Plant diseases have a substantial impact on crop productivity, food security, and biodiversity, with cascading effects on public health, geopolitics, and trade. Disease diagnostics and surveillance efforts geared towards limiting pathogen movement and disease spread enable coordinated response to disease outbreaks and inform biosecurity protocols. However, despite concerted efforts, pathogens routinely escape political boundaries, disrupt agricultural supply chains, and threaten societal stability across the globe. One key bottleneck in global disease assessment and management is the lack of systematically collected and consolidated information on plant diseases that is easily accessible. As a preliminary step to address this issue, an interactive tool named Robigus, available at https://robigus.rc.ufl.edu/, was generated to visualize a catalog of verified plant diseases. This was accompanied by a meta-analysis of plant disease notes (PDNs) published in American Phytopathological Society (APS) journal Plant Disease. Over the 45-year publishing history, a positive association between publication year and the annual PDN publication rate was evident. On average, PDNs published per country changed gradually except for China that showed a 200% increase in the last decade compared to United States. Taxonomic analysis revealed that fungal pathogens accounted for 58.5% of the total PDNs. Analysis of host-pathogen interaction networks revealed patterns of host associations indicative of pathogen host range and specificity. This initial effort to consolidate information from a single source will continue to evolve thorough integration of additional resources, with the aim of establishing a comprehensive repository of reliable dataset capturing host-pathogen relationships that will inform research, surveillance, and policy decisions.

Supply chain provide sustainable path to the agricultural sector around the globe with blockchain auditing. This study aimed to investigate the transparency and sustainbility in agricultural supply chain with the blockchain based auditing. This study is quantitative based on the data of 350 participants was used through online questionnaire. The method of the estimation AMOS was used to determine the associations and model fit as well as statistical significance. In the investigation, the covariance and correlation matrices were analysed, and they revealed the positive association amid transparency, sustainability, and blockchain-based auditing. The analysis outcome showed statistically significant direct effects amongst transparency and sustainability, transparency and blockchain auditing, and sustainability and blockchain auditing. The model fit indices displayed the robustness of the research model that showed a close correspondence with collected data. The study also refers to the possibility of using the blockchain technology as the means of auditing that can help to improve the transparency and facilitate the sustainability of agricultural supply chains. Moreover, this study provides implications for policy makers, investor and the government.

Two‐stage presale strategy under yield uncertainty: fresh product supply chain optimization with risk‐averse suppliers

This study uses provincial panel data from China (2014–2022) to examine the effect of agricultural outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on agricultural imports. Employing panel regression, mediation effect, and spatial Durbin models, it explores the underlying mechanisms, spatial spillover effects, and regional heterogeneity, while emphasizing the role of OFDI in building sustainable agricultural supply chains. The results show that: (1) OFDI significantly promotes agricultural imports, enhancing the stability and diversity of the domestic supply, supporting food security, and facilitating the sustainable allocation of resources. (2) Mechanism analysis reveals that OFDI affects imports through reverse technology spillovers and improved international relations. (3) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that OFDI exerts stronger influence in major grain-marketing areas, production–marketing balance regions, and provinces along the Belt and Road, compared with grain-producing areas and non-Belt and Road provinces. (4) Spatial analysis based on the 0–1 adjacency matrix reveals that agricultural imports across Chinese provinces exhibit significant positive spatial autocorrelation. Furthermore, OFDI not only directly promotes agricultural imports within a given province but also generates notable positive spatial spillover effects, whereby OFDI in neighboring provinces likewise exert a positive influence on the province’s agricultural imports. To enhance the import effect of agricultural OFDI and stabilize the domestic supply of agricultural products, policy implications suggest that the government should adhere to the agricultural “going global” strategy, enhance enterprises’ capacity to absorb reverse technology spillovers, and explore regionally differentiated pathways for agricultural OFDI, among other policy recommendations.

ABSTRACTThe dissipating effects of climate change and the depletion of natural resources have suppressed the productivity of agricultural land in underdeveloped countries. These interconnected pressures have compelled a shift from conventional agrarian practices to more resilient and environmentally conscious systems. Pakistan's agriculture sector stands at a critical juncture, demanding transformational practices to ensure farm business profitability and environmental sustainability. Digital financial inclusion bridges the shortcomings of traditional farming and plays a significant role in stabilizing smart agriculture activities. This study investigates how digital financial inclusion (DFI) shapes sustainable agricultural outcomes through the mediating roles of climate‐smart agriculture (CSA) adoption and supply chain agility (SCA), with human capital (HC) acting as a moderator. Using cross‐sectional survey data collected from agricultural stakeholders in Pakistan, the analysis applies structural equation modeling (SEM‐PLS) to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings demonstrate that DFI significantly enhances CSA adoption and SCA, which in turn improve both profitability and environmental sustainability outcomes. Moreover, HC strengthens the effect of DFI on CSA adoption, highlighting its critical role in maximizing the benefits of digital finance in agriculture. These results contribute to the literature on agricultural transformation by integrating digital finance, human capital, and sustainability perspectives, offering valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to promote resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.

Food security remains one of the most pressing global challenges, particularly in developing economies where agricultural businesses form the backbone of livelihoods and economic growth. Reliable financial systems play a central role in strengthening agricultural supply chains, improving resource allocation, and fostering long-term sustainability. This review explores the intersection of agricultural business, financial auditing, and sustainability as a triangular model for supporting food security. Agricultural business strategies ensure efficient production, distribution, and market access, while financial auditing guarantees transparency, accountability, and efficient use of resources. Sustainability practices, such as environmentally friendly farming methods, ethical supply chain management, and green finance, provide resilience against climate change and resource depletion. By synthesizing literature on governance frameworks, international best practices, and innovative auditing tools, the paper underscores how integrated financial oversight and sustainable agricultural practices can safeguard food systems against shocks. Case studies from both developed and developing nations illustrate the role of financial accountability in mitigating risks, enhancing investor confidence, and promoting equitable growth in the agricultural sector. The study ultimately proposes a triangular framework where agricultural productivity, auditing transparency, and sustainability practices converge to enhance food security, strengthen resilience, and drive inclusive socio-economic development. Keywords: Agricultural Business, Financial Auditing, Sustainability, Food Security, Reliable Financial Systems.

The transition from soft to hard law is reshaping global agri-food governance, particularly in relation to sustainability and corporate responsibility. This article analyzes this shift by examining two regulatory approaches: voluntary instruments such as the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains and binding EU directives like the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Using a qualitative and interpretive methodology, the study combines a literature review and two case studies (Nicoverde and Lavazza) to explore the evolution from soft law to hard law and the synergies and analyze how these tools are applied in the Italian agri-food sector and how they can contribute to improving corporate sustainability performance. Findings show that soft law has paved the way for more rigorous regulation, but the increasing compliance burden poses challenges, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These cases serve as virtuous examples to illustrate how soft and hard law interact in practice, offering concrete insights into the translation of general sustainability principles into corporate strategies. A hybrid governance framework—combining voluntary and binding tools—can foster sustainability if supported by coherent policies, stakeholder collaboration and adequate support mechanisms. The study offers practical insights for both companies and policymakers navigating the evolving legal scenario.

Exploring a proactive control strategy for early assessment of toxigenic potential is of great significance in preventing health risks and economic losses. This study proposes an efficient electrochemiluminescence (ECL) protocol for ultrasensitive detection of the ochratoxin A (OTA) biosynthesis key gene, the halogenase gene (halA), enabling intervention before mass toxin production. An ECL system was developed using a bismuth-based metal-organic framework (Bi-TBAPy MOF) as an emitter. This material integrates low-toxicity, highly biocompatible Bi3+ ions with a 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)pyrene (H4TBAPy) organic ligand exhibiting aggregation-induced emission enhancement characteristics. The rigid coordination network of the MOF effectively suppresses the ligand's aggregation-caused quenching effect, significantly enhancing ECL efficiency (2.4-fold higher luminescence intensity than H4TBAPy aggregates). The proposed biosensor achieved ultrasensitive detection of the halA gene fragment (detection limit: 0.84 fM; linear range: 1 fM to 100 nM), providing early warning of toxigenic fungal activity. This work not only provides a practical approach for developing high-performance ECL emitters but also establishes a key technical foundation for constructing proactive mycotoxin control systems in agricultural supply chains, demonstrating significant implications for safeguarding food safety and reducing economic losses.

Smallholder farmers face high post-harvest losses due to the costly, grid-dependent cold chains with limited monitoring and market access. The current study presents an integrated framework combining Photovoltaic (PV) refrigeration with Phase-Change Materials (PCM) for thermal buffering, Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring, a Controlled-Atmosphere (CA) loop, and a lightweight mobile marketplace. A 200 L prototype was deployed for 30 days in a peri-urban cluster near Dharwad, India. The present study evaluated the daily energy use, temperature/Relative Humidity (RH) stability, shelf life, price realization, and 3-year Return On Investment (ROI). With PCM, energy fell by ~28% (to 2.5–2.7 kWh/day from 3.4–3.6 kWh/day), while the chamber temperature held within ±1.1 °C with <6% RH variation. The shelf life extended up to 4×, and app users realized ~22% higher prices, yielding an estimated 3-year ROI of ~2.05×. Compared with conventional storage, the results highlight the joint value of PCM-assisted cooling, closed-loop IoT/CA control, and market linkage for smallholders.