HarvestPlus and Partners’ Blockchain Project Reached Finals in CGIAR Data Innovation Challenge
A project aimed at harnessing data to improve traceability and tracking in Nigeria’s vitamin A maize value chain was among the 15 finalists the Inspire Challenge run by the CGIAR Platform for Big Data on Agriculture.
The Inspire Challenge finalists were selected from among more than 120 submissions. HarvestPlus congratulates the six winners of the Inspire Challenge, which were announced on Sept. 23 at the conclusion of the CGIAR Platform for Big Data on Agriculture’s 2020 Convention.
The project, “Sustaining staple food with supply chain integrity” was submitted jointly to the Inspire Challenge by HarvestPlus, The New Fork, El-kanis and Partners, and the Nigerian Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The project focuses on leveraging blockchain distributed ledger technology to help vitamin A maize value chain participants improve the transparency and efficiency of business transactions, compliance processes and tracking and tracing of food products.
The lack of traceability in the supply chain is impairing wider adoption of vitamin A maize. Indeed, value chain stakeholders have revealed that one of the biggest barriers for the food industry to adopt biofortified crops is the inability to distinguish them from non-biofortified counterparts.
The Inspire Challenge is aimed at catalyzing new ideas and solutions that harness data and digital platforms to help make “farming and food systems more precise, profitable, and adaptive.” Submissions to the Challenge are made by consortia of CGIAR entities with industry partners. The project plans to implement blockchain technology on the farmX app to help value chain partners improve transparency and efficiency of business transactions, compliance processes, and tracking and tracing of food products.
For more information about the Nigeria blockchain project, contact:
Jenny Walton: [email protected]