BlocRice –

Cambodia
eyes
blockchain in
future of Blockchain can make rice farming fairer for everyone involved. Source: Shutterstock

agriculture
By Mark Jones (https://techwireasia.com/author/mark/) | 28 July, 2020

Blockchain is embraced by the food

(http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://techwireasia.com/2020/0
industry for its ability
agriculture/&title=BlocRice to provide
– Cambodia eyes blockchain in future of agriculture)
 transparency into the supply chain
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Cambodian rice farmers can now use
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BlocRice – a paddy-to-consumer
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traceability system
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The project forms part of the wider
agriculture/&title=BlocRice
agritech movement, – Cambodia
which is eyes blockchain
helping to in future of agriculture)
bring the farming sector into the digital
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age
agriculture/&title=BlocRice – Cambodia eyes blockchain in future of agriculture)
While the technology is in many ways still
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nascent, it seems already that only a small
agriculture/&title=BlocRice – Cambodia eyes
few of the world’s commodities haveblockchain
yet to in future of agriculture)
be traded using blockchain.
Most of these dalliances seem to peter out
quickly, but there are a small number of
cases where perseverance and commitment
has seen the potential of small blockchain
projects begin to flourish.
Agriculture, led by rice production,
comprises around one-third of Cambodia’s
GDP and it employs 80% of the population,
according to the International Finance
Corporation
(https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topic
s_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/sus
tainability-at-
ifc/publications/transforming_rice_industry_b
uilding_export_capacity_cambodia). Rice
plays such an important role in the
country’s economy that Cambodia’s Prime
Minister has even referred to the
(https://techwireasia.com)
commodity as ‘white gold’
Latest
Insights (https://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/c Popular
(https://techwireasia.com/category/insights/) (https://techwireasia.com/latest- (https://techwir
ambodia-moves-to-increase-exports-of-its-
tech/) tech/)
white-gold-rice).
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Playing such an integral part in the
wire-asia)
country’s economy and the sustenance of
its citizens, it’s no surprise that steps are
being made to ensure that producers are
being paid fairly and that origins can be
traced back to source.
Amru Rice is one of Cambodia’s leading rice
exporters and has been developing its
BlocRice technology project since April 2018.
The company has been rapidly scaling up
the platform from 50 household farmers to
one that now comprises 500 across two
communities.
The goal of BlocRice is to ensure farmers
can sell their product at a higher price and
that the country’s main food sources can be
identified.
Since its original pilot less than two years
ago, the platform has become commercially
viable, assigning digital identities to
individual farmers, and ensuring their goods
can be tracked from rice paddies all the way
to the consumer. It seeks to give farmers a
‘voice’ in the supply chain, and help them to
optimize and grow their operations through
cooperatives with other producers and
access to tech solutions and extension
services.
Thanks to blockchain’s key tenets – the
immutable storage of data, visible in real-
time to any party provided with access –
retailers and consumers can gain clear
insight into how their food was produced
and just how much the farmers that made it
are really benefiting from the industry.
Kann Kunthy, vice-president of Amru Rice,
Cambodia told Khmer Times: “Our goal is to
utilize blockchain technology for millions of
households not only in rice but all
agricultural crops.”
Kunthy’s view is that the use of blockchain
and other innovative agritech solutions can
both help to modernize and enrich a
traditional industry, helping to turn seasonal
household farmers into commercial,
professional farmers that are market-
oriented.
Projects such as BlocRice can also stimulate
the growth of the country’s fledgling tech
industry, both fostering and attracting new
talent and technology firms into the region.
However, Kunthy said that digital
infrastructure and innovations such as these
can thrive only if they are matched by
physical infrastructure support, such as
logistics, transportation, post-harvest
management, storage and delivery, which
requires training, education and the further
establishment of agricultural cooperatives.
The ultimate goal, she said, was to help
Cambodia’s farmers become ‘agri-preneurs’.
Nobody seems to downplay the importance
of Cambodia’s white gold to its economy.
The country’s government has invested in
the building of silos, warehouses and rice
million machinery, and is seeking to attract
foreign investment to work on processing,
as well as considering lowering the
electricity tariffs for farmers.
Across Asia, the risks driven by climate
change and, more recently, the effects of
COVID-19, have contributed to declining
produce outputs and farmers are struggling
to make sites both sustainable and
profitable.
But the contribution of the agriculture
sector has been steadily declining from
2003 towards 2016, as shown in recently
released World Bank data.
The ripple effect of this decline is wide. In
South Asian countries like Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, jobs in
agriculture make up nearly half of the total
employment and account for 39% total
employment across Cambodia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Myanmar, among others.
At the
intersection
between
agriculture
and next- IS CAMBODIA INTRODUCING
generation A BLOCKCHAIN-BASED
technologies, DIGITAL CURRENCY?
agritech is a Joe Devanesan | 1 July, 2020
fast emerging (https://techwireasia.com/2020/07/is-
area of focus cambodia-introducing-a-
for innovative blockchain-based-digital-
entrepreneurs currency/)
and startups,
 seeking to
leverage tech like IoT, analytics, AI robotics
and blockchain to drive efficiencies to save
costs and increase yields. Wider goals in
agritech are frequently to boost standards
of living for a huge part of the population
and drive sustainable agriculture practices.

BLOCKCHAIN

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AGRITECH

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BIG DATA (https://techwireasia.com/tag/big-
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