(^34) FoodPacific Manufacturing Journal July 2019 http://www.industrysourcing.com
automation
C
AMBODIAN rice farmers are using blockchain
technology to get better prices for their organic rice –
a step that brings them closer to achieving fair trade
for their produce.
In this venture, UK-based INGO Oxfam delivered
the technology and acted as facilitator to connect relevant players in
the rice supply chain including the organic rice farmers, agricultural
cooperatives, exporters, importers and retailers, to ensure
transparency along the entire network.
“Working with these farmers and helping them build and
improve their lives is the core of our work for many years,”
said Phay Cheth, Oxfam’s BlocRice Project Manager. “We see
the opportunity of using blockchain technology to monitor the
social condition around the supply chain of their organic rice. We
decided to test it with rice first because it is one of Cambodia’s
main commodity.”
BlocRice, short for Blockchain for Livelihoods from Organic
Cambodian Rice, was a pilot project with small-scale rice farmers in
Preah Vihear, a province located in the central north of Cambodia.Fair trade through
blockchain technology
Successful rollout of BlocRice demonstrates
potential of blockchain to transform
Cambodia’s agricultural industry, writes
JONEL GUITTAP.
Preah Vihear is known for organic rice. Farmers there own an
average of 1 to 2 hectares of land and produce an average of 2.5 to
3 tons per year.
Around 50 farmers from the organic rice cooperative Reaksmey
Lekkompos Kaksekor partnered with Oxfam to negotiate a contract
with rice exporter AMRU Rice. Eliminating the middlemen, AMRU
sells the rice to Netherlands-based Sano Rice, which will then
produce the rice crackers to be sold in retail outlets in Europe.
“Because we want to avoid any complexities, we decided to choose
only one cooperative with 50 farmers for this testing,” Cheth said.
For BlocRice, Oxfam had outlined three key focus areas:
o To introduce blockchain technology to the organic rice value
chain by registering all chain actors with unique identification
codes on blockchain
o To introduce a smart contract between farmers, their agricultural
cooperative, exporting companies and manufacturing company
to ensure proper payments and transparency
o To design a consumer communication component from the
Cambodian countryside to the retailer“Smart” contract farming
According to Oxfam, their goal is to promote a “smart” contract
which is a three-way digital contract farming agreement between the
organic farmers, rice exporters and buyers in the Netherlands. With
the arrangement, farmers gain collective bargaining power because
their cooperative is part of the contract.(Photo: Oxfam)Phay Cheth (far right), Programme Coordinator,
Oxfam Cambodia trained an agriculture cooperative
committee in Preah Vihear province on how to use
BlocRice application (Photo: Oxfam)