Blockchain in agriculture: a PESTELS analysis.

Abstract

Abstract Blockchain (BC) represents a disruptive technology that has been extensively used to ensure immutability of digital transactions. Starting as an underlying mechanism in the digital currency sector, it has been applicable in a wide range of sectors and application domains. Agricultural sector represents a sector of significance for overall sustainability challenges that is benefiting from digitalization and technological evolution and the enforcement of Industry 4.0 paradigm shift towards precision agriculture. Introduction of Internet of Things, and Cyber-Physical Systems increase overall complexity, with Big Data analysis and Machine Learning technologies providing innovative applications. BC appears to be a promising technology for agriculture providing mechanisms for tracing of products and overall agricultural supply chain (SC) management from the farm to the fork. Authors investigate the challenges and open issues for the application of BC in agriculture performing a state of the art analysis along the PESTELS framework. A large number of challenges including technological ones, creates big research potential for the evolution of the area.