Borlaug Web Services- Blockchain SaaS for Agri Value Chains

Introduction

In today's global supply chain, traceability and compliance is no longer a “nice to have” but the new normal. Increased awareness from consumers has increased demand for products that are safe for consumption, sustainable with respect to social development and environmentally friendly. Moreover, stringent laws for quality assurance and certification in multiple jurisdictions would need systems that assures compliance while exporting agri commodities. Therefore, organizations need supply chain visibility in order to cater to the growing demands as well as ensure compliance to avoid disruptions to the supply chain. Borlaug Web Services™ (BWS), a purpose-built blockchain SaaS platform has been built in order to make agri supply chains efficient, visible and compliant with easier adoption ensuring speed, volume and scale, reducing time to value by 50% and considerably lower cost of ownership.

Value Proposition

BWS' comprehensive transparency solution provides visibility and compliance at the sub tiers which acts as an insurance to the brand’s reputation, preserving trust, and preventing expensive costs of non-compliance. As countries like the EU are coming up with more laws for export ensuring visibility, BWS can ensure organizations not just comply with the export regulations but maintain full visibility with real-time data to keep track of the compliance and take responsibility for their supply chains while reducing the cost of compliance and increasing its effectiveness.

BWS APIs are proprietary (licensed, pay-per-use model). APIs make accessing blockchain easier with a considerably lower development time and cost. It is easier to connect web and mobile applications using BWS APIs. This SaaS model uses the Lego based “building blocks” that help you adapt to any Agri business processes whether its Olives in Europe, Coffee in Africa or Jute in India.

Solution & Markets

BWS offers solutions that enable accountability of the different stakeholders in the value chain so that the parties can be held responsible incase of non-compliance or any disruptions. It also provides for tracking and tracing the lifecycle of a commodity in order to reduce wastage, increase visibility and lower information asymmetry. The solutions offered allow recording the entire journey of the commodity right from its source to the end consumer as well as the stakeholders involved in the value chain. BWS has created a purpose-built blockchain as a value creation and de-risking tool for Agri businesses.

The BWS technology is commodity agnostic allowing it to work across multiple value-chains. However, BWS focuses on more complex supply chains because it believes such chains have visibility issues for stakeholders, leading to opaque supply chains. BWS has recently won the SDG Impact Accelerator 2021 for Digital Agriculture where it was chosen by UNDP for coffee value chain sustainability in Uganda. Currently, BWS is working in the jute and honey sector in India in order to address the inefficiencies and counterfeiting associated with these value chains.

Case Study

In West Bengal, BWS is working in the jute sector where the BWS Blockchain platform is used to trace the life-cycle of Raw Jute from procurement to spinning mill for better decision making and reducing wastage. With the availability of real time data and information symmetry, as part of phase 1 of the project, BWS has improved 20% efficiency in raw jute procurement and 18% reduction of detention losses. BWS believes it's technology can increase 30-40% efficiency if it build a transparent value chain right from the source i.e., farmers and farming cooperatives.

Honey is considered to be a healthier alternative to sugar because of its medicinal properties. However, because of widespread contamination in the honey supply chain instead of improving our health, it might cause more damage. Even the big reputed companies have been found to be contaminating honey with synthetic sugar syrups and other contaminants. These activities make the honey supply chain vulnerable to fraudulent activities, largely due to a global lack of transparency. Moreover, contamination leads to loss in exports as countries in the United States and European Union have stringent standards to ensure food safety and quality. Therefore, BWS will leverage its blockchain platform for tracking and tracing each step of the honey supply chain to reduce fraud and contamination of honey and provide that information to the seller and end customer.

The BWS team is working with a consortium involving key stakeholders for a joint product development in Honey traceability & certification on Blockchain. The BWS Platform will be used to create an efficient, compliant and sustainable value chain for honey. This will enable the producers to follow sustainable practices and maintain their production data on the blockchain reducing counterfeiting and adulteration thereby building trust among the stakeholders in the honey value chain including the consumers. The complete traceability information along with certification would widen their market access and create new global markets for producers. Thus, allowing the farmers to receive higher profits as well as adopt sustainable practices having a positive impact on the planet.

Conclusion

Commodities with a fragmented supply chain are vulnerable to fraud due to a global lack of transparency. Poor traceability with falsely listed origins has led to premium prices for inferior quality products, but subsistence incomes even for skilled farmers. The global market including the farmers could greatly benefit from using technologies such as blockchain to track and trace commodities from each stage in the supply chain, providing evidence of compliance audits, sourcing and accountability of the information generated. BWS ensures inclusive value chains that are accountable, visible and compliant for global trade.