A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorGeorg, Co-Pierre
dc.contributor.authorKanjere, Julian
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-24T02:03:54Z
dc.date.available2021-08-24T02:03:54Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.date.updated2021-08-24T00:42:18Z
dc.description.abstractFood is vital to human life. Therefore, ensuring its safety as it moves from producer to consumer in food supply chains (FSCs) is essential. This can be achieved through the use of food traceability technology which enables track and trace of produce within a FSC. Recently, blockchain technology (BCT) has shown great potential to enhance traceability in FSCs, owing to its ability to securely store data in a decentralised and tamper-evident manner. However, it appears that research on blockchain-enabled food traceability exists primarily within the context of large FSCs, whilst scarce for local FSCs in which traceability is often an inefficient and manual process. Given this background, this exploratory research is carried out, to investigate whether a blockchain-enabled system can be used to improve traceability in local FSCs. To do this, we (i) collaborate with Oranjezicht City Farm Market (OZCFM) - a farmers market in Cape Town, the smallholder farmers that supply OZCFM with fresh local produce and the OZCFM patrons that purchase the produce; (ii) map out the local FSC by conducting observations and running surveys with the aforementioned actors; (iii) design, develop and pilot FoodPrint - a web based and blockchain-enabled food traceability application. During the pilot within the OZCFM-related local FSC, FoodPrint is used to capture data on the harvest, transportation and storage of produce; and reveal produce provenance at destination by scanning of supplier-produce specific quick response (QR) codes. We find that FoodPrint provides tamper-evident traceability and authentic transparency of produce related data to the local FSC actors. Further, we note that scanning a FoodPrint QR code for produce provenance does not enhance the consumers trust of the local FSC, as it pre-exists. This implies that local FSCs with existing and functional trust mechanisms do not benefit from trust-enhancing mechanisms such as blockchain-enabled traceability. Future work may consider data privacy in FSCs and automating FSC data entry to reduce the risk of fraud.
dc.identifier.apacitationKanjere, J. (2021). <i>A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa</i>. (). ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33826en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationKanjere, Julian. <i>"A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa."</i> ., ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33826en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationKanjere, J. 2021. A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa. . ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33826en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Master Thesis AU - Kanjere, Julian AB - Food is vital to human life. Therefore, ensuring its safety as it moves from producer to consumer in food supply chains (FSCs) is essential. This can be achieved through the use of food traceability technology which enables track and trace of produce within a FSC. Recently, blockchain technology (BCT) has shown great potential to enhance traceability in FSCs, owing to its ability to securely store data in a decentralised and tamper-evident manner. However, it appears that research on blockchain-enabled food traceability exists primarily within the context of large FSCs, whilst scarce for local FSCs in which traceability is often an inefficient and manual process. Given this background, this exploratory research is carried out, to investigate whether a blockchain-enabled system can be used to improve traceability in local FSCs. To do this, we (i) collaborate with Oranjezicht City Farm Market (OZCFM) - a farmers market in Cape Town, the smallholder farmers that supply OZCFM with fresh local produce and the OZCFM patrons that purchase the produce; (ii) map out the local FSC by conducting observations and running surveys with the aforementioned actors; (iii) design, develop and pilot FoodPrint - a web based and blockchain-enabled food traceability application. During the pilot within the OZCFM-related local FSC, FoodPrint is used to capture data on the harvest, transportation and storage of produce; and reveal produce provenance at destination by scanning of supplier-produce specific quick response (QR) codes. We find that FoodPrint provides tamper-evident traceability and authentic transparency of produce related data to the local FSC actors. Further, we note that scanning a FoodPrint QR code for produce provenance does not enhance the consumers trust of the local FSC, as it pre-exists. This implies that local FSCs with existing and functional trust mechanisms do not benefit from trust-enhancing mechanisms such as blockchain-enabled traceability. Future work may consider data privacy in FSCs and automating FSC data entry to reduce the risk of fraud. DA - 2021_ DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - blockchain KW - food supply chain KW - traceability KW - transparency LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2021 T1 - A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa TI - A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33826 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/33826
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationKanjere J. A Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa. []. ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics, 2021 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33826en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentSchool of Economics
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Commerce
dc.subjectblockchain
dc.subjectfood supply chain
dc.subjecttraceability
dc.subjecttransparency
dc.titleA Blockchain-enabled System to enhance Food Traceability in Local Food Supply Chains (FSCs) suitable for Small Co-operatives in South Africa
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMPhil
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
thesis_com_2021_kanjere julian.pdf
Size:
7.35 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
0 B
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Masters