Introduction
Adopting advanced technologies is revolutionising agriculture by increasing its efficiency and yields. A modern tech-based farming technique provides quality and quantity crops all year round and ensures food safety during harvest.
Innovative techniques used in the food industry have changed the very pattern of food production, processing, trade, and consumption worldwide by empowering agri-food systems and making them more resilient and robust.
CIED proposes explicit solutions by moving a step ahead for a sustainable future in the agri-food sector.
With disruptive solutions, we want to help businesses accelerate their paths to market and impact the agri-food tech market.
We are heading towards the next productivity leap with sophisticated digital tools. The already existing blockchain integrated traceability tool and more advanced options are in development.
CIED, in union with other established organisations, would bring forth a significant improvement in the economics of the agri-food industry and thereby contribute to the world’s food security and sustainable development.
CIED with bio.inspecta and NG sensors
In collaboration with CIED, bio.inspecta provides inspection and certification services. In conjunction with CIED, bio.inspecta enters the traceability world by offering a tool that keeps track of products, connections, and transactions between companies.
A QR code is generated automatically for every product. Furthermore, they support farms and firms in the food sector, helping them make developments sustainably and strengthen their market positions.
Together with Next Generation Sensors, CIED is building a portable mass spectrometry-based diagnostic device.
Mass spectrometry is widely used in the food safety sector, being applied both routinely to analysis and as part of research efforts. For monitoring food contamination, MS is, in fact, an essential tool.
The Role of CIED In the World’s Food Security
Food security is of fundamental importance to human existence. This refers to ensuring equal physical, social, and economic access to enough food, at all times, that meets their dietary requirements and preferences as well as their academic and physical goals for healthy living.
Let’s now explore some of the challenges in the world’s food security and the potential solutions provided by CIED technologies to overcome the challenges.
Significant challenges in food security
Nearly 40 percent of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet due to financial constraints. A hike in food prices and reduced affordability of healthy diets can negatively affect nutrient intake and diet quality, resulting in malnutrition.
Covid-19 brought an unexpected increase in the levels of malnutrition in all its forms in vulnerable households. Over 33 percent of the world’s anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from food waste.
The loss of 14 percent of the world’s food occurs during harvesting, handling, storage, and transit, as well as 17 percent in the final stages of consumption. Around 10 percent of people are susceptible to food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemicals.
CIED’S traceability: A one-step solution
Transparency can be increased across multiple aspects of the food system with our blockchain integrated traceability tool, including:
- Support supply-chain optimisation and reduce food losses
- Validate sourcing claims to support sustainability goals
- Meet consumer demand for food supply transparency
Traceability provides access to sufficient, nutritious, and safe food at an affordable price, and nobody goes hungry or suffers malnutrition.
Through traceability, consumers get to know where their food comes from, what all processing takes place, and where it happens with information about all chemicals or pesticides used, ensuring food safety and nutrition.
It is possible to capture and calculate the externalities of food systems through traceability, promoting sustainability goals and supports producers. The linkage to markets and affordable financing allows consumers to get products at an affordable price.
In our agri-food system, food wastage is less, and the supply chain is more resilient to shocks such as:
- Unprecedented weather
- Price spikes
- Pandemics
Transparency is brought by tracking the farm’s food products until they reach customers and prevent food loss.
In partnership with CIED, agri-tech firms can easily track the quality of the food products, and consumers can ensure the quality by checking the QR codes.
Technology-based end-to-end traceability would change the way supply chain management is currently done by:
- Completing a comprehensive data collection process
- Introducing a new distributed ledger technology that allows for easy tracking within the supply chain
- A combination of data sharing, aggregation, and analysis results in cost-effective, quality-assured, and comprehensive food-testing and monitoring solutions
Conclusion
Developing a transformation plan that focuses on finding a healthy, nutritious, efficient, and inclusive food system will require unprecedented levels of collaboration between and within organisations.
Understanding the opportunities and challenges will be essential for effective collaboration.
The technology sector can evolve and reduce costs with transformative traceability technology.
Different stakeholders can together maximise the efficacy. The retailers can build a collaborative approach to encourage transparency.
Agribusiness companies can support the implementation of traceability for food value chains by being open-minded about business opportunities and pushing forward on commitments already made.
Farmers can ensure fair market value with the help of our blockchain-integrated traceability tool.
In every step, farmers need crucial information to make the best decisions – deciding which crop to grow, certifying the quality of agriculture production, creating market links, and discovering prices.
The traceability feature assists them in every step. Technology savvy person from the farmer’s side creates transactions through the traceability tool, and that person works closely with the farmers and imparts knowledge to the farmers.
By acting as the convener for all stakeholders, civil society can ensure their input for establishing standards and requirements.
CIED’s tracing system can offer a broader array of services. By collaboration, we can create opportunities based on a shared vision and execute our plans on the premise of mutual benefit.
Our system may not be a silver bullet solution, but it holds great promise in helping to drive food-systems transformation.
It can improve market visibility and support to empower small-scale producers with new possibilities by enhancing implementation and revitalising global partnerships for sustainable development.
The availability of traceability can boost efforts and complement statistical development in developing countries.
We support inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent jobs for all by implementing traceability. A chance to create new value for producers through better market transparency and access to new financial resources.
Increasing food-system transparency would motivate consumers’ purchase decisions and reduce the risk of buying illegal, unethical, or counterfeit products.
Traceability can assist with this supply chain data to understand demand in-depth. Traceability in food production can help companies and governments identify, isolate, and address the source of a food safety problem more efficiently.
As a result, improved inspection and process management could reduce food safety issues and product recall costs.
CIED technologies, in collaboration with other organisations, have already addressed most of the challenges in the agriculture industry. We envision a better future and encourage agri-tech start-ups to partner towards our sustainability goals.