Poverty reduction through the development of inclusive food value chains

Propelled by urbanization,rising incomes,and changing diets,food markets have been expanding in Africa and South Asia,creating the vast potential for job and income opportunities along food supply chains and,hence,for poverty reduction.The novel coronavirus(COVID-19)that spread to a pandemic in early 2020 provokes enormous setbacks to this expansion.This,however,should provide lessons regarding the importance of resilient and inclusive food systems.Emergency responses to COVID-19 should consider interventions towards that end and leverage the opportunities provided by food markets growth as economies recover from the present economic recession.This paper assesses options of how this could be done by facilitating the better functioning and interconnectedness of the many small and medium-sized enterprises that are proliferating along the"hidden middle"of food value chains in storage,logistics,transportation,and wholesale and retail distribution.It also explores how policies can help smallholder farmers connect to this"hidden middle"in more gainful ways and help them climb out of poverty as well.

Impact of COVID-19 Epidemic on the International Food Supply Chain and Countermeasures of Shandong Province

The COVID-19 epidemic has exerted an impact on the global food supply chain,and also has contributed to the tendency of food hoarding and short supply;strong food demand has led to a rapid rise in international food prices,which has put enormous pressure on China's food import,and domestic food price showed a rise trend accordingly.In order to ensure sufficient and stable supply of China's food market,it is necessary to adhere to the food security strategy of"food self-sufficiency"for a long term.In the spring agricultural production,Shandong Province has taken effective measures to stabilize food production and achieved good results.It has not been greatly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic;however,under the continuous spread of foreign epidemics,we must adhere to the dual hard core operation of epidemic prevention and production,and explore the establishment of technical specifications for agricultural production under normal conditions for epidemic prevention and control to ensure the food security.

Firm Size, Innovation and Vertical Integration Incentives： The Case of Food Supply Chain

This study aims to investigate and explore the relationship between vertical integration and the firm＇s innovativeness in food supply chain. For doing so, a two-stage least-squares model was used. It encompassed instrumental variables that attempt to describe the effective determinants of firm＇s vertical integration willingness. Results based on data concerning a set of 130 food-manufacturing firms, highlighted that vertical integration of a firm is strongly affected by internal incentives such as innovation rate and firm size. Moreover, it is simultaneously influenced by the economies of scale and some structure incentives. To conclude, results indicate globally that important and statistically significant differences exist across the studied firms and the small effective ones which acquire a high level of vertical integration.

A Food Traceability System Based on Blockchain and Radio Frequency Identification Technologies

The frequent occurrence of food safety accidents at the global level has triggered consumer sensitivity. Establishing a food traceability system can effectively guarantee food safety and increase consumer confidence and satisfaction. Existing food traceability systems often ignore environmental factors that affect food quality at all stages of the supply chain, and the authenticity of the information obtained through traceability is difficult to guarantee. In this study, a food supply chain traceability model was established based on blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. The model focused on the traceability of environmental data during the various stages of the food supply chain and combined a centralized database and blockchain for data storage. The lot identification data of the various supply chain stages were stored in a centralized database, while the environmental data were stored in a blockchain. Thereby, the authenticity and accuracy of the traceability data were ensured. The blockchain part of the model has been simulated in the Ethereum test environment, and the experiment has achieved traceability of temperature data.

Sustainability of Local Food Supply Chain in the New Theory Agriculture

World food production and its economic have rapidly grown over a decade; and number of supply chain management research has also increased in this field. However, this development relates to natural resources depletion and deterioration of quality of life in rural population, especially in smallholder farmers. Thailand has practiced the New Theory Agriculture （NTA）, one application aligned with sufficient economy. This theory not only remedies damaged natural resources but also helps smallholder farmers to improve quality of life; and it is analogous to local food supply chain theory, that is well-known in western countries. However, NTA has not been measured its sustainability. Following sustainable food criteria and sustainable agriculture criteria, this paper uses an Indicator of Sustainable Agricultural Practice （ISAP） to measure sustainability at farm level of small rural community＇s network called Inpaeng, a case study that has practiced NTA. The result of assessment in this case implies that NTA yields sustainability to local food supply chain more than monocrop system.

Slackening of Food Supply Chain during COVID-19 and Affecting Livelihood - A Global Concern

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought about another age on world as the human civilization is restricted in many aspects of everyday lives.There is no exception in the sector of food production and the supply chain of food.Due to constraints on demand,shutting of food production facilities,financial limitations,enterprise operations and delivery of different food items have been interrupted in the food supply chain.Every nation must comprehend the importance of the situation according to the spreading scenario of the ongoing pandemic.The probability of transmission via the food sector is regarded inconsequential,and the public authorities do not believe it necessary to follow COVID into workplaces.The unfavourable effects on the climate,the food framework and the people of the foodstuffs network are evident.An installation for the food supply chain should focus on amenities such as maintaining the safety and health of employees and changing working circumstances.This paper aims at discussing the effects of COVID-19 on the socio-economic status of human being including the negative impacts on the agriculture and food supply chain.

Finite State Automaton for Food Traceability

To model the operation of food traceability, features of food supply chain are studied. The aim of the paper is to build an abstract model of food traceability, and to gain better understanding of food traceability and food safety. Based on the analysis of consumers＇ behavior of searching for traceability information, a finite state automaton for food traceability is presented by using automata theory. The states of the food supply chain are represented by a state transition diagram. The automaton in this paper simulates the entire food supply chain and provides a theoretical basis for the behavior description and structural design of a food traceability system.

A Research on Global Supply Chains and Networking

It is argued that networking entails complex processes and should not be seen as a neutral term, devoid of relational content. Foremost, the institutional framework and economic environment in which research is conceived, designed, implemented, and evaluated need to be explicated. The paper takes the risk possibly over contextualizing processes in order to expose strong economic and institutional forces that are intersecting in food chains. By revealing many layers of economic and institutional context, we are able to show how major actors both inside and outside the food chains are endeavoring to constrain other actors into particular trajectories, thereby remaking the local and global structure, organization, and wider territoriality of the food chains.

Blockchain adoption or contingent sourcing? Advancing food supply chain resilience in the post-pandemic era

In the post-pandemic era, food supply chains and firms therein are facing unprecedented severe challenges, because once infection is detected, numerous products must be recalled or abandoned, and both suppliers and retailers in the supply chain suffer enormous loss. To survive under the pandemic, retailers have adopted different sourcing strategies, such as contingent sourcing, which, in turn, affect the upstream suppliers and hence the resilience of the whole supply chain. With the rapid development of digital technologies, retailers nowadays can utilize blockchain as a reliable and efficient way to reduce product risk and hence advance the resilience of food supply chains by improving product traceability and inspection accuracy, and making sourcing transparent. In this paper, we develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the interrelation between the retailer’s decisions on blockchain adoption and sourcing strategies. We consider that a retailer originally orders from a risky supplier while conducting an imperfect inspection to detect infected products before selling. The retailer may speculatively keep on ordering from the risky supplier or adopt contingent sourcing by ordering from an alternative safe supplier. The retailer also has an option to implement blockchain to improve the inspection accuracy and product traceability. We derive the optimal retail prices under different sourcing strategies with and without blockchain adoption and then analyze the incentives for sourcing strategy and blockchain adoption. Then, we identify the conditions of an all-win situation for food retailer, supplier, supply chain resilience, and consumers with/without government subsidy. Finally, we extend to consider the situation that some consumers have health-safety concerns and preferences for blockchain adoption.

Enabling affordances of blockchain in agri-food supply chains:A value-driver framework using Q-methodology

The application of blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies has received increasing attention from industry and scholars alike.Given predicted looming food crises,some of the most impactful deployments of blockchains are likely to concern food supply chains.This study outlined how blockchain adoption can result in positive affordances in the food supply chain.Using Q-methodology,this study explored the current status of the agri-food supply chain and how blockchain technology could be useful in addressing existing challenges.This theorization leads to the proposition of the 3TIC value-driver framework for determining the enabling affordances of blockchain that would increase shared value for stakeholders.First,we propose a framework based on the most promising features of blockchain technology to overcome current challenges in the agri-food industry.Our value-driver framework is driven by the Q-study findings of respondents closely associated with the agri-food supply chain.This framework can provide supply chain stakeholders with a clear perception of blockchain affordances and serve as a guideline for utilizing appropriate features of technology that match organizations’capabilities,core competencies,goals,and limitations.Therefore,it could assist top-level decision-makers in systematically evaluating parts of the organization to focus on and improve the infrastructure for successful blockchain implementation along the agri-food supply chain.We conclude by noting certain significant challenges that must be carefully addressed to successfully adopt blockchain technology.

Towards sustainable agriculture:Harnessing AI for global food security

The issue of food security continues to be a prominent global concern,affecting a significant number of individ-uals who experience the adverse effects of hunger and malnutrition.The finding of a solution of this intricate issue necessitates the implementation of novel and paradigm-shifting methodologies in agriculture and food sec-tor.In recent times,the domain of artificial intelligence(AI)has emerged as a potent tool capable of instigating a profound influence on the agriculture and food sectors.AI technologies provide significant advantages by opti-mizing crop cultivation practices,enabling the use of predictive modelling and precision agriculture techniques,and aiding efficient crop monitoring and disease identification.Additionally,AI has the potential to optimize sup-ply chain operations,storage management,transportation systems,and quality assurance processes.It also tackles the problem of food loss and waste through post-harvest loss reduction,predictive analytics,and smart inventory management.This study highlights that how by utilizing the power of AI,we could transform the way we produce,distribute,and manage food,ultimately creating a more secure and sustainable future for all.

A STUDY ON DECISION-MAKING OF FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN BASED ON BIG DATA

As more and more companies have captured and analyzed huge volumes of data to improve the performance of supply chain, this paper develops a big data harvest model that uses big data as inputs to make more informed production decisions in the food supply chain. By introducing a method of Bayesian network, this paper integrates sample data and finds a cause-and-effect between data to predict market demand. Then the deduction graph model that translates products demand into processes and divides processes into tasks and assets is presented, and an example of how big data in the food supply chain can be combined with Bayesian network and deduction graph model to guide production decision. Our conclusions indicate that the analytical framework has vast potential for supporting support decision making by extracting value t^om big data.

Traceability implementation in food supply chain: A grey-DEMATEL approach

Numerous incidents of food adulteration,fraudulence and foodborne disease outbreaks have shaken the consumer confidence towards the food they consume.These incidents compel the Food Supply Chain(FSC)partners to implement an appropriate traceability system in their respective supply chains to sustain the consumer confidence.The objective of this research is to identify the drivers(major factors)which play a significant role in the successful implementation of the traceability system in FSC and evaluate the causal relationships developing therein.Twelve drivers are identified towards implementation of the traceability system in FSC through literature review and supported with expert’s opinion.The grey-based DEMATEL approach is identified to evaluate these relationships among the drivers according to their net effect.Further,these drivers ranked based on the prominence and effect score.The finding of this research shows that the drivers are clustered into two groups namely:influential(cause)and influenced(effect)group.Four drivers belong to the influential group,and remaining eight are from the influenced group.The most influential driver is the “food safety and quality”which provide a significant effect on the implementation of a traceability system.This research can be a building block to develop a framework to implement the traceability system within FSC and assist the policymakers,and practitioners to identify and evaluate drivers related to the implementation of traceability system in FSC.This paper also provides a useful insight&support to the practitioners and managers in decision making for traceability implementation related issues。

Blockchain: A new safeguard for agri-foods

Blockchain implementation in agriculture has begun.Blockchain is recognized as an emerging technology in the agri-foods industry which may provide an efficient and robust mechanism for enhancing food traceability and a transparent and reliable way to validate quality,safety,and sustainability,of agri-foods.However,the technology is in its nascency,therefore,this review was written to foster discussion and encourage the application of blockchain technology,especially in the agri-food industry.In this review,the working principle of blockchain for data recording and tracking is briefly described.The collaborationmodels for the current blockchain applications on agri-foods are summarized.Furthermore,the specific utilization of blockchain to enhance safety and quality of agri-foods is discussed in four aspects:enhance the data transparency,realize data traceability,improve the food safety and quality monitoring,and reduce the cost of financial transactions.A case study on aWalmart pork traceability system has been provided to demonstrate how blockchain may be used to enhance the food traceability.Finally,challenges and future trends of blockchain technology in agri-foods concerning data/cost management,data security,and data integration are discussed.Blockchain technology reveals a promising approach to foster a future of agri-foods system in a way that is safer,healthier,more sustainable,and reliable.

Quality control in food supply chain with dynamic quality characteristics

Food adulteration in recent years has attracted wide media and public attention.Preventing and controlling risk factors that harm the quality and safety of the food supply chain and reducing the probability of food safety incidents have become important concerns for all main participant groups in the food supply chain.In this study,we use a differential game model to examine the strategic quality control behaviour of participants in a food supply chain comprising two food raw material suppliers and one food manufacturer.We study two cases,one of the centralised system and one of the decentralised system,and fully characterise the equilibrium quality control decisions of all participants in both cases.The findings show that under the centralised setting,the quality control of the raw material suppliers and the manufacturer reaches the optimal level.More importantly,the system can reach coordination through participants sharing their quality cost.

Covid-19, Challenges and Recommendations in Agriculture

On 11 March 2020,the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 is a pandemic disease that is spreading at different speeds in different countries of the world.Given these issues,the global economy is experiencing a different and new experience that is currently taking place in different countries.We are seeing a decrease in production,logistical problems,as well as a change in production patterns,demand and consumption.The agricultural sector has not been immune to the economic damage of the outbreak and has suffered serious damage.If the necessary measures are not taken for sustainable production in agriculture and maintaining the supply and demand cycle,health and food security will face a crisis.Given that there is always a zero point again about the prevalence and infection,social quarantine and health care are still essential.To manage the problems caused by the Corona crisis,accurate and appropriate programs,mechanisms,and evaluations with different strategies are needed,and appropriate sustainable models should be considered for spatial and temporal requirements.

Transition towards sustainability in agriculture and food systems:Role of information and communication technologies

Food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes necessary to move towards sustainable food systems.Digitization is one of the most important ongoing transformation processes in global agriculture and food chains.The review paper explores the contribution of information and communication technologies(ICTs)to transition towards sustainability along the food chain(production,processing,distribution,consumption).A particular attention is devoted to precision agriculture as a food production model that integrates many ICTs.ICTs can contribute to agro-food sustainability transition by increasing resource productivity,reducing inefficiencies,decreasing management costs,and improving food chain coordination.The paper also explores some drawbacks of ICTs as well as the factors limiting their uptake in agriculture.

Assessing the Impact of Catastrophic Electricity Loss on the Food Supply Chain

The food supply chain's heavy reliance on electricity poses significant vulnerabilities in the event of prolonged and widespread power disruptions. This study introduces a system-dynamics model that integrates five critical infrastructures-electric grid, liquid fossil fuels, Internet, transportation, and human workforce-to evaluate the resilience of food supply chains to major power outages. We validated the model using the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts as a case study, demonstrating its predictive validity. We then explored how more extreme electricity losses would disrupt the supply chain. More specifically, we modeled the impact of a large-scale cyberattack on the US electric grid and a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse(HEMP)event. A cyberattack severely damaging the US electric grid and allowing for recovery within a few weeks or months would lead to substantial drops in food consumption. However, it would likely still be possible to provide adequate calories to everyone, assuming that food is equitably distributed. In contrast, a year-long recovery from a HEMP event affecting most of the continental United States could precipitate a state of famine. Our analysis represents a first attempt at quantifying how food availability progressively worsens as power outages extend over time. Our open-source model is made publicly available, and we encourage its application to other catastrophic scenarios beyond those specifically considered in this work(for example, extreme solar storms, high-lethality pandemics).

Agricultural cooperatives and the role of organisational models in new intelligent traceability systems and big data analysis

Traceability systems are key to assuring food safety,creating a benefit for food supply chain components.Currently,the appearance of new technologies such as IoT and Big Data Analysis leads to a new generation of more functional,but complex,traceability systems.Organisational models based on cooperation of multiple small/medium size agents,for example of small/family farming cooperatives,play an important role in high standard agricultural production and commercialization processes.These function as both social and economic networks,with high social and economic impact in the rural areas.The case of Almeria as an example of this model was used to analyze its cooperative model.The actual traceability systems in the Almeria model were studied,taking account of the different networked agents and their interrelation.This study includes two main parts:a)analysis of the net-chains that constitute the food supply chains and their different relationships,and b)actual traceability.The next step studied how the net-chain model,including many diverse agents,may be applied to develop a new generation of traceability systems based of IoT and Big Data.This implies extending the special and functional scope of the actual systems and defining clear rules of exchange of the results of the Big Data Analysis,taking account of the adequate Privacy Rules.This work analyses the current organisation as a base for a new generation of traceability systems considered in the European project IoF2020(Internet of the Food and Farm 2020).Some parallels between Almeria’s model and certain areas in China,mainly in the areas of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Shandong were detected.Another of the objectives of this work is to deepen the understanding of these similarities and analyze the possible adaptation of the results from Almeria to China.