The Coffee Board of India has launched the pilot project on Thursday. This pilot is not a regular pilot. The Indian Coffee Board is thinking of adopting blockchain technology and create a blockchain based marketplace for coffee growers in India. This would make coffee growers interact with each other, trade and get better returns as the system would not demand the intervention of any third party. The blockchain platform would facilitate direct buying and selling and would connect growers to the buyers directly, with transparency.
This new project taken by the Coffee Board is called as ‘Coffee Blockchain’ initiative. This pilot project was made live simultaneously by the executive director of the International Coffee Organization (which is based in Nairobi) and the secretary of Indian Commerce Office ( New Delhi). Their names are Jose Dauster Sette and Anup Wadhawan respectively. The Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Suresh Prabhu had announced this project in New Delhi in September last year. And Now, after six months the pilot of this project is launched.
CEO and Secretary of Indian Coffee Board said that
“There were more than 20 stakeholders from three different countries. We had to get all of them on board, and then test the platform. We believe this is perhaps only the third attempt at a coffee blockchain after France and Ethiopia,”.
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Coffee Board is the government organization which takes the responsibility of promoting coffee in Domestic and international market.
There are around 454,000 hectares land in India which is under Coffee cultivation. Around 366,000 people are coffee farmers. Out of these, 98% of farmers are small farmers. The CEO of Coffee Board said that the aim of adopting blockchain technology is to give coffee a prime position and cut the role of intermediaries.
Eka Software Solutions has associated with Coffee Board to develop the blockchain technology. The CEO and founder of Eka, Mr. Manav Garg said that the idea of making use of a blockchain technology is to
“record the first smart contract on a blockchain with the 20-odd stakeholders, and establish trust in the marketplace”.
Once this blockchain marketplace is made live, the company is very much confident that the Coffee Board of India reach its objective of helping the Indian coffee trade and make it find a place in the premium market. The Coffee Board wants to make India one of the top three global coffee producers, Gagan said.
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The blockchain is no more restricted to cryptocurrency. Enterprises and businesses across the world are utilizing this technology in their respective industry to make their operation smoother and transparent.
