Blockchain tech fosters trust in Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity

In partnership with Chennai-based company Byteally Software, Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity successfully implemented a blockchain traceability system for a new fast-growing variety of carp aquaculture among select participants in Jessore, Bangladesh.

The purpose is to create a traceable environment by gathering market-relevant data from all aquaculture supply chain participants using mobile and web applications.

BAA is a five-year PIO activity that started in 2018 with funding of $24.5 million awarded by The United States Agency for International Development.

BAA operates in 21 districts of southwestern Bangladesh and two districts in the southeast.

The project intends to foster sustained, positive aquaculture sector growth through an inclusive market systems approach.

BAA sustainably improves the livelihoods of fish farmers and other aquaculture market players by applying a market systems approach.

Technology such as blockchain can significantly complement and add more value to the mentioned efforts.

The aquaculture industry collects a substantial amount of data, but with critical data being relatively inaccessible, the potential to effectively utilise it remains challenging.

Blockchain technology can instill consumers’ trust in the aquaculture value chain by capturing necessary market-relevant data. Traceability information reveals the provenance of food and helps avoid inferior quality products.

ByteAlly has performed extensive fieldwork in gathering initial business requirements and analysing the existing infrastructure.

A company representative has personally visited 30 farming facilities to learn about the day-to-day activities.

Collaboration with BAA experts has largely proven to be of great importance in assessing the aquaculture value chain.

The direct beneficiary of this project will be the smallholder farms who will build trust with other market actors leveraging clean data, therefore optimizing supply accordingly.

ByteAlly conducted impact training sessions for the non-digital players in the supply chain. Data- entry to the application is possible in three levels-brooders, nurseries, and grow-out farms.

The software firm also developed training manuals for all three categories of participants, including live support for farmers.

ByteAlly presented critical insights at a recent webinar on aquaculture value-chain transparency, held in August 2021, with forward market players attending the event. 

Logistics stakeholders, small organisations, and IT solution providers also participated in the event.

‘At ByteAlly, we have invested in building an ERP that can be configured and handed over as easy-to-use mobile apps to farmers that will upload data to blockchain systems. Such aiding tools are critical and make blockchain projects shorter and cheaper. Making traceability initiatives affordable is in the best interest of all the stakeholders involved,’ said Karthikeyan Mani, CEO of ByteAlly Software.

The project has successfully boarded 50 stakeholders. Farmers can now upload data via web and mobile applications.

BAA expects to reach 1,000 smallholder farmers and other market actors in next two to three years.

Based on the success of this carp variety, BAA and ByteAlly will market the solution to other carp and seafood varieties in Bangladesh with a potential reach of 10,000 farms in a three-to-five-year period.

‘I dream that every aquaculture farmer in Bangladesh receives the correct value for their hard work. I firmly believe that blockchain technology can help us realise that dream,’ said Md Imtiaj Haque, senior market system specialist of Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity.