Page 30 - Agricultural innovation

4. SOME INNOVATION MODELS
IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

4.1. Model of Blockchain Monitoring Organic Rice Farming in Cambodia (BlocRice)

4.1.1. General information
The BlocRice project is facilitated by Oxfam in Cambodia and had begun their pilot run in 2018. This
initial idea began from Oxfam Novib in the Netherlands and the BlocRice application was developed
by Schuttelaar and Partners. This project incorporates the use of blockchain technology through an
application which creates smart contracts and stores information and transactions between actors in the
value chain. This blockchain technology arranges three-way digital contracts with cashless payments
between primary producers, two agricultural cooperatives in Kulen (Samaki Phnom Pich Borey and
Loeuk Kampuos Kasekor agricultural cooperatives), rice exporters (Amru Rice) in Cambodia and
manufacturing companies (Sano Rice) in the Netherlands. [1]

4.1.2. Model development
Studies have been conducted on farmers’ livelihoods in Preah Vihear province and it showed that
they were living in an income gap of 31% as well as having poor access to materials. There are also
issues of unequal distribution of information which affects farmers’ negotiation power due to lack of
knowledge on the market price. Thus, the idea behind BlocRice was to improve farmers’ livelihoods
[2]
and income by monitoring payments and traceability between actors in the value chain, provide access
to real time data and information, build trust and connect consumers to smallholder farmers in order
to provide transparency and encourage consumers’ willingness to pay premium price for the products
they purchased. Furthermore, the cause of implementing this project stems from the situation of
smallholder farmers in Cambodia who face several challenges such as contract violations as well as
fluctuation of market price and unreliable payment dates from buyers, specifically middlemen.
Initially, BlocRice was implemented as a pilot project in 2018 which was independently funded
by Oxfam Novib’s innovation fund department. The pilot targeted 50 smallholder farmers and since
it was completed, by 2020, Oxfam has received funds from the Netherlands’ Enterprise Agency to
prototype the blockchain technology used in this project. This prototype started in 2021 and the target
was 500 smallholder farmers in Preah Vihear province.
As of now, the project is halfway completed as the rice had already been collected by the agricultural
cooperatives during the harvest season in 2022 and is now stored in Amru Rice for them to process the
rice. Before the farmers are chosen to register in the blockchain technology, they are screened from the
two agricultural cooperatives to see how much land each farmer has and how much produce they can
make in order to fit the contract farming conditions between them and Amru Rice. Thus, the project
now has 411 farmers registered among 500 in 2022.
Once farmers have collected their harvest, they will sell their rice to agricultural cooperatives and a
digital contract will be signed between both parties. The agricultural cooperatives will then sell the rice
from farmers to Amru Rice, which will establish another digital contract for the sales of rice required
due to the conditions set within their contract farming agreement. The payment will be processed
when Amru Rice receives the rice from the agricultural cooperatives and the agricultural cooperatives
will provide the payment to the farmers. However, if the rice sold to the agricultural cooperatives are
not in large quantities, the agricultural cooperatives will also process the payment beforehand for

1 Oxfam in Cambodia (n.d.). Blockchain for Livelihoods from Organic Cambodian Rice (Blocrice).
2 Schuttelaar & Partners (n.d.). Empowering Smallholder Farmers. Blocrice.org. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.
blocrice.org/blocrice/empowering_smallholder_farmers

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 23