APTM: A Model for Pervasive Traceability of Agrochemicals

Abstract

As the world population increases and the need for food monoculture farms are using more and more agrochemicals, there is also an increase in the possibility of theft, misuse, environmental damage, piracy of products, and health problems. This article addresses these issues by introducing the agrochemical pervasive traceability model (APTM), which integrates machine learning, sensors, microcontrollers, gamification, and two blockchains. It contributes in two dimensions: (I) the study of the environmental, product piracy and regulatory of agrochemical control; (II) the technological dimension: application of an adequate set of sensors collecting multiple data; modeling and implementation of a system via machine learning for analyzing and predicting the behavior and use of agrochemicals; development of a scoring system via gamification for reverse use of agrochemicals; and presenting a record of transactions in a consortium of two blockchains, simultaneously. Its main advantage is to be a flexible, adaptable, and expansive model. Results indicated that the model has positive aspects, from detecting the agrochemical, its handling, and disposal, recording of transactions, and data visualization along the reverse supply chain. This study obtained a round trip time of 0.510 ms on average; data transfers between layer one and its persistence in the database were between 4 to 5 s. Thus, blockchain nodes consumed only 34 to 38% of CPU and recorded transactions between 2 to 4 s. These results point to a horizon of applicability in real situations within agricultural farms.

Keywords

• reverse supply chain
• blockchain
• agrochemicals
• IoT
• multi-sensor
• gamification