Journal of Agriculture and Food Research (Sep 2022)
The role of blockchain for food safety and market efficiency
Abstract
It is well known that the introduction of Blockchain in the agri-food sector represents a digital innovation aimed at increasing business income through the reduction of production inputs (and therefore of production costs expressed at constant prices) and/or the increase of output (increase in the quantity produced and therefore in revenues expressed at constant prices). According to Schumpeter, innovation and entrepreneurship mainly depend on innovative people, their skills and knowledge. In fact, digital innovation is always aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the company and can concern an improvement in technical and economic efficiency. On an existing company structure, efficiency concerns an optimization of the variable production factors to be used in the production process (reduction of variable costs: example quantity of water used; quantity of fertilizers to be used according to seasonal trends; quantity of pesticides to be used) which have repercussions on the structure of the cost of production and therefore positive effects on the net income of the entrepreneur. In the present study after examining the economic theory of innovation, through the theory of value examined why agri-food companies should adopt innovations such as the Blockchain. The study highlights that digital innovations can be implemented by entrepreneurs according to company size and with a view to increasing the value of production and that the affirmation of innovation requires long periods of time.
