Research and Development

Carbond bc

Certification of ecosystem services and enhancement of agri-food supply chain products through Blockchain technologies and the CARBOND tool.

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Type of Project

Industrial Research and Experimental Development

Partners

  • Agreenment Srl
  • e.RATIO
  • CREA (Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura)

Performed activity

The final goal of the project is the development of a new certification system for ecosystem services (ES) provided by farmers who adopt sustainable agricultural practices, aiming to quantify and track the objectives achieved in terms of:

  • CO2 sequestration in agricultural soils,
  • mitigation of emissions of other greenhouse gases (N₂O, CH₄),
  • contrast to soil erosion,
  • improvement of water storage,
  • reduction of the run-off effect.

Overview

The CARBOND-BC project aims to prototype a technological innovation based on the Blockchain information management paradigm, applied to open-field agricultural production. By leveraging both the estimated results on greenhouse gases provided by the CARBOND tool and the data collected in the field, it certifies the environmental impact of an agricultural management protocol.

Due to its characteristics, the strategic sectors targeted by the CARBOND-BC project are:

  • Primary: Agri-food
  • Secondary: Security and Information Technologies - Environment and Infrastructure
Certification of ecosystem services and enhancement of agri-food supply chain products through Blockchain technologies and the CARBOND tool.
The CARBOND platform represents an innovative tool for assessing environmental sustainability and ecosystem services during the cultivation phase (field phase). The project primarily aims to certify the CARBOND tool through validation of the software's functionality and further calibration of the model via a field measurement campaign related to greenhouse gas flows (CO₂, N₂O, CH₄, etc.) and key variables affecting carbon cycles, the water cycle, and nutrient cycles, such as hydraulic conductivity, soil erosion, bulk density, organic carbon content, and others. 

The data resulting from the CARBOND tool's processing will, in turn, be certified through Blockchain technology, which will interact with the existing platform and enrich its databases, in order to trace the data throughout the entire agri-food supply chain up to the store shelf (communication to consumers). This project aims to add value to agricultural products by using the results, in terms of environmental indicators (ecosystem services), derived from the mapping with CARBOND.

In other words, the project idea is to adopt an innovative certification protocol for ecosystem services (ES) provided by farmers, which can extend across the entire relevant supply chain (e.g., Wheat Supply Chain) and enhance all the steps from "field to store shelf." This final step will be carried out in multiple phases, described as follows: 

1) Certification of data (product-linked system): Certifying the results obtained by the agricultural business through the adoption of management changes in favor of more sustainable practices, in order to create added value for the products and the entire agri-food supply chain of that specific product. Linking the results and certification scheme to an information flow processed within Blockchain technology. 

2) Certification label: Adoption of a certification label with clear rules, recognized at both territorial and national levels. 
© 2021 e.RATIO. Iscritta al registro aziende della Camera di Commercio di Bari con numero REA BA-507538 | P.IVA: 06755470728 | Capitale sociale: € 12.000,00 i.v.
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