With equipment automation and data connectivity areas of trending importance for manufacturers, at last week’s National Farming Machinery Show in Louisville, we invited companies to offer a perspective on how and when blockchain will emerge in ag.

While still a vague concept for some — others see more defined entry points and intersection with the industry.

Doug Applegate, CEO of Praxidyn, has been working with Ag Gateway, a collaborative non-profit organization focused on improving digital ag practices, on traceability, tracking grain from the field to the processor and within the last year, tracking chemistries used on those fields.

"Blockchain is getting more traction in ag. We’re seeing it first in the fruit and vegetable markets, which is logical. There’s been the ability to track those crops, but blockchain gives the credibility to the tracking because it’s a distributed database that is virtually impossible to tamper with. And so it gives credibility. It gives trust to a system and really, that’s what it’s all about, is the consumer trusting the supplier. That’s what blockchain does. It gives you trust that things are not tampered with that the data is not tampered with.”

Recent market reports suggest that the global blockchain technology market in ag could grow by more than 50% during the next 5 years, with the primary barrier to expansion being information security.