b'DIGITALIZINGSEED CERTIFICATIONHOW THE OECD IS EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL FOR BLOCKCHAIN, AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES, TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY AND SECURITY OF CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS. BY: MARCEL BRUINSI n a previous issue, European Seed explored various appli-cations of blockchain in the agriculture and food sector. This new technology has been incorporated in various aspects of the seed sector and is on its way to become a mainstream fea-ture touching upon several facets of the seed world. European Seed sat down with Caroline Malcolm, Head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developments (OECD) Global Blockchain Policy Centre and Csaba Gaspar, Program Manager of the OECDs Seed Schemes to get their take on such digital technologies and their use in the agricultural and seed sectors. EUROPEAN SEED (ES): WHY ARE THE OECD SEEDCsaba Gaspar Caroline MalcolmSCHEMES EXPLORING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES NOW?CSABA GASPAR (CG):The OECD Seed Schemes have been exploring ways to improve the efficiency and integrity of theirbecause of their potential to improve efficiency, decentralize the certification and labelling system since 2013. This explorationstorage of transaction information, provide greater transparency was driven at first by a need for more reliable labelling and cer- and traceability, and help build trust. The OECD Seed Schemes tification options to support the increasing volume of seed lotsbegan working closely with OECDs Blockchain Policy Centre to being traded internationally and a heightened risk of fraud inbetter understand the opportunities and challenges the technol-the seed sector. In addition, the Schemes wanted to improveogy presents [footnote 2].data collection and provide governments and other supply chainOver the coming months the OECD Seed Schemes stakeholders with more accurate and up-to-date information onSecretariat will begin a feasibility study to explore the technol-the production, certification, and international trade of seed. ogies available for the digitalization of the OECD Seed Schemes. In 2017, the OECD launched its Going digital initiative,The study will compare the costs and benefits of different IT which is designed to bring about stronger and more inclusivesystems, including the development of a use case for a block-growth from the digital revolution [footnote 1]. chain solution.OECDs broader work led the Seed Schemes to start explor-ing the potential for digital technologies to address some of theirES: WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY? own challenges. Digital data management technologies have theCAROLINE MALCOLM (CM):A blockchain is a type of ledger of potential to enhance transparency of transactions and trace- transactions or record of information, shared between parties in ability of goods. The timely availability and exchange of dataa network. You can think of a ledger like a record book: it records with multiple stakeholders would also enable the rapid identifi- and stores information about all transactions between users in cation and reporting of problems (such as fake labels) within thechronological order. What makes a blockchain unique is that the supply chain, offering National Designated Authorities (NDAs)same ledger can be held by lots of different people simultane-the opportunity to better uphold the integrity of the Schemes.ously (i.e. there does not need to be one central record-keeping The spread of COVID-19 has raised awareness of the abilityauthority), and that the record on the blockchain is almost com-for digital technologies to improve the resilience of agriculturalpletely immutable, i.e. unable to be changed, which makes it a supply chains during emergency situations, from the issuancehighly trusted source. of digital certificates to online training for inspectors. The pan- Its important to remember that there are many different demic also demonstrated the ability of supply chains and thetypes of blockchains, but also that blockchains are just one actors who operate within them to quickly and efficiently adapttype of distributed ledger technology. It is the most well-known to new challenges and systems.because a blockchain is the basis of Bitcoin which was the first A number of countries have already digitalised their nationalapplication of distributed ledger technology. certification systems. These initiatives provide opportunities toWhile there are a number of variable features of block-build on this capacity to develop an international network, butchains, two of the most important are also present new challenges in terms of the interoperability of The openness of the platform (public or private) - Public existing systems. When the Schemes first started exploring dig- blockchains are open for anyone to read and view, while private ital solutions for certification, blockchain technologies stood outblockchains can only be viewed by a chosen group of people.26IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'