Business & Management Studies

Exploring the application of Industry 4.0 technologies in the agricultural food supply chain: A systematic literature review

Exploring the application of Industry 4.0 technologies in the agricultural food supply chain: A systematic literature review

Blockchain can emerge as a game-changer to ensure food safety and security, suggest the results.

Authors

Sachin Kumar Mangla, Full Professor and Director, Research Centre on Digital Circular Economy for Sustainable Development Goals (DCE-SDG), Jindal Global Business School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.

Vinay Surendra Yadav, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Raipur, India

A.R. Singh, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Raipur, India

Rakesh D.Raut, Department of Operations and Supply Chain Management, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Vihar Lake, NITIE, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400087, India

Sunil Luthra, Ch. Ranbir Singh State Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jhajjar, Haryana, India.

Anil Kumar, Guildhall School of Business (GSB), London Metropolitan University, London, UK.

Summary

The need for Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is felt across “agriculture food supply chain (AFSC)” to tackle the global demand for food items and concerns regarding food safety and security. Further, this transformation is possible due to recent advancements in I4.0 technologies, including “Internet-of-Things (IoT), Blockchain, Big Data (BD), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Cloud Computing (CC) and Cyber-Physical System (CPS)” etc.

Each of these technologies has a specific role in making the AFSC eco-system smart enough to address today’s world challenges. Thus, this paper reviews these major technologies in AFSC to understand their applications and recent trends.

The review is based on 146 articles from the “Scopus and Web of Science” database. The articles include peer-reviewed journals published between 2010 and 2020.

The applications of reviewed technology in AFSC are analysed under five research dimensions, namely traceability and food safety, information system management, food waste, control and monitoring, decision making and agribusiness, and other miscellaneous-based applications.

The study suggests that the integration of reviewed technologies can be more useful to provide low-cost solutions and empower sustainability in AFSC. Further, blockchain can emerge as a game-changer to ensure food safety and security.

The current challenges and future research agenda in concerned themes are also identified to further motivate researchers to develop this area. This is the first paper that summarises the recent developments of six technologies for AFSC research.

Published in: Computers & Industrial Engineering

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