How TONE blockchain improves food safety, and drives economic growth: Guest Post by TE_FOOD

United Nations predicts drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050, a brutal growth of the current death toll of 700,000 people per year. To put that in context, this will make superbugs more dangerous than cancer (currently causing 8 million death per year), and cause a damage to the economy as catastrophic as the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

Viral diseases amongst animals are also on the rise, particularly in the developing world. The main drivers of this are globalization and ecological disruption. The recent African swine fever (ASF) epidemic (which affected 45 countries across five continents), or the continuous threat of avian flu all over the world has significant economic impact on agriculture and food production. Professionals estimate, that at least 180-200 million pigs (around 25-30% of the pig population) were culled in China and Vietnam due to the ASF pandemic since 2018.

Enter blockchain

TE-FOOD implemented its Livestock Management and Epidemic Control solution in Vietnam, first as an extension of its - already operational - food traceability solution, and later upgrading it as a fully functional suite of applications.

TE-FOOD's multi-component solution does not follow the scientific approach like GAMA, Repast Symphony, Kendrick or other existing simulation platforms. TE-FOOD's aim is to provide a pragmatic solution, which enables government authorities and farmers to recognize, contain, and eliminate epidemic animal diseases, by using the latest technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and mobile apps.

Recognition

The first component supports the recognition of epidemic animal diseases. Animals on farms get sick often, especially in developing regions, where smallholder farming is popular, and access to veterinarians is insufficient. How can technology help farmers with a small number of animals to differentiate between epidemic and other types of animal diseases as quickly as possible? The main issue is that access to veterinaries on rural areas, as well as the communication channels between farmers and the government bodies are often problematic.

Modern, mobile and cloud based technologies can make a significant shift in this situation. TE-FOOD's public-permissioned blockchain solution enables farmers to use their mobile phones to file reports about the livestock status regularly, and report illnesses, which uses neural network models to analyze the data.

What this means in practice

Farmers can registrate in the app, and provide regular reports by filling a form about the number of animals, their type, their external movements, and deaths. This type of report takes just minutes for the farmers, but enables government bodies, veterinaries, and academia to have an up-to-date overview of the livestock status of the region.

The biggest help for farmers is the possibility to file an illness report, where they can use the TE-FOOD mobile app to provide details about the affected animals, their symptoms, and complementary photos. The system is using deep learning AI models to analyze the data, and rate its urgency.

The AI model contains an image recognition module, which recognizes common visible symptoms of animal diseases, and compares them against the structured symptom data, as well as against similar reports in the same area.

Using complex, multimodal analysis, the model estimates the risk level of the specific report, and potentially warns the competent government body (e.g. local veterinary) about the incident.

A future development plan contains a telemedicine option, where - in less urgent cases - veterinaries can investigate the incident with the help of the farmer via a video call.

The solution makes the communication between farmers and veterinaries easier, and leads to quicker resolution of disease incidents, which helps to contain contagious diseases. Competent government bodies also benefit from having up-to-date information on the livestock status, and the progress of illnesses within regions, so they have continuous data flow to prepare for an epidemic.

Stay tuned for Part Two

How TONE blockchain improves food safety, and drives economic growth

Table of Contents

Enter blockchain

Recognition

What this means in practice

TE_FOOD

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