Blockchain and IoT in Smart Agriculture: Analysis, Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Research Directions

Agricultural trends indicate a shift towards smart farming and the effective use of modern technologies and machine learning to manage time and resources while reducing crop losses and saving time and resources. These emerging technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain (BC), play an effective role in precision agriculture applications. They have made it possible to provide reliable services to guarantee and improve agricultural productivity. The entire agricultural system is improved through real-time monitoring of fields, soil fertility, irrigation techniques, temperature and humidity control, weather monitoring, detection of crop diseases, monitoring of agricultural products, etc. This article aims to present a literature review to examine the issues and challenges related to the blockchain approach associated with IoT applications. It also highlights key ways in which the blockchain approach can support the improvement of IoT systems. Additionally, it examines existing blockchain applications and platforms to provide a comprehensive summary of how the blockchain approach cooperates with the IoT paradigm.