Niti Aayog and fertiliser major Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GNFC) on Saturday entered into an agreement to undertake joint research and exchange and disseminate learnings to use BlockchainTechnology for fertiliser subsidy management.
The two bodies signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) to work together towards implementing a Proof-of-Concept (POC) application. Under the SOI, the two organisations would also undertake interaction and discussions on use of block chain technology for specific needs of fertiliser subsidy management. Insights and outcomes of the POC will enable NITI Aayog to suggest policy recommendations and actions in strengthening the subsidy mechanism, making it more transparent and immune to leakages.
Fertiliser units manufacture approximately 31 million tonnes of fertilisers across country, where total approximately Rs 70,000 crore of subsidy is disbursed to the manufacturing units. The current system of fertiliser sales and distribution is multilayer, multi-agency and multi-functional.
With adoption of Blockchain Technology, it is expected that the distribution will become effective and efficient, and subsidy transfer would be automated and made real time, GNFC stated in a statement.
Benefits of the use of blockchain technology would include reduced turnaround time for subsidy distribution to a 3 to 4 week time, transparency, elimination of need of multiple authorizations and movement of documents and efficient sales and distribution of fertilisers. The system will also be integrated with soil card in the next phase, which will be useful in advising farmers to use a particular type of fertiliser based on soil heath.