Green city development principles (GCDP) implementation level and its effects on lagos megacity residents' well-being, Nigeria: A qualitative study.

Monitoring Agricultural food products from the production to the consumption phase is a critical aspect of food safety and a smooth supply chain [,]. The risks of contamination and food safety concerns have increased, leading to growing demand for enhanced traceability in the supply chain []. Furthermore, agricultural products are being traded across borders, which has increased the demand for proper traceability of products to comply with each country’s regulations. Agricultural product traceability includes various types of information that are collected by multiple data sources and information exchanges in the supply chain [,]. The sugarcane is a species of tall, perennial grass that is cultivated for its stalks, which are rich in sucrose. Sucrose accounts for 60 percent of worldwide sugar production, while the remaining 40 percent is produced from sugar beets []. Some countries use sugarcane for bioethanol production [,]. Sugarcane is grown in more than 90 countries, with Brazil, India, China, Thailand, and Pakistan being the top five producers []. Sugarcane has also been used to produce other eco-friendly by-products, such as cane juice, cardboard, paper, rum, fuel, and plastic, as shown in . The dynamic nature of sugarcane production, processing, and consumption makes tracking and gathering accurate information difficult. This leads to an unexpected increase in the price of the final product of sugarcane and sugar, which has been delivered to the consumer after passing through middlemen between the farmer(producer) and the consumer [,]. The seed and fertilizer companies often ask for high prices for basic cultivation needs because of the lack of regulations in the industry [,]. Even when regulations do exist, farmers may not be aware of them and end up purchasing expensive seeds and fertilizers []. Farmers put in a great deal of effort to grow the crop, but when the sugarcane is ready to harvest, they rush to sell it to sugar mills. At this point, sugar mills have a high supply and low demand, leading to the purchase of sugarcane crops at very low prices, which discourages and demotivates farmers from further cultivating sugarcane [,]. During this stage, some businesses may also get involved in buying cheap sugarcane products from sugar mills and exporting them at higher rates [,]. Some unscrupulous traders may store sugarcane products during the crop season and then sell them at high prices during the off-season. The government may import sugar from other countries at high rates due to a shortage of sugarcane products during the off-season [,]. Although some countries have well-defined rules and regulations, the poor traceability of the supply chain process often makes it nearly impossible to control prices with the current system, as illustrated in . The main reason for the aforementioned problems is a deficiency in transparency in the sugarcane management process. Farmers are discouraged by the very low amount of money they earn in return for their hard work. Customers have to pay high prices for sugar, which is a basic human need. The government has to pay for imported sugar and provide subsidies, leading to losses for the overall economy of the country. The current sugarcane crop management process is ineffective in providing trust, transparency, and profits to participants []. This highlights the need for a solution to these problems in order to make sugarcane crop management more transparent and reduce sugar prices. One possible solution is a blockchain-based system for transparent management and traceability of sugarcane crops, by removing middlemen and using decentralized contracts []. Blockchain technology has the technical ability to decentralize crop data, making it tamper-proof, and capable of covering all types of transactional and digital data, such as crop data, farmer and sugar mill data, seed companies, and retailer data, requiring authenticity. These features make blockchain a perfect solution for sugarcane crop traceability problems. Blockchain is not only secure, but it also has additional layers and applications developed to provide double-checking on all transactional data, which increases participants’ trust in the system and helps to make sugarcane and seed trades more secure. Smart contracts are a key supporting component of blockchain that helps implement business logic and consensus protocols [].