Deploying Information and Communication Technologies to Reduce the Risks of Delivering Low Quality Fresh Produce to the Developed World
Dr. Paul T. Kidd, Cheshire Henbury, United Kingdom
In a world where fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables is regularly shipped using road, rail, sea, and air transport, often over long distances, increasingly across international borders, and in some circumstances, from one continent to another, it is natural to ask what can be done to reduce the risk of quality losses that are an inevitable part of such transportation. With Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) becoming increasingly ubiquitous, it is also natural to ask if these technologies might be used in some way to reduce the risk of quality losses.
ICT Applications for Quality Controlled Logistics (QCL)
Several specific technologies are available to help mitigate quality losses, including the internet, satellite-based communication systems, GPS systems, mobile telephones that are adapted to be data transmitters, wireless-based sensors (which make use of similar technologies used by laptops for wireless connection to the internet), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices. RFID devices, in their basic form, do one thing—provide an electronic bar code—which can also be extended, at a cost, to become a wireless sensor. RFID devices are, however, a very specific type of wireless device that require the use of dedicated readers, which can in fact be quite short range (a few centimetres, which can make the use of RFID quite a challenging exercise).
Data could be transmitted by satellite, mobile telephone technology, the internet, or by using some combination of the three, from remote places, like a truck in transit, for example. Data might well be temperature measurements taken from the produce, which could then perhaps be fed into models that can predict the remaining shelf-life. Perhaps such shelf-life data could then be used to control the release of produce by implementing first-to-expire issuing rules (Quality Controlled Logistics), thus helping to ensure that produce that has been stressed is not held in store, but is used fairly quickly before deterioration renders it unusable.
Feasibility and Usefulness
The benefits of using wireless sensors and RFID-based sensors are therefore self-evident. Or are they? Other, more mature technologies, such as simple miniature data loggers, would also be viable, since often all that is necessary is to collect the data at the end of the logistics chain to verify the continuity and effectiveness of the cold chain. The additional expense of the wireless technologies and all the hardware paraphernalia that goes with them can thus be avoided. Data logger technology is in fact currently used in some cases, so why change to more exotic technologies? Certainly, deploying wireless technologies is technologically feasible, but for the most part raises many engineering, financial, and business issues which, for the foreseeable future, place the approach into the category of solutions looking for problems. In short, the technology is unlikely to create much value for the various supply chain stakeholders.
The practical matters that stand in the way of useful deployment are many and varied. Issues include the complexity of supply chains, massive variability in produce, and also the nature of the produce itself, this being not dead material as in the case of meat for example, but still very much alive in the sense that biological processes are still in action (e.g. transpiration and respiration). Cost is also a major concern as the scale of the ICT infrastructure would need to be global, and in place at every farm, in every truck, in all ports, and so on. What is more, the ICT infrastructure would need to be highly standardized and fully interoperable and there is a need among all parties involved to share data, which is usually a killer, as the willingness to do this is normally absent.
But there is an even greater concern than mere practicalities and costs. This arises when consideration is given to the question: to what end would such an investment be directed? The answer is nothing more than to be able to monitor the condition of the produce, and possibly to be able to predict a shelf life of produce to a value that is only accurate to plus or minus several days. The ICT would not at all provide a means of preventing the loss of quality because such systems are passive, concerned only with the monitoring function. ICT equipment is also not able to prevent mechanical damage to produce resulting from, for example, rough handling, which is another source of quality loss risk.
Post-harvest technologies can only, at best, preserve the quality of the produce, and if the quality of that which enters the chain is already compromised then no amount of ICT is going to be of much use. Better instead to invest in technologies that are proven to maintain quality, such as modified atmosphere packing and shipping facilities, and also to improve on-farm activities and practices so that quality is not compromised.
This does not mean however that ICT has no role to play, but that a better strategy is needed, which focuses on improving the crops and the shipping conditions, using a range of complementary technologies. It is also necessary to look longer term at the development of markets in developed countries. Here, at the moment, quality is perceived by many as largely a matter of a produce’s keeping-quality, but this is not necessarily how quality will be perceived several years from now. Within developed nations, with growing disposable incomes, the supermarkets in particular have established different brand categories for fresh produce, ranging from the low price value end, through to premium offerings that are differentiated on flavours, and which are also increasingly based on varieties recognised by consumers as signifying high quality. But another market trend is also becoming discernable, and this is the one associated with another dimensions of quality—provenance and environmental responsibility.
So the question is, not just how to use ICT in the logistics chain to reduce risks associated with shipping produce, but how to help growers in the developing world, and other stakeholders, to achieve a complete, end-to-end quality package, that starts with picking the right varieties to grow, and how to manage these crops, taking into account local biodiversity concerns, and so forth, and in doing so, respond to the concerns of consumers in the developed world interested in ethical buying.
A Sustainability Driven Approach
There is a risk for growers in the developing world that they will become caught-up in implementing the unsustainable agronomy and horticultural practices of the developed world, just at the moment when there is growing realisation of the need to reinvent agriculture. What is needed in such circumstances, is an ICT infrastructure that supports risk reduction with respect to key quality parameters, including intrinsic factors such as flavour, appearance, keeping quality, etc., as determined through what happens on-farm, as well as extrinsic factors, such as respecting local biodiversity constraints, minimising use of energy and chemical inputs, adopting biological control methods, etc.
To this end, an ICT system needs to be able to help growers deal with the myriad of factors that affect intrinsic quality, to help them deliver produce that has good intrinsic quality. Such a system must also to be able to provide the means of delivering to consumers, the authentication and verification that would be necessary to support premium branding of produce in relation to environmental and ethical concerns. In addition, with time, the system might be extended to logistics chains, once a multi-sector world-wide ICT infrastructure has been developed to support all global trade. And by creating such an ICT system, not only would this be useful as an element of a (future) global system for planning and managing food production (reducing risks of shortages), but also provide the basis for growers in the developed world to shift from being commodity suppliers, the curse of farmers in all parts of the world, to creators of customer value that will deliver higher prices to growers.
To conclude, ICT has a role to play in risk management and minimisation across the whole supply chain from grower to consumer. What exactly this should be however needs to be conceptualised from an interdisciplinary perspective, combined with strategic systems thinking. What is largely being proposed at the moment though, are quite low-level ICTs that are the product of traditional reductionist, mono-disciplinary, and technology-centric thinking, which actually is part of the reason why agriculture in the developed world is unsustainable. Achieving sustainable agriculture and food distribution logistics does not involve applying more of what lies at the root of the problem!
Further Reading
- www.cheshirehenbury.com
- www.cheshirehenbury.com/paulthomaskidd