Prof. Dr. Kochupillai has recently co-authored a paper with Ulrich Gallersdörfer, Julia Könniger and Roman Beck. The paper is centered around the possibilities and limitations of blockchain-based solutions in agrobiodiveristy, the biological diversity within as well as on the soil. The article explores how blockchain-based solutions can help overcome the hurdles and loopholes, present in international regulations that have been designed to protect and promote (in situ) agrobiodiversity conservation. Moreover, the article explains the practical hurdles faced by farmers. In this context, blockchain-based solutions can lower the transaction costs that block the equitable sharing of agrobiodiversity and incentivize the overcoming of intellectual property regimes that prevent conservation, research and innovation. This paper illustrates the legal and ethical challenges that might emerge in this context, such as trustworthiness and privacy-related issues that have to be addresses at an early stage of the development. Nonetheless, these solutions could allow all stakeholders, farming systems and sectors to equally flourish as well as partaking in research and sustainable innovation practices that can enhance agrobiodiversity in situ.
For more information, you can find the paper here.
