SugarChain: Blockchain technology meets Agriculture -- The case study and analysis of the Indian sugarcane farming

Not only in our country and Asia, but the agriculture sector is also lagging all over the world while using new technologies and innovations. Farmers are not getting the accurate price and compensation of their products because of several reasons. The intermediate persons or say middlemen are controlling the prices and product delivery on their own. Due to lack of education, technological advancement, market knowledge, post-harvesting processes, and middleman involvement, farmers are always deprived of their actual pay and efforts. The use of blockchain technology can help such farmers to automate the process with high trust. We have presented our case study and analysis for the Indian sugarcane farming with data collected from farmers. The system implementation, testing, and result analysis has been shown based on the case study. The overall purpose of our research is to emphasize and motivate the agricultural products and benefit the farmers with the use of blockchain technology.Comment: 17 page

Research data supporting: Survival rates of wild and released White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis, and their implications for conservation of vultures in Nepal

Tables on the the numbers of wild and released captive White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis fitted with GPS transmitters at Kawasoti, Nawalparasi District, Nepal, and deaths; a comparison of logistic regression models; the Nepal Release Protocol

Survival rates of wild and released White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis, and their implications for conservation of vultures in Nepal

Beginning in the mid-1990s, populations of three species of Gyps vultures declined by > 97% in South Asia in little more than a decade, caused by unintentional poisoning by the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac. This led to a ban on the veterinary use of the drug, and establishment of conservation breeding programmes, throughout the region. Once much of Nepal had been confirmed as being free from diclofenac, beginning in 2017 White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis were released from the captive breeding population. A total of 99 birds (n = 50 wild and n = 49 released) were fit with GPS transmitters between 2017-2022 and monitored daily. Tag fixes suggesting death or ill-health were followed up and dead vultures retrieved for post-mortem analysis. The estimated annual survival of wild adult vultures was 0.974 (95% CI, 0.910-0.997), while that of wild subadults was 0.880 (0.721-0.966). Survival rates of released birds were lower than those of wild birds, being 0.644 (0.490-0.778) for adults and 0.758 (0.579-0.887) for subadults. Post-mortem analysis of dead vultures indicated several possible causes of death, including predation, infection and electrocution. There was no evidence that any birds died of NSAID poisoning. The high survival rates of wild birds, especially adults, and the lack of evidence for NSAID-caused mortality, suggest that vulture habitat in the Nepal VSZ is free from diclofenac and that other hazards are sufficiently infrequent to allow the vulture population to recover. The lower survival of released birds compared to their wild counterparts suggests a need to improve the conservation breeding programme and release protocol