Enayati Mojtaba, Arlikatti Sudha, Ramesh Maneesha Vinodini
Amrita School for Sustainable Futures, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, India.
Heliyon. 2024 Jan 11;10(2):e24358. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24358. eCollection 2024 Jan 30.
Rural fishing communities face numerous challenges related to livelihood security, as they are engaged in a risky and labour-intensive occupation. They often receive only a small portion of the profits, due to the influence of self-serving local intermediaries, lack of transparency in the business processes, trust issues, and power differentials among stakeholders. Although still in its infancy, blockchain technology has been adopted in various urban settings to mitigate similar challenges and to build trust through its security attributes, data ledger transparency, and smart contract automation. Yet, few have explored the efficacy of blockchain technology in addressing the unique challenges faced by rural fishermen in marketing their catch and connecting them to a broader range of customers for improved livelihood resilience. This study aims to examine how the livelihood resilience of fishermen can be increased through the potential of a blockchain, in a fishing community in the coastal village of Alappad in Kerala, India. Thematic analysis of data acquired from 43 semi-structured qualitative interviews and participatory rural appraisal tools revealed five categories of challenges: business cost and profitability, government regulations, low education and digital illiteracy, socio-cultural limitations, and over-dependence on middlemen as inhibitors to fishermen's livelihoods. The study proposes a blockchain-based e-commerce framework to mitigate selected challenges that emerged due to a lack of trust and transparency in the local fish market. It contributes to rural development by exploring an innovative, solution aligned with five UN Sustainable Development Goals, in contrast to the Business-as-usual approach in offering technological solutions.
农村渔业社区面临着诸多与生计安全相关的挑战，因为他们从事的是一项风险高且劳动密集型的职业。由于自私自利的当地中间商的影响、商业流程缺乏透明度、信任问题以及利益相关者之间的权力差异，他们往往只能获得一小部分利润。尽管区块链技术仍处于起步阶段，但已在各种城市环境中得到应用，以缓解类似挑战，并通过其安全属性、数据账本透明度和智能合约自动化来建立信任。然而，很少有人探讨区块链技术在应对农村渔民在销售渔获物以及将他们与更广泛的客户群体建立联系以提高生计恢复力方面所面临的独特挑战方面的功效。本研究旨在考察在印度喀拉拉邦沿海村庄阿拉帕德的一个渔业社区中，如何通过区块链的潜力来提高渔民的生计恢复力。对从43次半结构化定性访谈和参与式农村评估工具中获取的数据进行的主题分析揭示了五类挑战：商业成本和盈利能力、政府监管、低教育水平和数字文盲、社会文化限制以及过度依赖中间商，这些都是渔民生计的阻碍因素。该研究提出了一个基于区块链的电子商务框架，以缓解因当地鱼市场缺乏信任和透明度而出现的特定挑战。与提供技术解决方案的常规做法相比，该研究通过探索一种与联合国五个可持续发展目标相一致的创新解决方案，为农村发展做出了贡献。
