Abstract
Food supply chains in West Africa face persistent challenges related to traceability, food safety, fraud, and weak regulatory enforcement. Fragmented supply networks, informal market structures, and limited data transparency reduce the ability of regulators, producers, and consumers to track food products across production, processing, and distribution stages. These conditions increase the risk of contamination, mislabeling, and post-harvest losses, while limiting access to higher-value markets. This paper presents a structured critical review of peer-reviewed studies that examine blockchain-enabled traceability in food supply chains, with relevance to West Africa. Drawing on journal articles and selected technical reports from international organizations, the review evaluates system design choices, traceability objectives, governance arrangements, and implementation constraints. The analysis focuses on reported benefits, data requirements, and contextual limitations. The reviewed evidence indicates that blockchain-based traceability systems can improve data integrity and auditability under specific conditions. However, their applicability in West African food systems remains constrained by infrastructural gaps, weak institutional coordination, high implementation costs, and limited stakeholder readiness. Many studies emphasize technical feasibility while giving insufficient attention to governance and adoption barriers. The paper focused approaches to traceability that align with the operational realities of food supply chains in West Africa.
Citations
IRE Journals:
Asamoah Oppong Zadok "Blockchain-Enabled Traceability for Food Supply Chains in West Africa" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 4 Issue 7 2021 Page 369-382 https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV4I7-1713412
IEEE:
Asamoah Oppong Zadok
"Blockchain-Enabled Traceability for Food Supply Chains in West Africa" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 4(7) https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV4I7-1713412
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