# A Survey of Blockchain Applications for Management in Agriculture and Livestock Internet of Things
## 1 Introduction  
In the contemporary global landscape, agriculture and livestock play an essential role in fulfilling the escalating demand for food. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization projects to sustain the global population by 2050 for the necessity of a 60% increase in food production [1]. This imperative highlights the critical challenge of securing a stable global food supply, a challenge that the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technology into agriculture and livestock endeavors aims to mitigate by offering a plethora of innovative solutions. In recent years, the application of IoT technology in agriculture and livestock has been receiving increasing attention [2]. IoT represents a network architecture that enables seamless connectivity and communication among various objects and devices, thus enabling the efficient sharing of data from the natural world. This system, which incorporates embedded software, batteries, and sensors, relies on both wireless and wired microcontrollers to provide cost-effective solutions [3]. Within the domain of agriculture and livestock management, IoT technology serves a specialized role connecting fields, pastures, warehouses,and farms to create a network that enables sophisticated monitoring and management of crops and livestock. Researchers have categorized agricultural IoT into seven distinct classes: Smart Monitoring, Smart Water Management, Agrochemical Applications, Crop Disease Management, Smart Harvesting, supply chain management, and Smart Agricultural Practices [4]. These technologies offer real-time insights into crop management and the surrounding environment, facilitating data-driven decisions for precision agriculture, such as optimal irrigation and fertilization strategies [5]. Similarly, in livestock management, the integration of IoT and AI technologies supports automated health monitoring and identification, enhancing overall breeding [6]. Although IoT technology brings many benefits to agriculture and livestock, including improved production efficiency and quality, it also faces many challenges in its implementation. These challenges encompass data security risks, transparency deficiencies, regulatory complexities, and the high costs and resource requirements for advanced data analysis. Addressing these challenges requires us to adopt additional strategies to cope, such as blockchain technology. Blockchain technology, first introduced in 2008 as the foundation of Bitcoin by [PERSON], operates as a decentralized digital currency system that functions independently of major financial institutions and enables direct transactions among users. Blockchain technology centers around a tamper-proof, decentralized, public distributed ledger that consists of blocks arranged chronologically, providing strong data security and integrity. In the agricultural and livestock IoT, significant benefits arise from utilizing blockchain technology, particularly in tackling data security, transparency, and credibility issues due to increased data volumes and the involvement of multiple stakeholders. Firstly, as a distributed storage structure, blockchain reduces the pressure of traditional centralized data storage, enhancing data availability and persistence. Secondly, it ensures the accuracy and security of data, guaranteeing that once recorded, the data cannot be altered or deleted. Additionally, blockchain demonstrates tremendous potential in supply chain traceability and verification, enabling full-track tracing from production to consumers and enhancing the traceability and trustworthiness of agricultural products [7; 8; 9]. Finally, operations can be conducted through smart contracts and automated programs that automatically carry out relevant operations once predetermined conditions are satisfied [10]. While blockchain technology offers decentralized advantages such as transparency and trust, there are scenarios in agriculture and livestock management where centralized systems excel.