{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T03:11:32Z","timestamp":1772766692858,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,4]],"date-time":"2025-10-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1759536000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The recent advancements in blockchain technology have also expanded its applications to smart agricultural fields, leading to increased research and studies in areas such as supply chain traceability systems and insurance systems. Policies and reward systems built on top of centralized systems face several problems and issues, including data integrity issues, modifications in data readings, third-party banking vulnerabilities, and central point failures. The current paper discusses how farming is becoming a leading cause of water and electricity wastage and introduces a novel idea called IncentiveChain. To keep a limit on the usage of resources in farming, we implemented an application for distributing cryptocurrency to the producers, as the farmers are responsible for the activities in farming fields. Launching incentive schemes can benefit farmers economically and attract more interest and attention. We provide a state-of-the-art architecture and design through distributed storage, which will include using edge points and various technologies affiliated with national agricultural departments and regional utility companies to make IncentiveChain practical. We successfully demonstrate the execution of the IncentiveChain application by transferring crypto-ether from utility company accounts to farmer accounts in a decentralized system application. With this system, the ether is distributed to the farmer more securely using the blockchain, which in turn removes third-party banking vulnerabilities and central, cloud, and blockchain constraints and adds data trust and authenticity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info16100858","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,6]],"date-time":"2025-10-06T15:05:06Z","timestamp":1759763106000},"page":"858","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["IncentiveChain: Adequate Power and Water Usage in Smart Farming Through Diffusion of Blockchain Crypto-Ether"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1964-5381","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sukrutha L. T.","family":"Vangipuram","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Management Information Systems, Texas A&M University\u2013Texarkana, Texarkana, TX 75503, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2959-6541","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Saraju P.","family":"Mohanty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1616-7628","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elias","family":"Kougianos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Nations, U. (2024, July 09). World Population Projected to Reach 9.8 Billion in 2050, and 11.2 Billion in 2100. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Available online: https:\/\/www.un.org\/development\/desa\/en\/news\/population\/world-population-prospects-2017.html."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Farm, C. (2024, December 19). How Much Water Is Used for Farming? 19 November 2024. Available online: https:\/\/coolfarm.org\/how-much-water-is-used-for-farming\/."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Potter, N. (2024, October 14). Irrigation and Water Use. USDA:Economic Research Survey, Available online: https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/topics\/farm-practices-management\/irrigation-water-use."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102711","DOI":"10.1016\/j.foodpol.2024.102711","article-title":"Emerging outsource agricultural services enable farmer adaptation in agrifood value chains: A product cycle perspective","volume":"127","author":"Reardon","year":"2024","journal-title":"Food Policy"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Greenwood, B. (2024, May 14). Duties and Responsibilities of Farmers. CHRON Newsletters. Available online: https:\/\/work.chron.com\/duties-responsibilities-farmers-19369.html."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1109\/MCE.2018.2816299","article-title":"Everything You Wanted to Know About the Blockchain: Its Promise, Components, Processes, and Problems","volume":"7","author":"Puthal","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Consum. Electron. Mag."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Office of Energy and Environmental Policy (2024, August 29). Census of Agriculture, Available online: https:\/\/www.nass.usda.gov\/Publications\/AgCensus\/2022\/Online_Resources\/Farm_and_Ranch_Irrigation_Survey\/iwms.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2025, September 14). Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks. EPA, Available online: https:\/\/nepis.epa.gov\/Exe\/ZyPDF.cgi\/P101EZHC.PDF?Dockey=P101EZHC.PDF."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"(2025, September 20). Office, Congressional Budget Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the Agriculture Sector, Available online: https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/61690#_idTextAnchor035."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"USDA National Agriculture Statistics Services (NASS) (2024, December 14). Irrigation and Water Management. Census of Agriculture, Available online: https:\/\/www.nass.usda.gov\/Publications\/Highlights\/2024\/Census22_HL_Irrigation_4.pdf."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"(2024, July 09). Causes, Effects and Solutions of Agricultural Pollution on Our Environment. Available online: https:\/\/www.conserve-energy-future.com\/causes-and-effects-of-agricultural-pollution.php."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Alon, S. (2024, July 09). Putting Core Insurance Systems in the Cloud. Available online: https:\/\/insuranceblog.accenture.com\/putting-core-insurance-systems-in-the-cloud."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Pandey, S. (2024, July 09). Pros and Cons of Cloud Adoption in Insurance and Financial Services Industry. Available online: https:\/\/insurance.apacciooutlook.com\/cxoinsights\/pros-and-cons-of-cloud-adoption-in-insurance-and-financial-services-industry-nwid-1501.html."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Gupta, N. (2024, July 09). Impact on Real-Time Cross-Border Payments. Available online: https:\/\/www.yesbank.in\/digital-banking\/tech-for-change\/financial-services\/impact-on-realtime-cross-border-payments."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Georgievich, K.V. (2021, January 27\u201329). Choosing an Agricultural Insurance Strategy. Proceedings of the 2021 14th International Conference Management of Large-Scale System Development (MLSD), Moscow, Russia.","DOI":"10.1109\/MLSD52249.2021.9600155"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, H., Liu, H., and Wang, D. (2022). Agricultural Insurance, Climate Change, and Food Security: Evidence from Chinese Farmers. Sustainability, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/su14159493"},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"101373","article-title":"Satellite Based Composite Weather Insurance Product for assessing mid-term adversary","volume":"36","author":"Choudhury","year":"2024","journal-title":"Remote. Sens. Appl. Soc. Environ."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tappi, M., and Santeramo, F.G. (2022, January 3\u20135). (Extreme) Weather index-based insurances: Data, models, and other aspects we need to think about. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor), Perugia, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/MetroAgriFor55389.2022.9964979"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Facility, G.I.I. (2024, October 19). Blockchain Application in Agriculture Insurance. Available online: https:\/\/www.indexinsuranceforum.org\/blog\/blockchain-application-agriculture-insurance."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"58","DOI":"10.1109\/MITP.2021.3123416","article-title":"Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts to Provide Crop Insurance for Smallholder Farmers in Developing Countries","volume":"23","author":"Kshetri","year":"2021","journal-title":"IT Prof."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nguyen, T., Das, A., and Tran, L. (2019, January 5\u20138). NEO Smart Contract for Drought-Based Insurance. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Canadian Conference of Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), Edmonton, AB, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/CCECE.2019.8861573"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bai, P., Kumar, S., and Kumar, K. (2022, January 11\u201312). Use of Blockchain Enabled IoT in Insurance: A Case Study of Calamity Based Crop Insurance. Proceedings of the 2022 Third International Conference on Intelligent Computing Instrumentation and Control Technologies (ICICICT), Kannur, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICICICT54557.2022.9917659"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vangipuram, S.L.T., Mohanty, S.P., Kougianos, E., and Ray, C. (2022). G-DaM: A Distributed Data Storage with Blockchain Framework for Management of Groundwater Quality Data. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22228725"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vangipuram, S.L.T., Mohanty, S.P., Kougianos, E., and Ray, C. (2022). agroString: Visibility and Provenance through a Private Blockchain Platform for Agricultural Dispense towards Consumers. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22218227"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36282","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2021.3062845","article-title":"A Trusted Blockchain-Based Traceability System for Fruit and Vegetable Agricultural Products","volume":"9","author":"Yang","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"554","DOI":"10.1016\/j.egyr.2018.09.001","article-title":"Energy use and efficiency in selected rice-based cropping systems of the Middle-Indo Gangetic Plains in India","volume":"4","author":"Soni","year":"2018","journal-title":"Energy Rep."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xu, H., Yang, R., and Song, J. (2021). Agricultural Water Use Efficiency and Rebound Effect: A Study for China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph18137151"},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"9","article-title":"EEWMP: An IoT-Based Energy-Efficient Water Management Platform for Smart Irrigation","volume":"2021","author":"Ullah","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Program."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nhamo, L., Magidi, J., Nyamugama, A., Clulow, A.D., Sibanda, M., Chimonyo, V.G.P., and Mabhaudhi, T. (2020). Prospects of Improving Agricultural and Water Productivity through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Agriculture, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/agriculture10070256"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106496","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eiar.2020.106496","article-title":"Advanced energy consumption system for smart farm based on reactive energy utilization technologies","volume":"86","author":"Lin","year":"2021","journal-title":"Environ. Impact Assess. Rev."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Palihapitiya, T. (2024, August 29). Blockchain in Banking Industry. Available online: https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/344954493_Blockchain_in_Banking_Industry."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"CoinLaw (2025, September 10). XRP vs. SWIFT Statistics 2025: Transaction Speed, Fees and Adoption. Available online: https:\/\/coinlaw.io\/xrp-vs-swift-statistics\/."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Finextra (2024, August 29). 3 Major Roadblocks to Blockchain Adoption in Banking. Available online: https:\/\/www.finextra.com\/blogposting\/18197\/3-major-roadblocks-to-blockchain-adoption-in-banking."}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/16\/10\/858\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T10:07:28Z","timestamp":1760004448000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/16\/10\/858"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,4]]},"references-count":33,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10]]}},"alternative-id":["info16100858"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info16100858","relation":{},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,4]]}}}