NAIROBI - Kenya plans to use block chain technology to boost food security, a senior government official said on Thursday.
Joe Mucheru, cabinet secretary in the ministry of Information Communication and Technology (ICT), told journalists in Nairobi that technology such as artificial intelligence can be used to track agricultural produce from end-to-end from seeds to marketplace.
"We will also be introducing a citizen service to track the origin of food products and report unsafe food products," Mucheru said when he received a report from the distributed ledgers technology and artificial intelligence taskforce.
The taskforce was created in 2018, to develop a roadmap for emerging technologies that will define the evolving fourth industrial revolution.
Mucheru said that the team will receive views of the public on the use of block chain and artificial intelligence for the next three weeks.
"Thereafter the report will presented to cabinet for approval so that the implementation of the recommendations commences," he added.
Mucheru said that blockchain technologies are expected to be disruptive and will change the way business is conducted in Kenya.
"They further promise to enhance public service delivery, while promoting efficiency in the private sector by streamlining supply chains," he added.
Bitange Ndemo, chairperson of the taskforce, said that the use of blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies could be transformative across several key sectors in Kenya, including healthcare, agriculture, education and government services.
"The improved efficiency, transparency and accountability of blockchain can considerably benefit government services in which several emerging markets struggle with inefficient legacy infrastructures and an inability to provide citizens with fast, accountable and transparent service delivery," Ndemo said.