Blockchain Traceability Adoption in Agricultural Supply Chain Coordination: An Evolutionary Game Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this paper, the authors investigate the adoption of blockchain traceability in agriculture, which involves producers, processors, and governments, using mathematical modeling and simulation methodologies. In a real-world agricultural supply chain, farmers produce agricultural products (such as rice, milk, cattle, vegetables, and fruits) and deep process or package them through a shared processor in order to resell them. As a result, a blockchain-based traceability system can track every stage of the production of agricultural products, from initial production to transportation and processing into the system, and when a tainted product arises, it may be discovered in time. The authors examine how producers, processors, and local governments make decisions about the adoption of traceability of agricultural products. So, this study's main objectives are to: (a) Analyze and research the long-term decision-making behavior of the key players (producers, processors, and governments) in the blockchain traceability of agricultural products. (b) The adoption of traceability techniques by producers and processors may result in government incentives or fines, and (c) the development of evolutionary stable strategies (ESS) under various decision-making scenarios.

In my opinion, the article is well structured, consisting of 5 main chapters. The understanding of the reading and the specific used terms (if you have briefly prior experience in the field) is good. The article includes various explanations and figures, and the paper has enough references to support the information. However, some references should be changed as they are more than five years old (e.g. Reference no. 10, 12, 14, 31, 45, 46). It is important and appreciated that the paper follows the standard structure of a scientific article. The subject is very interesting and of interest to agricultural producers. From my perspective, there are a lot of formulas and parameters, which may make them difficult to understand for someone who does not have technical experience.

More details regarding the distributed ledger technologies (Ethereum, IOTA, etc.) should be added, for example:

- Ktari, Jalel, et al. "Agricultural Lightweight Embedded Blockchain System: A Case Study in Olive Oil." Electronics 11.20 (2022): 3394.

- Niloofar, Parisa, et al. "Data-driven decision support in livestock farming for improved animal health, welfare and greenhouse gas emissions: Overview and challenges." Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 190 (2021): 106406.

- Mohan, B. A., et al. "Ethereum-Based Approach for Agricultural Marketing." Emerging Research in Computing, Information, Communication and Applications. Springer, Singapore, 2022. 135-150.

I found some mistakes that I described in the previous section. So, my recommendation is to look at the grammar and punctuation throughout the text:

• Line 8: After “Notably” there should be a comma

• Line 10: instead of  “blockchains” - blockchain

• Line 13: instead of “agricultural” - agriculture

• Lines 13-16: “Further analysis the optimal strategies of the members of the agricultural product supply chain in different scenarios, i.e., whether producers and processors adopt blockchains traceability technology and the government in leading the construction of a blockchain-based traceability system.” - this sentence might be a little difficult to follow, so maybe rewrite it. 

• Line 16: “reveasl” - reveals 

• Line 23: “policy makers” - policymakers

• Line 24: “fraudfree” - fraud-free / fraud free  

• Line 24: sustainable - sustainability or without the word “for” (“Furthermore, these findings provide guidance to policy makers to develop policies to accelerate the implementation of blockchain-based traceability systems to guarantee fraudfree and sustainability for agricultural supply chains.” or “Furthermore, these findings provide guidance to policy makers to develop policies to accelerate the implementation of blockchain-based traceability systems to guarantee fraudfree and sustainable agricultural supply chains.")

• Line 29: “food safety and traceability has become” - instead of “has” it should be “have” 

• Line 31: “Especially in agriculture sector” - shoul be “Especially in the agriculture sector”

• Line 34: “in the flows of transactions” - “in the flow of transactions”

• Line 38: “for prospect” - “for the prospect”

• Lines 39-41: “Unlike conventional Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and Quick Response (QR) codes automated technologies, blockchain guarantee transparency and traceability in supply chains” - might be incomplete - consider rephrasing it

• Line 45: “active” - actively

• Line 46: before “such” would be a comma

• Line 48: “agri-foods” - agri-food

• Line 50: “in adopting” - to adopt

• Lines 50-51: “Producers are hesitant to adopt blockchain traceability as they lack of digital skills and with limited digital infrastructure.” - “they lack digital” or “Producers are hesitant to adopt blockchain traceability as they need more digital skills and with limited digital infrastructure.”

• Line 53: “encouraging” - encourage

• Line 54: “to accepting” - to accept 

• Lines 54-57: “However, in the perspective of supply chain decision-making behaviour of stakeholders, there are few studies on traceability strategy for supported by blockchain technology regardless of its significant implications for establishing agricultural traceability solutions.”:

• “in the perspective” - from the perspective

• “supply” - the supply 

• “strategy for supported by blockchain technology” - without “for”

• Line 58: “in this paper” - without “in”

• Line 61: “products in” - without “in”

• Line 65: “and when contaminated product” - a contaminated

• Line 67: “is considered as a proxy” - without “as”

• Line 72: “engaging in the blockchain” - without “the”

• Line 83: “Whereas it may not the ideal state” - Whereas it may not be the ideal state

• Line 87: “adapt” - adopt or adapt to new technologies ?

• Line 88: “in traceability” - in the traceability 

• Lines 95-96: “decision making” - decision-making

• Lines 108-110: “Blockchains is well known as a decentralized ledger, has been regarded as the most significant technology that could drastically change the global economic with a decentralized digital database of transactions.” - suggestion: “Blockchain, well known as a decentralized ledger, has been regarded as the most significant technology that could drastically change the global economy with a decentralized digital database of transactions.”

• Line 123: “Thus blockchain would improves supply chains efficience” - Thus blockchain would improve supply chain efficiency

• Line 128: “record keeping” - record-keeping

• Line 130: “of the application of technology” - of applying technology

• Line 134: “field including” - field, including

• Line 137: “guarantee the food safety” - without “the”

• Line 137: “However the above” - after However should be a comma

• Line 138: “of information” - of the information

• Line 139: “uptream to downtream” - maybe should be upstream to downstream ?

• Line 145: “It is widely accepted that blockchains technology be crucial” - It is widely accepted that blockchain technology is crucial

• Line 148: “research blockchain-based” - research on blockchain-based

• Lines 151-152: “optimise regulation process” - optimise the regulation process

• Line 173: “blockchains smart contract” - blockchain smart contract

• Line 174: “users to sharing data” - users to share data

• Line 200: “of processing” - of the processing

• Lines 198-200: “We assume that processors can decide whether to establish an agricultural traceability platform to improve the accuracy and traceability of information of processing and distribution of agricultural products.” - a bit hard to follow - consider rewriting the sentence 

• Line 214: “For example, the government will a policy and regulatory function primarily.” - will have / will develop / will implement / will adopt 

• Lines 304-305: “However, for an unsymmetric game, if the equilibrium is asymptotically stable, then it must be consistent with strict Nash equilibrium and is a pure strategic equilibrium.” - suggestion: However, if the equilibrium is asymptotically stable for an unsymmetric game, it must be consistent with strict Nash equilibrium and is a pure strategic equilibrium.

• Line 325: “governments under” - governments are under

• Line 326: “The government will take active in supervision” - The government will take action in supervision ?

• Lines 336-337: “processors do not traceabilitys” - processors do not have traceability

• Lines 373-374: “three participants at different scenarios” - three participants in different scenarios

• Line 413: “the parameters value are showed” - the parameter’s value are shown

• Line 455: “trajectory even more” - trajectory is even more

• Line 496: “it will actively affects” - it will actively affect

• Lines 559-560: “adopt strict regulatory strategy” - adopt a strict regulatory strategy

• Line 568: “regulatory” - regulations 

• Line 573: “benefits of free-riding is beyond” - are beyond

Moreover, the authors should take a look again at the formatting, especially figures and maybe consider centering them.

My impression of the article consists on understating the technology to record and maintain all the information and data from the production to the distribution of agricultural products. It is explained clearly how the blockchain will help in this field, with all the advantages and disadvantages. However, there are a lot of mathematical formulas and it makes it harder to keep on track reading the article, but for someone specialised in the field this will not be a problem. Every element of the formulas is explained with details. The article contains figures and tables which explain well the ideas and the mathematical calculations. It is important and appreciated that the paper follows the standard structure of a scientific article. Although I don't like the numbers at the end of every sentence.  The subject is very interesting and of interest to agricultural producers.

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

Thank you for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered the suggestion of Reviewer and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript.

The red part has been revised according to your comments. Revision notes, point-to-point are given, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Abstract:

·         Spelling mistakes like: The results of reveasl: (line 16),

·         Consistency: point 1 & 2 (line 16-20)

Introduction:

·         The research contributions and questions should be clearly defined and briefly discussed.

·         Consistency : points a & b (line 100-103)

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

·         More elaboration is required about the previous solution regarding agriculture supply chain, and the role of government agencies in the agriculture SCs.

·         The gap in previous research should be presented at the end of this section

Materials and Methods

·         It is better to represent and summarize different results in a table.

Conclusions and implications

·         What are the limitations of the research?

·         Who are the beneficiary group of the results of the research?

·         Directions for future research are required

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

Thank you for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered the suggestion of Reviewer and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript.

The red part has been revised according to your comments. Revision notes, point-to-point are given, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors employ game theory to describe blockchains traceability adoption in agricultural supply chain. Although the area of research is quite interesting, this manuscript needs some improvements on basis of following points:

1. The Introduction Sect needs superior framing of the research questions. Some ambiguities can be found.

2.  The authors need to learn from recent advances. In this regard, Economically independent reverse logistics of customer-centric closed-loop supply chain for herbal medicines and biofuel and Multi-objective optimization of cost-effective and customer-centric closed-loop supply chain management model in T-environment can be explored.

3. The equation numbering is inconsistenet. Follow the proper format .

4. The assumptions need proper citations. Problem definition should be more concise.

5. Sect. 3.3 contains some existing knowledge and thus can be moved to Appendix.

6. Some typos are in the manuscript and should be taken care of. 

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

Thank you for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered the suggestion of Reviewer and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript.

The red part has been revised according to your comments. Revision notes, point-to-point are given, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx