{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/116101"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/116101","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Digital communities of trust to support smallholder livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa","abstract":"The student, Nicole Lee, accepted the attached license on 2022-07-13 at 18:38.","abstract_html":"The student, Nicole Lee, accepted the attached license on 2022-07-13 at 18:38.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lee, Nicole Mae"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Crop Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Davis, Adam S","Michelson, Hope C","Goldsmith, Peter","Williams II, Martin M"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-08","date_published":"2022-08","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z","subjects":["blockchain","smallholder agriculture","Sub-Saharan Africa","supply chain management"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2022 Nicole Lee"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116101","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Davis, Adam S","Michelson, Hope C","Goldsmith, Peter","Williams II, Martin M"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lee, Nicole Mae"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2022-08","2022-07-14"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Crop Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["blockchain","smallholder agriculture","Sub-Saharan Africa","supply chain management"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2022 Nicole Lee"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116101"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The student, Nicole Lee, accepted the attached license on 2022-07-13 at 18:38.","The student, Nicole Lee, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-07-13 at 18:44.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-07-14 at 15:22.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #18291 on 2022-11-15 at 21:40:09","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-08-01","Trust forms the basis of collaboration and cooperation, including in the smallholder agricultural sector. Establishing trust between actors is complex and time consuming, which increases costs. Distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchain, can be used as a scaffolding to augment (and in some cases, substitute) trust and increase transparency and accountability. This dissertation presents a combination of theoretical and real-world applications of blockchain technology to determine the suitability of blockchain for supporting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, a description of blockchain’s role as a potential trust substituting technology in smallholder value chains is presented. This study includes a theoretical and real-world application of blockchain technology to increase transparency at multiple steps along the dairy and brewing crop value chains, respectively. The second study presents the findings from the analysis of a dataset, aggregated within a blockchain-driven finance and supply chain management mobile application, containing transactional information from smallholder barley farmers in Uganda and discusses the suitability of such blockchain-derived datasets for statistical analysis. The third, and final, study describes a theoretical application of blockchain technology to assist smallholder farmers wishing to aggregate their landholdings under a single land manager. The characteristics and stipulations of a virtual land aggregation project are described, and a pilot project proposal is outlined. The conclusion of this dissertation presents a research agenda for addressing a number of salient questions regarding the use of blockchain in smallholder agricultural systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. While blockchain offers a number of potential avenues for supporting smallholder livelihoods, the applications of this technology must be studied empirically to determine the benefits and challenges of incorporating distributed ledger technologies into smallholder systems."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Digital communities of trust to support smallholder livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Davis, Adam S","Michelson, Hope C","Goldsmith, Peter","Williams II, Martin M"],"dc:creator":["Lee, Nicole Mae"],"dc:date":["2022-08","2022-07-14"],"dc:description":["The student, Nicole Lee, accepted the attached license on 2022-07-13 at 18:38.","The student, Nicole Lee, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-07-13 at 18:44.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-07-14 at 15:22.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #18291 on 2022-11-15 at 21:40:09","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-08-01","Trust forms the basis of collaboration and cooperation, including in the smallholder agricultural sector. Establishing trust between actors is complex and time consuming, which increases costs. Distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchain, can be used as a scaffolding to augment (and in some cases, substitute) trust and increase transparency and accountability. This dissertation presents a combination of theoretical and real-world applications of blockchain technology to determine the suitability of blockchain for supporting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, a description of blockchain’s role as a potential trust substituting technology in smallholder value chains is presented. This study includes a theoretical and real-world application of blockchain technology to increase transparency at multiple steps along the dairy and brewing crop value chains, respectively. The second study presents the findings from the analysis of a dataset, aggregated within a blockchain-driven finance and supply chain management mobile application, containing transactional information from smallholder barley farmers in Uganda and discusses the suitability of such blockchain-derived datasets for statistical analysis. The third, and final, study describes a theoretical application of blockchain technology to assist smallholder farmers wishing to aggregate their landholdings under a single land manager. The characteristics and stipulations of a virtual land aggregation project are described, and a pilot project proposal is outlined. The conclusion of this dissertation presents a research agenda for addressing a number of salient questions regarding the use of blockchain in smallholder agricultural systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. While blockchain offers a number of potential avenues for supporting smallholder livelihoods, the applications of this technology must be studied empirically to determine the benefits and challenges of incorporating distributed ledger technologies into smallholder systems."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116101"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2022 Nicole Lee"],"dc:subject":["blockchain","smallholder agriculture","Sub-Saharan Africa","supply chain management"],"dc:title":["Digital communities of trust to support smallholder livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Crop Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:55Z"}