Piece of Cake: Assuring Specific Qualities of Product in Farm Lifecycles with DLT - Can Evidenced-Based Practice be supported by Participatory Action Research Methods?

Abstract

A strong need for evidence-based practice in the blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) research, development and action domains is currently clarifying. Literature highlights a lack of transparency around the outputs, outcomes and impacts of blockchain projects. As previously cited in this journal for example, the US Agency for International Development studied 43 projects, and found that nearly all did not want to share their results [1]. The Centre for Evidence Based Blockchain recently completed a study of 517 companies to see if their blockchain projects could be defined as evidence-based practice. Over four, years they measured companies using the PCIO framework (what evidence is there of Problem – Comparison – Intervention and Outcomes) of evidence-based practice. The studies concluded that almost half of blockchain companies showed “no explicit evidence of the problem to be solved. Approximately one-third fail[ed] to cite a comparison and intervention analysis, and less than 2% demonstrate[d] evidence of outcomes backed by filtered (critically appraised, peer reviewed) information” (Naqvi & Hussain, p. 8 [2].) This paper presents how qualitative research design and methodologies can help companies and academics achieve evidence-based practice. It presents a case study, in the PCIO framework, of a small-scale agriculture sector project to assure a specific quality. The case study is a conclusion of a project that was run as participatory action research (PAR), involving a consortium including academics, farmer practitioners and a technical DLT platform developer, between 2018 and 2020. The findings show that PAR is an appropriate research method for any democratic collaborative consortia to achieve evidence-based practice through dialogue, discussion, co-development and trusting relationships.