Glossary
Farm-to-fork glossary: mandi, arhti, traceability and more
Short, plain definitions of the supply chain, farming and technology terms used across Farm2Fork, with the Urdu term where one is in common use.
- Arhtiآڑھتی
- A commission agent at a Pakistani wholesale market (mandi) who sells a farmer's produce to buyers for a commission and often advances money or inputs to the farmer against the crop. Read more
- Blockchain
- A shared, append-only record in which each entry is cryptographically linked to the one before it, so an earlier entry cannot be changed without the change being visible. Read more
- Cold chain
- An unbroken series of refrigerated storage and transport steps that keeps perishable produce at a safe temperature from harvest to the buyer. Read more
- Farm-gate price
- The price a farmer receives for produce at the farm, before transport, handling, wholesale and retail margins are added.
- Farm-to-fork
- A description of the full food chain, from the farm where produce is grown through packing, transport and sale to the plate. Read more
- Grading
- Sorting produce by quality, size and condition into classes. Farm2Fork listings use grades A, B and C.
- Hyperledger Fabric
- A permissioned blockchain framework hosted by the Linux Foundation, in which only identified, approved participants can write to the ledger. Farm2Fork uses it to record supply chain events. Read more
- Kharifخریف
- Pakistan's summer cropping season. Kharif crops are sown from around June and harvested from about October or November. Rice, cotton, sugarcane and maize are examples. Read more
- Kinnowکینو
- A mandarin-type citrus fruit widely grown in Punjab, especially around Sargodha, and harvested mainly in winter.
- Ledger
- A record of transactions or events. On a blockchain, the ledger is shared among participants and entries cannot be silently altered.
- Mandiمنڈی
- A wholesale market in Pakistan where farmers' produce is auctioned or sold to wholesalers and retailers, usually through commission agents. Read more
- Microfinance
- Small loans and financial services for people who lack access to conventional banking, such as many smallholder farmers. Read more
- Permissioned blockchain
- A blockchain whose participants are identified and approved in advance, so only trusted parties can write to or read from it, unlike open networks such as Bitcoin. Read more
- Post-harvest loss
- Produce that is grown but not eaten because it spoils, is damaged or is rejected between harvest and the buyer. Estimates for Pakistani fruit and vegetables range from 20% to 40%. Read more
- Provenance
- The documented origin and history of a product, including where it was grown and who handled it.
- QR code
- A square barcode that a phone camera can scan. A Farm2Fork QR code opens the recorded journey of an order. Read more
- Rabiربیع
- Pakistan's winter cropping season. Rabi crops are sown from around November to April and harvested in spring. Wheat, gram, peas and mustard are examples. Read more
- Smallholder
- A farmer who works a small area of land, usually with family labour, and often has limited access to credit, storage and markets.
- Supply chain
- The sequence of people and steps that move a product from where it is made to where it is used, including growers, carriers, wholesalers and retailers.
- Traceability
- The ability to follow a product forward and backward through every stage of its journey by identifying each batch and recording each handoff. Read more