Nova Tellus: Integrating Blockchain and AI for Advanced Agricultural Management

This paper presents the Nova Tellus project, a pioneering platform that integrates blockchain technology and artificial intelligence within a unified information system to advance smart agricultural practices. Built on a private Hyperledger Fabric blockchain infrastructure, Nova Tellus enables secure, transparent collection, storage, and sharing of data from IoT devices deployed in agricultural environments. An AI module trained on a comprehensive dataset, including field observations, satellite imagery, and climate data, supports phenological phase classification and adversity detection across multiple crop types, providing data-driven insights for farm decision-making. Results show that the integrated blockchain-AI system effectively combines secure data provenance with robust analytical capabilities, enhancing the credibility and traceability of AI-generated insights. The AI component achieved strong performance, such as an F1-Score of 0.89 for olive phenological classification and 0.70 for grapevine adversity detection, demonstrating its ability to deliver reliable, real-time decision support. Overall, Nova Tellus highlights the substantial potential of combining blockchain and AI within agricultural information systems to enable transparent, intelligent, and sustainable farming practices.