The livelihood of smallholder farmers in emerging economies’ cocoa supply chain is substandard because of fraud, exploitation, corruption, deceit, child labor, and financial exclusion, usually perpetrated by influential actors. This situation creates a social sustainability problem which needs urgent attention. Digital technologies such as sensors, drones, satellites, and blockchain show promise toward fostering social sustainability deep into the supply chain. This innovation is consistent with the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals of transforming world economies toward a more sustainable future vision by reducing poverty and inequality. As our contribution, we adopt a traditional approach in our perspective article to initiate a scholarly curiosity to discuss and develop research needs on how to use technology to address this current and critical sustainability and supply chain concern. Blockchain can solve the inefficiencies, complexities, and other social issues of smallholder farmers in the supply chain. This article identifies some blockchain technologies in emerging economies, such as Hara Technology in Indonesia and Cellulant Agrikore Blockchain Solution in Nigeria. Again, we observed that the promise of using technology to improve smallholders' vulnerability in the cocoa supply chain remains underexploited in Africa and other emerging economies. Therefore, rigorous research on smallholders' social sustainability is needed to make sound policy recommendations. This short perspective article describes issues facing these smallholder farmers and how technology can play a role for them and their supply chains to alleviate various social and environmental concerns. Accordingly, we propose some research questions for technology, innovation, and engineering management researchers.

中文翻译：

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社会公益基金会的技术：可持续供应链中小农的视角

新兴经济体可可供应链中小农的生计是不合标准的，因为欺诈，剥削，腐败，欺骗，童工和金融排斥通常是由有影响力的参与者实施的。这种情况造成了社会可持续性问题，需要紧急注意。传感器，无人机，卫星和区块链等数字技术显示出在促进供应链深处的社会可持续性方面的希望。这项创新与联合国2030年可持续发展目标相一致，该目标是通过减少贫困和不平等现象，使世界经济朝着更可持续的未来愿景发展。作为我们的贡献，在我们的观点文章中，我们采用传统的方法来引发学术上的好奇心，以讨论和发展有关如何使用技术解决当前和关键的可持续性以及供应链问题的研究需求。区块链可以解决供应链中小农户的低效率，复杂性和其他社会问题。本文介绍了新兴经济体中的一些区块链技术，例如印度尼西亚的Hara Technology和尼日利亚的Cellulant Agrikore Blockchain Solution。再次，我们观察到在非洲和其他新兴经济体中，利用技术来改善小农在可可供应链中的脆弱性的希望仍未得到充分利用。因此，需要对小农的社会可持续性进行严格的研究，以提出合理的政策建议。这篇简短的文章描述了这些小农户所面临的问题，以及技术如何为他们及其供应链发挥作用，以减轻各种社会和环境问题。因此，我们为技术，创新和工程管理研究人员提出了一些研究问题。