The Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which works under the central Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is set to launch, in January 2010, a nationwide system of traceability for organic food items.

“It is next to impossible to physically monitor all farmers in the country. Hence, the need for a system-based approach was felt. With the traceability system, which will actually be a massive online database containing real time information on production and export, we expect to make our system a lot more credible,” S Dave, Director, APEDA, told The Indian Express.

“We received some complaints about the certifying bodies of organic products who were accredited by us. On investigation, we found some of the land certified as organic farms were never visited before certifying. With this system in place, farmers will not only put their farming details and practices online, the certifying body too will need to put in the latitude and longitude of the farmland, which will be verifiable on Google Earth.”

The system was tested successfully in grapes in 2005-06, Dave said. “After this, the price of grapes shot up in the international market from 8.5 euros per case to 11 euros, and exports grew five times. We were also able to trace one out of 35,000 farmers who was dubious.”

“Now we will be introducing this system for around 4 lakh organic farmers, and will closely monitor not only the farmers and exporters, but also the certifying bodies.”

India, Dave said, will be the first country in the world to implement the traceability system at a national level. “We are planning to showcase the system at Biofach 2010 in Germany. Biofach, the world’s largest organic trade fair, is the gateway to the global market for organic products,” he added.

To prepare the stakeholders for the launch of the traceability system, APEDA is conducting capacity-building training programmes at 30 centres across the country. “We will also establish a call centre once the system is launched to assist the farmers,” said Sudhanshu, Assistant General Manager and in charge of IT and the traceability system.

Explaining the mechanism of the traceability system, Sudhanshu said: “Small farmers will come together to form an Internal Control System (ICS) which will get a unique identity and password in our system. The ICS and the certifying body will be responsible for putting all information about the product online, including the farmer’s name, farm size, production mechanism and practices followed, along with the longitude and latitude of the farm. This will enable importers worldwide to verify on Google Earth the location from where the product has originated, and get all details of the product.”

The same will be applicable to exporters and traders, so that any faulty product can be immediately traced to its origin, he added.