In a few months, a consumer in the European Union should be able to trace an item of organic food on his table to the specific bit of farmland in India that produced it.

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.”

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