When you buy a packet of rice or a basket of mangoes in India, what do you really know about it? At best, you get a label with an FSSAI number and nutritional values. But where was it grown, how was it handled, what chemicals were used, and under what conditions did it travel before reaching you? Those answers are usually missing. This gap is what needs to addressed.
What Traceability Really Means?
Traceability is the ability to track the journey of food from farm to plate. Globally, it is the backbone of food safety systems. If contamination is found, a traceable chain allows quick recalls. If quality is questioned, it helps identify the source. It also builds consumer trust, because buyers know exactly where their food comes from.
Why Traceability is Hard in India?
India’s agriculture is too complex to make traceability simple. With over 85% of farmers being smallholders, land is fragmented and practices are diverse. Crops pass through multiple middlemen before reaching markets. Digital records are rare, logistics are inconsistent, and enforcement is patchy. While exports especially developed countries like EU, US demands rigorous monitoring, the domestic market is left to labels that say little about origin or safety.
Export Success, Domestic Neglect
To be fair, India has built successful traceability systems developed by APEDA. GrapeNet for pesticide monitoring in grapes, Peanut.Net for groundnuts, MangoNet for mango and Tracenet for organic consignments. These platforms came into picture as the foreign buyers demanded strict compliance. For Indians, the same grapes or groundnut lose their trace once they stay within the country.
Challenges faced
The absence of traceability is not only a farmer issue, it is systemic. For traceability to work, you need ground-level data: what inputs were used, how often, where, and when. That kind of data barely exists in Indian farming. Records are verbal, fragmented, or entirely missing. Certification and auditing come with costs and most smallholders cannot absorb. Supply chains, stretched across middlemen, don’t transmit information only the product itself.
Few days back, I watched a Tamil YouTube video on aflatoxin contamination in groundnuts based on the study conducted in districts of Tamil Nadu, showing how even staple crops can carry hidden health risks. At the same time, awareness about protein & fibre intake, diet, and health is rising sharply. Consumers are actively looking for healthier, higher-quality products.
Why It Matters Beyond Exports
The illusion holds until it doesn’t. Not standardized organic labels, unchecked pesticide residues, adulteration all remain common here. After COVID-19, Indian consumers have started seeking for food quality and safety. Traceability that exists for compliance abroad could be protecting health at home, but isn’t. There is now scope to deploy traceability domestically, making products genuinely safer and healthier.
Current Initiatives and Technology Opportunity
India has already shown that traceability systems can work GrapeNet for grapes, Peanut.Net for groundnuts,MangoNet for mangoes and Tracenet are proof. These platforms track quality, residues, and handling from farm to export, ensuring compliance with global standards. But they remain almost entirely export and commodity focused
The tools to extend traceability domestically are available and increasingly accessible. AI and blockchain can create records, while IoT sensors can monitor soil, water, and pesticide usage directly at the farm level. QR codes or farm management mobile apps can connect consumers to this data instantly. The challenge is not in technology itself, but in designing systems that work for India’s fragmented agriculture. Millions of smallholders, scattered plots, and multi-layered supply chains. With thoughtful implementation, these digital solutions could make traceability practical, affordable, and meaningful for every Indian consumer not just those buying exports.
Closing the Gap
Traceability in India has been treated as an export obligation, not a domestic right. That approach misses the point. The health of nearly 1.5 billion people is not secondary to the demands of foreign buyers. With rising awareness and demand for healthier, quality products, the lens will inevitably shift toward traceability. If India can build traceability for Brussels or Boston, it can build it for Bengaluru and Bhopal. What’s needed is a shift in intent from compliance for others, to accountability for ourselves.
Cheers!
Check out the similar posts: #Decodeagri05: Hidden costs of the rice revolution! & other Agri posts
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