The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is preparing to roll out Tracenet, a ready-reckoner through the click of a mouse to establish the traceability, for organic foods being exported from the country. But there is general scepticism and mixed reactions from major stakeholders constituting small growers with small and marginal holdings.
Global debut
The APEDA Chairman, Mr Asit Tripathi, told Business Line here that following its successful launch of Tracenet last year for grape and pomegranate, the export organisation exclusively for agricultural export is now putting the system in place for such a facility to be extended to India's Rs 537 crore organic food product exports.
He said while the national launch is slated for the New Year, the international launch for the benefit of exporters is being proposed in Feb 2010 at the world's largest trade fair for Organic Products at BIOFACH-Germany.
Success elsewhere
APEDA says that the traceability system is a successful in checking pesticide residue in grape and pomegranate while helping the growers with enhanced returns and value for money to the consumers by guaranteeing the authenticity of the product purchased.
However a few small organic farmers groups and NGOs associated with organic farming argue that the education level of farmers being lower, they would not be able to grasp the technicalities of software systems unlike in the case of grape and pomegranate growers who have big orchards and work on corporate lines. Moreover, organic farming is undertaken in remote rural areas where the infrastructure of telecommunications and power supply remain the weakest links. They worry about their inability to be part of the organic farming bandwagon which might be used widely only by economically rich farmers and farm houses.
Growers' fear
Pointing out that small growers might be compelled to keep in-house consultants or employ more people to undertake these activities adding to their transaction cost, they fear that ultimately they may have to sell their own business to big organisations, handing over the organic farming to corporate houses.
Already, the Certification Bodies tasked with the remit of certifying organic food would find their work load increasing in establishing authenticity of organic food through Tracent which might be a cash-cow from the certifying bodies' viewpoint, they said.
However, when contacted, sources in the government, said over than 99 per cent of the organic farmers in the country are associated with grower groups through internal control system which has the basic infrastructure. They said the system seeks details to be fed just once as to farmers' personal details and farm data, while an offline version has also been in place to facilitate the day to day activities. They also rule out any additional cost for transaction certificates as the existing system would be followed.
Onus on govt?
However, small growers of organic food and NGOs maintain that the onus is on the Government to ensure that legions of such growers should not be left high and dry in the traceability system and that they should not be subject to any extra cost either through certifying bodies or their own groups which might price them out of the competitive overseas markets.
Source : Business Line