A comprehensive look at traceability system development: a full analysis of key construction points

Relying on the full-chain traceability system code, and driven by the regional public brand "Anqiu Large Ginger," Anqiu Yuanqingtian Company is expected to exceed 90 million yuan in export earnings this year. The photo shows a corner of the company's processing workshop. Photo by Wang Haiyao

Editor's note: To do a good job in supervising agricultural product quality and safety, a traceability system is indispensable. In recent years, the agricultural product quality and safety traceability system has become one of the important measures taken by local governments to oversee quality and safety supervision. What is the current state of agricultural product quality and safety traceability system development? What highlights are there at the practical level in various places? Please see the frontline reports sent back by our newspaper's reporters from Shandong, Liaoning, Hunan and other places.

　　Shandong Lanling: Standardized production lays the foundation for traceability

Early in the morning on November 7, the reporter arrived in Lanling County, Shandong Province, where staff from the Kaihua Vegetable Production and Marketing Cooperative were organizing vegetable packing for shipment to the Shanghai market. The reporter took out a mobile phone and scanned the QR code on a box of loofah: "Irrigation was carried out on June 6, fertilizer management was carried out on June 12..." Field management, responsible persons and place-of-origin information were all clear at a glance.

Guo Zaili, director of the Lanling County Agriculture Bureau, introduced that Lanling has the reputation of being the "South Shandong Vegetable Garden," with a year-round vegetable planting area of 1 million mu. At the same time, Lanling is also a "Demonstration County for Agricultural Product Quality and Safety" and a "Demonstration County for Export Agricultural Product Quality and Safety" in Shandong Province, and has already established a dynamic supervision system for agricultural inputs, a standardized production system for agricultural products, a quality and safety inspection and testing system, and a traceability system.

According to the introduction, in order to continuously polish the Lanling vegetable brand, Lanting has developed nearly one million mu of standardized planting bases through models such as "company + base + farmers," "cooperative + base + farmers," and "market + cooperative + base + farmers." "Building standardized production bases and achieving 'standards to follow' from planting to sales is the foundation for establishing a traceable agricultural product quality and safety system and ensuring the production of high-quality, safe agricultural products," said Guo Zaili.

At the planting base of the Jiarui Vegetable Production Cooperative in Xiaoguo Xiang Village, Xiangcheng Town, a "Cucumber Planting Technical Guidance Manual" and a "Production Archive Record" hung on the wall. Zhang Licun, chairman of the cooperative, introduced: "One is used to guide how we should plant, and the other is to record how we actually planted. In this way, watering, fertilizing and spraying are all done according to procedures, standardized production technology is put into practice, and our cooperative's cucumbers have always sold well in the Shanghai market."

In recent years, in order to fully implement standardized production, Lanling, in addition to continuing to strengthen the introduction of local production standards, certification of "three products and one label" products, and application and renewal of agricultural standardized production bases, has focused on strengthening production archive management and traceability system development. By equipping hard disk video recorders, rapid testers, QR code printers, scanners, cameras and other instruments and equipment, it has covered all links including agricultural product production, processing, packaging, transportation, storage and marketing.

Relying on standardization, Lanling has explored two organizational forms of traceability systems: for new-type business entities engaged in large-scale production, through models such as "enterprise + cooperative + base," "base + supermarket," and "cooperative + base + market," and through place-of-origin exit and market access systems, it realizes full-process supervision and effective traceability; for scattered small farmers, it promotes "vegetable farmer self-governance," and according to the principles of "farmer commitment, joint household guarantee, contractual agreement, and dedicated supervision," 3 to 5 vegetable farmers form one "joint household unit" to supervise each other, with the end of the traceability system connected to each "unit," so that if a problem arises, responsibility is shared. (Lyu Bingbing)

　　Hunan Liuyang: Implementation of responsibility builds a solid system defense line

One of the core meanings of agricultural product quality and safety traceability system development is to ensure that agricultural products from field to table can be accurately traced. Its broad coverage and long chain mean that the construction of a traceability system cannot rely only on government guidance, but also requires the personal participation and active co-construction of the vast number of business entities. From this perspective, strengthening the implementation of business entities' responsibilities will play a positive role in promoting the construction of the traceability system.

At the "Xiangduo" chain supermarket under Hunan Liuyang Xiangkang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., the reporter saw that it was equipped with a professional quality testing room. Every day, dedicated internal staff conduct self-inspections of vegetables, fruits and other products sent from the base, and upload the self-inspection data in real time to the agricultural product quality and safety information supervision systems of Liuyang City and Changsha City.

"On the one hand, through these data, the government can grasp in real time the testing dynamics of production entities. On the other hand, production entities can also generate traceability information from self-inspection data, which is actually also being responsible for our own brand," Zou Wei, general manager of Hunan Liuyang Xiangkang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., told the reporter.

In order to regulate production entities, Liuyang clearly requires that qualified bases and markets must be equipped with testing equipment, and bases without testing facilities must undergo 100% commissioned testing, so as to strictly control agricultural product quality and ensure that unqualified agricultural products do not leave the base. In addition, Liuyang has incorporated agricultural product quality and safety into the assessment of agricultural product production bases and linked it to benefit mechanisms such as agricultural subsidies and construction projects. Once an enterprise fails to upload testing data according to regulations, or if its products are found to be unqualified in spot checks, the enterprise will lose the qualification to apply for government projects such as "comprehensive industrial parks" and "specialized industrial parks," and if the situation is serious, it will also face corresponding penalties.

In recent years, Hunan Liuyang has focused on standardized planting and breeding bases, implemented five systems: agricultural product production records, self-disciplined testing, place-of-origin exit and integrity commitments, and product traceability. It has established four account books: agricultural product production records, agricultural input purchases, agricultural product sales, and agricultural product testing, and has signed agricultural product quality and safety commitment letters with local township (street) governments, strengthening the implementation of business entities' responsibilities. This has not only greatly reduced the government's regulatory pressure, but also made the dense net woven to ensure consumers' "safety at the tip of the tongue" more reliable. (Our newspaper's reporter Meng Decai)

　　Liaoning Panjin: Technological support for traceability platform construction

The harvest season has passed. Pointing to the field sensor equipment standing in the rice fields and the 360-degree global eye visualization cameras, Meng Dan, general manager of the Dawa District Adopted Farming Agriculture Headquarters Base in Panjin City, Liaoning Province, introduced: "Our soil, rice seeds, water, fertilizer and pesticides have all undergone strict testing. With full-process traceability of rice production as the quality guarantee, and focusing on the card of agricultural product quality and safety, currently 100,000 mu of rice fields have been adopted. Adopting customers can check the growth conditions of the adopted rice, vegetables, forest fruits and other products at any time via the internet and mobile APP terminals. At the same time, by building an F2F zero-link direct supply platform, we have achieved the construction of a fully closed industrial chain for safe agricultural products from 'field to people's dining tables,' ensuring that customers eat safe food."

Dawa District of Panjin City took the lead among Liaoning Province's counties in implementing exploration of full-process traceability and deep traceability models for agricultural products, attracting third-party professional testing and certification institutions, agricultural product quality insurance institutions, and local large-scale agricultural product production enterprises to join, and exploring new ways to implement full-process traceability and deep traceability of agricultural products. In 2015, it passed provincial-level expert demonstration. In 2016, more than 20 kinds of agricultural products that passed full-process traceability were recommended as "municipal-level assured agricultural products." In addition, "Dawa District Traceable Agricultural Product Sales Counters" were set up in the city's and district's large agricultural product supermarkets and three local agricultural product e-commerce platforms. In 2015, it creatively established the "Taobao.com Specialty China - Dawa Pavilion," successfully exploring a new type of agricultural product production-sales linkage model of "full-process traceable agricultural products + internet agricultural product e-commerce." This promoted dual growth in the sales volume and added value of Dawa District's specialty agricultural products. In 2015, Dawa District became the "first pilot county nationwide for Alibaba's Starry Sky Agricultural Specialty Product Traceability Plan," and in 2016, Dawa District achieved full-area traceability of agricultural products.

The traceability of agricultural products in Dawa District of Panjin City is a reflection of Liaoning Province's strengthening of technological development of traceability platforms. Through the application of information technology, Liaoning Province organically combines production technology with regulatory means and creates a facility agricultural product quality and safety monitoring and traceability model, namely the overall application of four technologies in facility production bases, including: input monitoring and traceability technology, agricultural product quality and safety traceability technology, facility agricultural product safe production technology, and "three products and one label" production technology. It truly achieves the standardization of pesticide business operations, standardization of agricultural product production processes, standardization of quality traceability and pesticide residue traceability, standardization of pesticide and agricultural product labeling, and standardization of product certification throughout the entire process. The provincial finance department has invested 5.95 million yuan in agricultural science and technology extension funds for three consecutive years to promote the model. Technology leadership has stimulated the innovative vitality of Liaoning's traceability system development. (Our newspaper's reporter Cui Li)