World Bank-Commissioned Open AgriTrace Stack Aims to Build Trusted Digital Traceability System for Indian Agriculture

India may soon have a common digital framework to trace agricultural produce from the farm to the consumer, helping improve food safety, protect Geographical Indication (GI) products and strengthen the country's agricultural exports. Sustainable technology company TRST01 has developed the Open AgriTrace Stack (OATS), a blueprint for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in agricultural traceability commissioned by the World Bank.

The framework has been published under a Creative Commons licence and is designed as an open, interoperable digital system that allows all stakeholders in the agricultural value chain to securely exchange authenticated information about the origin and movement of farm produce.

According to TRST01, increasing consumer demand for transparency, stricter food safety regulations and tighter import norms in international markets have made digital traceability essential for agricultural trade. Countries importing agricultural products increasingly require verifiable digital records covering the origin of produce, cultivation practices, laboratory testing and supply chain movement. Exporters lacking such traceability often face shipment delays, additional inspections and even rejection of consignments.

The Open AgriTrace Stack proposes a shared digital backbone similar in concept to India's successful Digital Public Infrastructure initiatives such as Aadhaar and UPI. Rather than creating another standalone software platform, the framework enables different digital systems to communicate using common standards while allowing governments, exporters, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), laboratories, logistics companies and regulators to continue using their existing software.

The blueprint recommends maintaining a tamper-evident digital record of agricultural products throughout the supply chain, enabling faster product recalls, better consumer confidence, protection of GI-tagged products from misuse and improved compliance with export regulations.

A key feature of the proposed framework is inclusivity. TRST01 has recommended that farmers should not bear any cost for participating in the traceability ecosystem so that small and marginal farmers are not excluded from premium domestic and export markets. The company believes a trusted national traceability infrastructure could improve farmers' incomes by expanding access to high-value markets while reducing compliance burdens through a single shared digital layer instead of multiple disconnected systems.

The company said the framework has been conceived as shared public infrastructure rather than a proprietary application, allowing interoperability across the agriculture ecosystem. As a result, verified information can be exchanged without duplication of records or repeated compliance submissions.

The first implementation of the Open AgriTrace Stack, named MahaTRACE, is currently under consideration by the Maharashtra government. TRST01 and GS1 India have been proposed as implementation partners, although the state government will determine the scope, crop coverage and phased rollout of the project.

As agricultural trade increasingly shifts from paper documentation to digital verification, the proposed framework seeks to position India with a modern traceability system capable of improving export competitiveness while strengthening confidence in the quality, safety and origin of Indian agricultural products.