ISU GIS Seminar: GIS Based Farm Traceability Model

Abstract: The communication along the food chain is crucial to ensure that all relevant food safety hazards are identified and controlled at each step within the food chain. Therefore, establishment of traceability information system is crucial for ensuring food safety monitoring and evaluation according to the standards throughout the supply chain. The required traceability comprises a close documentation of all activities beginning at the fields up to final consumers. The Traceability Information System based on GIS will allow digital mapping and GIS-driven database development, which in turn enables information gathering at all stage of the farm management practices around the year.

The purpose of this project is to establish GIS based farm traceability model to create systems for effective data gathering to meet the minimum data requirements for On-Farm Food Safety (OFFS) programs to ensure that recall/traceability are included as appropriate. The use of standard GIS applications a complete time management as well as the additional possibility of embedding expert data linked to activities on farm. This will enhance the flexibility to build applications that integrate database-geography-time and activity management for more functional traceability system integration.