GeoTraceAgri final project report (GTA)

Are the universalisation and the globalisation of trade exchanges synonymous
with a standardization in which agro-food products uprooted of their soil will no
longer be differentiated from manufacturers or supermarket brands?
Original food products belong to the inheritance of the territories and the consumers
are attracted more and more by their authenticity. The GeoTraceAgri project
resolutely supports agriculture and the sustainable promotion of the territory as opposed
to universalisation which standardizes and moves away those who produce
for consumers. Geotraceability aims at associating information of geographical nature
with the traditional data of traceability.
Farming origin and operations have become factual and verifi able data is
available everywhere in the world, thus making it possible to bring additional guarantees
to the signs of quality. The GeoTraceAgri (GTA) project largely contributed
to the realisation of geotraceability. With the implementation from January 1,2005
of the new Common Agricultural Policy and its regulation imposing on the Member
States a single system of declaration, all the agricultural parcels now form part of a
European database of geographical references.
This new regulation reinforces the basis of the concept of geotraceability, whereas
throughout the project it was necessary to defi ne geo-indicators for integrated
or crop production with very few geographical data on the farming precedents.
The development of the GTA prototype rests on a decentralized architecture and
Web services. It was indeed necessary to conceive a system which is readily accessible
on Internet for farmers, co-operatives and collectors, and potentially with the
administrations which have control responsibilities. In term of acceptability, the potential
users realise the potential economic benefi ts of the concept and of the indicators
of geotraceability in their plan of exploitation, on the other hand sociological
acceptability is less evident which induces the need for communication to make for
its adoption.
This fi nal report fi nal illustrates the fi rst stage : the GeoTraceAgri partners are
continuing their research on the defi nition of an integrated system of geotraceability
for the Common agricultural policy and the plan of analysis of the results of
GeoTraceAgri should lead to the marketing within two years of an application making
it possible to integrate the geo-indicators into management software for the
actors of the agro food chain.