Abstract:
It is a widely known fact that the agriculture and the fisheries are highly fragmented sectors
having diverse range of actors in the respective Value Chains which rely on numerous sources of
inputs. Modern agriculture and fisheries have been highly knowledge-intensive and increasingly
been information driven. Most of the present-day knowledge consumers demand for verifiable
evidence of food product quality and safety. Traceability has been recognized as an information
based, preventive strategy of ensuring food product quality and safety which ultimately allows
actors to trace-back or trace-forward the point in the value chain where their current concern
lies. Small holder operators dominate the agriculture and fisheries sectors in Sri Lanka. Without
ensuring their effective participation, the expectation of overall performance improvements in
the respective value chains would not be realistic. However, the major problem is the lower
affordability of the Small Holders to the facility of Traceability as individuals although it
potentially brings more benefits. Considering all the potential benefits of Traceability
Applications, especially such as the ability of lowering the transactional costs through improved
communication, actor integration and accountability, improvements in the resource use as well
as operational efficiencies, increase in consumer satisfaction, increase in economic benefits, and
many other, the Government of Sri Lanka in collaboration with other stakeholders such as
investors, Non-Government Agencies, and Donors can provide support for establishing required
Traceability Infrastructures of inter-operable nature giving the special attention to the Small
Holder Operators who cannot afford especially the initial fixed costs. In this specific endeavour,
networking of Small Holder Operators as registered entities, developing Public-Private-Producer
Partnerships would play active roles.
