The way in which production operations are documented is mainly determined by the size of the farm. The documentation of production is an obligation stemming from the provisions of European Parliament and Council Regulation No 178/2002 ‘TRECEABILITY ‘, talking about the creation of procedures for full reproducibility – tracing the product throughout the production chain up to the consumer.
Often, documenting the production process is a habit of farmers that is so well established that it does not cause any problems; for example, purchase invoices for inputs, seed labels are collected, field books with documentation of all agrotechnology are kept.
A simple way of documenting production activities is the ‘field card’, samples of which are widely available; it is also a requirement of most recipients of contract manufacturing.
The documentation of production activities is a very good tool for the farmer himself to analyse results and eliminate production errors. It allows you to look objectively at the activities carried out throughout the production process of the crop and compare them with those undertaken over the years.
We must keep such documents – in the case of companies, this is a legal requirement, also due to the need to trace the product in the production chain, where the purchase of inputs and their origin must be proven for the purposes of possible complaint processes and official controls. Document retention time is up to five years from the year of purchase.