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Engineering Case Study
AgTrail: Digital Identity & Traceability Infrastructure for Agriculture
Building the data and trust layer that gives every African farm, product, and supply-chain event a verifiable digital identity — from farm to fork.
Full-Stack & Systems Engineer
Role
Digital Identity & Traceability
Focus
Offline-First (IndexedDB)
Sync Architecture
PostGIS Polygon Boundary APIs
Spatial Engine
The
Challenge
African agricultural supply chains operate with significant data opacity. International buyers and regulators—such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)—demand verifiable proof of origin, including exact farm boundary coordinates, farmer identity records, and crop quality batch logs.
Primary Engineering Bottlenecks:
- Zero-Connectivity Field Environments: Field agents mapping smallholder farms work in remote rural regions with zero cellular network coverage.
- Geospatial Precision & Boundary Overlaps: Mapping farm boundaries requires validating spatial polygons, calculating hectare area, and detecting overlapping claims.
- Cryptographic Identity Verification: Establishing a tamper-proof digital passport that links physical crop harvests back to verified farmers and verified field boundaries.
The
Strategy
To resolve these bottlenecks, I architected AgTrail as an offline-first digital identity and supply-chain traceability platform:
1. Offline-First IndexedDB Synchronization Engine
Engineered a resilient client-side storage architecture using IndexedDB. Field agents capture offline farm boundary polygons, farmer KYC data, and harvest logs locally. When a network connection is re-established, a background sync service handles batch uploads to PostgreSQL with vector clock timestamping to resolve multi-agent sync conflicts.
2. PostGIS Spatial Polygon Validation Engine
Integrated PostGIS spatial queries on PostgreSQL to calculate exact hectare areas and validate farm polygon boundaries:
Terminal Workspace-- Spatial validation: Calculate farm area & detect overlapping boundaries SELECT farm_id, ST_Area(ST_Transform(boundary_polygon, 3857)) / 10000 AS area_hectares, ST_IsValid(boundary_polygon) AS is_valid_polygon, ST_Overlaps(boundary_polygon, (SELECT boundary_polygon FROM farm_boundaries WHERE farm_id = $1)) AS has_overlap FROM farm_boundaries WHERE ST_Intersects(boundary_polygon, ST_MakeEnvelope($2, $3, $4, $5, 4326));
3. QR Cryptographic Digital Product Passports
Each crop batch receives a dynamic QR Digital Passport signed with HMAC-SHA256 origin hashes. Scanning the passport instantly renders the complete verifiable chain of custody, GPS farm polygon, and handling history for EUDR compliance auditors.
Technology Infrastructure
Next.js 15 / React 19TypeScriptNode.js / ExpressPostgreSQL / PostGISOffline Storage (IndexedDB)Tailwind CSS 4GPS Polygon APIsQR Digital Passports
Key
Outcomes
- Outcome 01
Architected the identity verification and data capture layer giving smallholder farms and crop batches verifiable digital identities.
- Outcome 02
Enabled agricultural exporters to satisfy strict EUDR and international proof-of-origin compliance standards.
- Outcome 03
Engineered offline-first IndexedDB sync guaranteeing zero data loss during remote field operations.
- Outcome 04
Constructed dynamic QR product passports rendering instant supply-chain custody and spatial verification.