How Can AI Help Traceability?

By Agha Saiddain President (Environmental Society, Pakistan Tanners Association)

AI is now in every walk of life i.e. engineering, medicine, Law, Safety, Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, and in branches of Science i.e. Physics, Chemistry, & Mathematics. As most of us know AI was created by humans by using ALGORITHM. The concept of Algorithm was first introduced 1200 years ago by a Muslim Mathematician Muhammad Bin Musa Al-Khwarizmi. He is also known as the father of AL-JEBRA. His books revolutionized mathematics in the west. He first introduced how complex problems could be broken down into simpler and smaller parts & solved. Later it introduced step-by-step rules for solving a complex problem. Later in the beginning of 20th Century, British Mathematician ALAN TURING worked on the theory that a machine could follow ALGORITHMIC instructions and solve complex mathematical problems.

The Complexity of Variables in Traceability

Through the use of ALGORITHMIC instructions, we can solve problems with infinite variables. As per the theory of probability, the permutations and combinations increase many fold by the increase of a single variable.

• 2 Variables: For example, the probability of a coin with 2 variables to get a head or tail is 50/50.
• 3 Variables: By adding just one variable to make it 3, the permutation jumps to 6 and 8 combinations.
• 4 Variables: For 4 variables, permutation jumps to 24 and combination to 16.
• 6 Variables: For 6 variables, there are 720 permutations and 64 combinations.

The variables in the traceability of Hides and Skins are numerous, and manually it is very difficult to manage the traceability of Hides & Skins from Gilgit Baltistan to the Taftan Border near Iran, or from Toorkham to Gawader.

Pakistan’s Forest Cover and Regional Demographics

Only a small part of our Country has forests. In the largest province of Punjab, we have only 3\% land covered by forest, and Sind has about 2.8\%. Baluchistan, which is the largest province having about 44\% of the total land area of Pakistan, has only 3.7\% area covered by forest. It is the only KPK province where 20.3\% of the area is covered by forest.

The following table shows the livestock population versus forest area in our major provinces/regions:

Implementing AI for Deforestation and Supply Chain Segregation

With a Country of such a small forest area, the provinces of Punjab, Sind, and Baluchistan can be exempted from the requirement of traceability for the purpose of deforestation. With the application of AI, the data of Hides & Skins from various provinces can be segregated.

The use of Hides & Skins is mostly in the provinces of Punjab and Sind, where 100\% of tanneries are located. The traceability is required for cattle only, and cattle hides reaching the tanning areas of Hide Markets can be recorded. Provincial governments can make a system to record the data near the entry points of:

• Karachi
• Hyderabad
• Lahore
• Kasur
• Sialkot
• Sheikhupura
• Multan
• Sahiwal

These are the primary hubs where tanneries are mostly located. The supplier can get a certified computerized copy at the entry point and deliver the same to the tanner or hide-market where these hides are to be auctioned.

The Eid-UL-Azha Challenge and EUDR Regulations

On Eid-UL-Azha, the record of animals reaching the Markets around big cities can be recorded to have some idea about traceability. However, it is very difficult to provide traceability of Eid Hides which are collected from families by various social welfare agencies.

With the use of AI, we can make traceability possible if the software devised by the team of Former Secretary Livestock Punjab, Mr. Naseem Sadiq, is implemented in all provinces and all animals are tagged and registered.

There is yet a lot of work to be done to make the traceability of Hides & Skins possible, which is a big future challenge for the Leather Industry of Pakistan due to EUDR Regulations to be implemented in the next year.