## 1 Introduction  
The agricultural sector faces mounting challenges due to increasingly complex supply chains and growing concerns regarding food authenticity, safety, and sustainability [1, 2]. In the current landscape, global consumers, regulators, and retailers demand reliable information on food provenance, production practices, and ethical sourcing. These concerns are driven by public health risks, contamination incidents, foodborne illnesses, potential fraud, and regulatory compliance pressures [3, 4]. Therefore, ensuring trust in agricultural products has become essential for market access and brand integrity [5]. Traceability in agricultural supply chains is a critical enabler of food safety, quality assurance, transparency, and sustainability. Traditional traceability systems, typically based on centralised Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms, barcodes, RFID tags, and institutional certifications, have long served as the backbone for managing product movement and compliance. Over time, these systems have evolved to incorporate digital labelling, audit trails via web portals, and consumer-facing mobile apps. Initiatives such as GS1 data-sharing platforms and QR code-enabled traceability solutions represent notable efforts to improve visibility from farm to fork. Despite these advancements, current traceability infrastructures reveal several critical limitations:  
Data vulnerability: Centralised databases are prone to tampering and data breaches [6], lacking the necessary tamper-proof mechanisms for accountability and data integrity across complex supply chains [7]. Limited real-time visibility: Traditional systems struggle to provide real-time tracking, which is essential for managing perishable goods and effectively responding to contamination outbreaks [6; 8]. Supply chain fragmentation: Diverse stakeholders operate isolated, non-interoperable systems, resulting in data silos that hinder seamless information flow and comprehensive product journey visibility [9]. These limitations manifest in several ways:  
* Traditional identification technologies (e.g., barcodes, RFID tags) demonstrate inadequate traceability guarantees [10]. * Current systems exhibit vulnerabilities in identity management and data integrity [10]. * Existing frameworks lack transparency and efficient provenance information retrieval [11]. * The absence of unified data standards between supply chain partners increases data collation costs [11]. * Reliance on paper-based, labour-intensive processes reduces efficiency [12]. * Prevalent issues include responsibility avoidance, documentation tampering, and information loss [13]. As regulatory frameworks such as the EU Green Deal, the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and national agricultural digitalisation programmes increase the demand for trusted traceability, decentralised technologies have emerged as promising enablers. Blockchain technology provides auditability and tamper resistance, Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) enable verifiable digital identities, and digital twins facilitate real-time synchronisation of physical product states with digital representations. However, prior studies and industry implementations of blockchain in food traceability have largely focused on transaction logging and logistics tracking, overlooking a foundational aspect: product identity. The ability to securely and verifiably associate a digital representation with a physical agricultural product is critical for ensuring trustworthy traceability. Current approaches often examine blockchain, DIDs, and digital twins in isolation, lacking integrated, standards-based frameworks that holistically address supply chain challenges. This paper contributes to bridging this gap by conducting the following:  
* Identifying limitations of current agricultural traceability systems, including data fragmentation, lack of real-time tracking, and susceptibility to fraud.