TOKYO, Aug. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan's farm ministry will begin a project in fiscal 2005 to create a tracing system enabling consumers to know the "history" of farm products by means of mobile phones.

    The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Wednesday in a preliminary report that it plans to complete the system, which will cover half of agricultural products, in three years.

    In the planned system, small integrated circuit tags will be attached to agricultural products and information stored on them, such as data on agricultural chemicals used, will be able to be read by mobile phone handsets.

    In addition to IC tags, which consist of tiny IC chips, the ministry plans to use advanced bar codes capable of storing up to several hundred times more information than existing bar codes.

    According to the report, the ministry will seek a budget appropriation of some 1.6 billion yen (14.5 million US dollars) for the project in fiscal 2005 on the grounds of growing consumer interest in the safety of food products.

    The ministry will invite proposals for the system from the private sector and farm out the development of proposed ideas to selected concerns. Enditem