Home > Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)

Introduction:

Food safety has gained increasing importance over the years because of its significance both from health and trade perspectives. The production of safe food is essential for protecting consumers from the hazards of foodborne illnesses and is important both in the domestic food business as well as for increasing competitiveness in export markets. Hazards may occur at different stages of the food chain starting right from the primary production, e.g. residues above permitted levels, microbial contaminants and heavy metals. It therefore becomes important to address food safety right from food production at farm level.

Implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) during on-farm production and post-production processes resulting in safe agricultural products is of immense importance for ensuring a safe food supply.

Many importing countries as well as domestic buyers, especially organized retailers, are requiring producers to implement GAP as a prerequisite for procurement to ensure the quality and safety of
their produce. In addition, implementing GAP also helps promote sustainable agriculture and contributes to meeting national and international environmental and social developmental objectives. It has been documented that implementation of GAP encourages promotion of the optimum use of resources such as pesticides, fertilizers, and water, and eco-friendly agriculture. Its social dimension would be to protect the agricultural workers’ health from improper use of chemicals and pesticides.

Many of the SAARC countries had not adopted GAP and did not have an institutional infrastructure for supporting GAP in terms of standards as well as their implementation, certification and
accreditation. Most of the food safety standards were focused on end products. It was therefore important to support the SAARC countries to develop GAP standards and to help them build a
certification and accreditation mechanism to enable the implementation and verification of GAP.

This GAP scheme has been developed as a regional scheme that may be adopted as it is or adapted by countries to suit their needs. The process for development of the scheme was through initial
discussions on a draft at a regional workshop in September 2014 that was then implemented in four pilot countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal. The standard and national
implementation structure in terms of a Scheme Owner (SO), certification body (CB) and accreditation body (AB) system was first agreed upon and was followed by support provided to the SO and CB to set up their processes and systems based on the draft scheme. Based on experiences in the four countries, the Scheme has now been revised. The Scheme can be used by any country globally.

This GAP scheme comprises three important areas or sections: standards for GAP; the structure for implementation in the country; and the certification and accreditation aspects. These three parts comprise the complete scheme. It may be mentioned here that the GAP standards can be implemented by the producer without necessarily getting certification. However, in case the producer requires to get his farm certified, Part III provides information on this. Part II deals with the role of the government in establishing the GAP national implementation structure. Additional guidance on the documents to be developed and maintained by producer/ producer groups, SO, CB and AB is given in the annexes that cover the list of documents required under the system. The structure of the documents is as follows:

Part I – The GAP standard or requirements in relation to food safety, quality, environmental management and workers health, safety and welfare (each is a separate module which can be implemented individually or in various combinations).

Part II Establishing a national implementation structure for GAP in a country
Section 1 – Options and structure for implementing GAP in a country
Section 2 – Guidance for establishing a Scheme Owner (SO)
Section 3 – Rules for the use of a certification mark.

Part III Certification and accreditation for GAP
Section 1 – Certification criteria (detailing the requirements for on-farm production of
fruits and vegetable based on the standards as well as certification body requirements)
Section 2– Certification process
Section 3 – Requirements for certification bodies (CBs)
Section 4 – Requirements for accreditation bodies (ABs) for GAP.

Annexes
Annexes – Documentation needed under the GAP scheme
Annex 1. Producer and producer group documentation
Annex 2. Scheme Owner documentation
Annex 3. Certification body documentation
Annex 4. Accreditation body documentation.

In order to align the scheme to other national and international requirements, various national and international standards such as ASEAN GAP, GLOBAL G.A.P, other country’s GAP, prevalent
industry standards and best practices, and related International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards and guides have been referred to.

This scheme is designed in a manner that has wide relevance in SAARC countries and also in countries of other regions with the objective of ensuring the safety of produce in primary production,
which ultimately leads to safer products across the value chain thus ensuring safer foods and enhancing regional and global trade. This will in turn result in increasing the livelihoods of the farmers and alleviating poverty in countries where the GAP scheme is implemented.

Objective:

The fundamental objective of laying down this standard is to strengthen Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fruits and vegetables in countries. The challenges currently being faced by most countries include the absence of standards for good practices in the farming sector. Most of the food safety standards are focused on end products, whether mandatory technical standards or voluntary standards.

Purpose:

The purpose of this document is to set out Good Agricultural Practices to be implemented by producers of fruits and vegetables to improve the safety and quality of their produce, while at the
same time protecting the environment and safeguarding the health and safety of their workers.

Scope:

This standard specifies the requirements of GAP with respect to all types of fresh fruits and vegetables covering activities such as production, harvesting and post-harvest handling of farm
produce and pack house operations for produce either for sale for direct human consumption or to be used for further processing by the food industry.

The standard may be used for all types of production systems, namely conventional production systems where produce are grown in the soil and hydroponic systems where produce are grown in
inert media. Production may occur in the open or in a protected environment.

High-risk products such as sprouts and minimally processed produce such as cut fruits and vegetables are not covered by this standard. The standard does not provide any basis for certification
of organic products or GMO free products, but these products can also be certified as GAP compliant in cases where GAP requirements are implemented. In some countries the regulatory policy does not permit cultivation of GM crops and therefore this aspect needs to be addressed accordingly.

This standard further categorizes the criteria/requirements, based on their importance, as “critical”, “major” or “minor”.

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