Proceedings of a consultative meeting on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) will be submitted to the government after due discussions to propose the setting up of a State-level GAP assessment and certification council, KAU Vice Chancellor R. Chandra Babu has said.
The need for instituting a GAP standard formed the crux of the meeting held at the university. A GAP-certified product is accepted as safe for consumption and could fetch higher value in a health-conscious State like Kerala, according to Manish Pande, joint director and head, PAD (Project Analysis & Documentation) division, Quality Control of India (QCI), who participated in the meet.
“Kerala is a consumerist State where 80% of food items are brought from outside. The safety of these items has to be ensured. Similarly, the most important export item, spices, has been recently hit by presence of contaminants. Therefore it is imperative that acceptable norms for assessment and certification of quality are formulated to check the produce for quality assurance,” director of research P. Indira Devi said in her introductory remarks.
Certification forum
At the national level, INDGAP is the forum for such a certification that aims at reducing chemical use in agriculture and ensure strict adherence of standards as prescribed by the government. “INDGAP standards help farmers to fetch more price for their produce. The consumers could purchase certified products that are traceable to their origin,” Dr. Pande said.
SAARCGAP
Quality control authorities now explore options to link INDGAP with SAARCGAP (for SAARC region) and the GLOBALGAP (international) so that the farmers get the benefits of global trade as well. “Ensuring that all is well within the system is the responsibility of the QCI. The fundamental principle is these efforts should impact the beneficiary, the real producer,” he added.
In his keynote address, Dr. Pande also delineated different aspects of implementing quality assessment and certification. According to him, a sustainable procurement policy and proper incentives for the producers is needed to ensure certification of agricultural produces. Modalities of adopting the INDGAP standards were also discussed at the meet. The current processes and procedures followed by State Department of Agriculture were reviewed and Dr. Pande said Kerala had taken right steps to adopt the GAP standards. He, however, suggested some minor modifications in the auditing and certification mechanisms, so as to enable the Kerala farmers to align their production practices with the INDGAP standards.
This will be the first step in empowering Kerala farmers to achieve GLOBALGAP standards. According to Dr. Chandra Babu, the meeting was primarily to facilitate a discussion on initiating steps for product certification at the State-level.
