Development of aGood Agricultural Practice

Approach at FAO

by Loretta Sonn, Senior Technical Adviser, FAO Agriculture Department

Challenges• Improve food security, rural livelihoods, income• Satisfy increasing and diversified demands for

safe and nutritious food and other products• Conserve and protect the natural resource base

Commitments• WSSD and SARD - economic, social and

environmental sustainability• World Food Summit Plan of Action• Millennium Development Goals

Development in the Food and Agriculture Sector

• Demand by consumers, retailers, processors– Food safety, quality, nutrition– Environmental impact of practices

• Supply by farmers who adopt practices– Ensure livelihoods– Conserve natural resource base– Maintain cultural and social values

• Support by governments and institutions– Food safety, trade– Sustainable farming policies– Research, extension, education, credit– Market and institutional infrastructure

What are GAPs ?

…Understanding the variety of standards that call themselves “GAPs”…

GAP – History of the concept

• For decades: extension and research guidelines on “good practices”

• More recent trend: GAP in food markets - growing number of “GAP” codes & standards - privatization of standards

• Renewed attention as entry point for food safety & quality in food chain

Today : proliferation of standards relating to “GAPs”

• Private certification and standards (e.g.: EUREP, retail…)– Market incentives are key– Mainly focus on food safety and quality; impact on product more than on

sustainability– Distinguished or selected groups of farmers

• Public legislation and policies (e.g. : extension, research)– Society-driven – broader sustainability priorities– Lack resources– Local, small farmer-adapted

• Fair trade, organic– Support and capacity building – but limited markets in long term

Issues

• Too many standards and codes - confusion

• Opportunities, but hard for small farmers to meet standards, not always a price premium

• Different scopes of GAP• Are food safety/quality and food

security/sustainability GAPs compatible or contradictory?

Role of FAO

• Information role

• Facilitation role (public-private)

• Policy assistance and technical expertise at country level (IPM, conservation agriculture, best water use practices, animal husbandry, agro-ecology, conflict management, supply chains, policy definition, etc)

Supported by: • Vast country presence and Regional offices• Resource mobilization capacity

Good Agricultural PracticesFAO definition

• “Good Agricultural Practices are environmentally sound, economically viable and socially acceptable, and result in safe and healthy food and non-food agricultural products”= 3 pillars +1

FAO does and don’ts on GAP(guidance from Member States)

• Voluntary practices : no new intergovernmental standard, no new barriers to trade

• No new demands on resource-poor producers • Consistent with existing regulations (Codex, IPPC,...)

• Share lessons through multi-stakeholder processes and capacity building

• Consider different commodities, agro-ecosystems, and resources of farmers

Past FAO Activities on a GAP Approach

• Two Electronic Discussions on GAP in context of SARD

• Identification of Preliminary Set of Components

• Debate at FAO Committee on Agriculture (Apr 2003 and 2005)

• GAP Expert Consultation (Nov 2003)• FAO workshop on GAP (Oct 2004)

11 components of GAP

• Forms 11 groups of agricultural practices

• Identifies hazards to be avoided

• Identifies outcomes to be promoted

= Provides a basis for the development

of codes of practice for individual

agricultural production systems

Components and related practices• Soil• Water• Crop and fodder production• Crop protection• Animal feed and livestock production• Animal health and welfare• Harvest and on-farm processing and storage• Energy and waste management• Human welfare, health and safety• Wildlife and landscape

Where to ?• Compare existing GAP-related schemes;

identify country experiences

• Elaborate principles and methodology for tailoring GAP components to a given context

• Multi-stakeholder national and regional processes promoting implementation of locally agreed GAPs

• Capacity building through:– awareness creation (actors in the supply chain;

policy makers)– information: databases, web – field projects– training of trainers and farmer leaders

Example : Thailand

• FAO project “Strengthening compliance with SPS requirements for fresh fruits and vegetables”

• Analytical study on market standards for safety and quality of fresh fruit and vegetbales

• FAO-Thailand Workshop on « GAP for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables » Bangkok, September 2005 : status, next steps

Example: Burkina Faso

• Define GAPs for a mixed farming system (cotton-cereal-livestock), not monoculture

• Multistakeholder negotiation– private sector, research, extension, farmers organizations,

government, etc.

• Establish a PROCESS to locally define GAPs in the context of:– stakeholders constraints & incentives, livelihoods– which actors & factors of change in the system influence GAP

adoption• Capacity building of farmers and their organizations

through farmer field schools• Policy mainstreaming of GAP

Other FAO activities on GAP

• Meat, milk and feed : GAP stakeholders workshop in Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia and others

• Latin America : trainings and training tools on food safety and quality in 2003-2004, electronic conference in 2004

• Asia : sub regional GAP workshops in 2003 and 2005 • Zambia. Study “Linking Smallholders to Supermarkets

– what role for GAP?” • FAO Expert consultation (2003) and workshop (2004)• and many others !

FAO GAP Website

FAO GAP Database – Use it !

FAO GAP Database

International Portal on Standards

An open process

• Share with us analytical / normative work and studies• Inform governments, relay their requests for

assistance on GAP• Submit your experiences to GAP database • Read more at

http://www.fao.org/prods/GAP/gapindex_en.htm

Contact : loretta.sonn@fao.organnesophie.poisot@fao.org