The Hindu Business Line : APEDA finalising guidelines on good agri practices

The India GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) proposal formulated by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is in the final stages of formulation, said Mr S. Dave, Director, APEDA.

“We are calling for a meeting of all the stakeholders — the exporters, retailers, farmers, certifiers, traders, educationists and government officials — at the end of this month, after which I will freeze the document and present it to the Government,” he told Business Line on the sidelines of Food Forum India 2008.

The 100-page document is based on the lines of EurepGAP (a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe) and will call for the judicious use of farming practices and set standards for Indian agriculture. It will not be compulsory but will provide the guidelines to be adopted voluntarily by willing participants, he said.

Under the scheme, financial assistance would be provided to the agricultural sector and 200 to 500 farmers could come together to avail themselves of the benefits of collective farming. Non-Governmental Organisations and self-help groups would play a vital role in the implementation process where the Government would be a watchdog. Even retailers who were thinking of backward integration and developing cold chain systems at the back-end could get together with farmers and utilise the GAP scheme for better realisations, he said.

“Retailers should partner farmers in an endeavour to optimise food production and distribution because they are in a position to do so,” he said.

However, Mr Kishore Biyani, Managing Director, Future Group, speaking at one of the sessions of the FFI said, “We are retailers, what are we expected to do? We only buy and sell. To uplift farmers or the rural economy, it is the Government which has to implement its schemes in entirety.”

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