Improving Water Management in Agriculture
Reporting the 200,000th Farm under GLOBALG.A.P. Certification
Berlin/Cologne, 5 February 2019. GLOBALG.A.P. and the Swiss retailer Coop have developed an add-on for sustainable water management. GLOBALG.A.P. is raising awareness for the SPRING Program at the FRUIT LOGISTICA 2019.
Fresh water is a scarce resource in many areas around the world and water scarcity is set to increase due to climate change and a rising global population. Today, agriculture uses up about 70% of the world's freshwater resources. It is therefore key to improve water management at farm level.
Achieving sustainable water management in agriculture
GLOBALG.A.P. and the Swiss retailer Coop have developed an add-on for sustainable water management at farm level. This add-on is based on the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA Crops Standard. The SPRING Program is for producers, traders, and retailers and supports their efforts to achieve sustainable water management in agriculture.
Raising awareness for responsible water use
At this year's Fruit Logistica GLOBALG.A.P. is raising awareness for responsible water use. GLOBALG.A.P. will install branded water dispensers at nine member/partner booths and GLOBALG.A.P. experts will be available on location to answer questions.
“We want to thank Coop Switzerland for sharing their innovation with the GLOBALG.A.P. community,” says Dr Kristian Moeller, CEO of GLOBALG.A.P. “Leveraging our global network will bring the necessary impact to save the scarce resource of water.”
TR4 Biosecurity – Preventing the Introduction or Spreading of the Pathogen
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp cubense – tropical race 4 (TR4), is a fungus which is also referred to as “Panama Disease”. It is a threat to the whole banana industry and those depending on banana production for their livelihood. There is currently no known effective treatment to control the disease for Cavendish cultivars. Preventive measures are the only viable option.
A risk mitigation plan for certified farmers
The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat has developed the TR4 Biosecurity Add-on as a tool that provides certified farmers with a risk mitigation plan. This prevents the introduction or spreading of the TR4 pathogen. The GLOBALG.A.P. TR4 Biosecurity Add-on helps raise awareness and makes a vital contribution to combating this threat that the banana industry is facing.
Worldwide visible assessment
The TR4 Biosecurity Add-on is an assessment and not a certificate. IFA certified banana producers (for bananas only) can request Certification Bodies to perform the TR4 Biosecurity assessment together with their normal IFA audit. Producers will receive an assessment proof which will be visible in the GLOBALG.A.P. Database.
Call to action to save the banana
At the GLOBALG.A.P. SUMMIT in Lima in November 2018, GLOBALG.A.P. and the World Banana Forum (WBF) presented a global action plan to save bananas and protect them against the threat of TR4. The signatories are committed to fighting the dangerous pathogen.
www.fao.org/world-banana-forum/en/
GLOBALG.A.P. is very proud to announce that the number of producers under certification has reached 200,000 worldwide. Another success can be reported in the field of GRASP. In the year 2018, 85,491 producers participated in the GRASP Assessment, which amounts to 43 % of all fresh fruit and vegetable producers under GLOBALG.A.P. Certification.
GRASP stands for GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice and is a voluntary ready-to-use module developed to assess social practices on the farm, addressing specific aspects of workers’ health, safety, and welfare. The assessment results are uploaded to the GLOBALG.A.P. Database. They show the level of compliance and are visible to industry supply chain partners and buyers. The GRASP assessment is valid for one year.
GLOBALG.A.P. introduces an online checklist to capture audit information for the FSMA PSR Add-on.
GLOBALG.A.P. has developed a new user-friendly module to capture audit information. With this step, GLOBALG.A.P. intends to provide more transparency to relevant stakeholders according to our data access rules. For the moment, this module is targeted at the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule (FSMA PSR) Add-on in Option 1, meaning that approved Certification Bodies can enter the audit information by filling out the individual control points. Thus GLOBALG.A.P. is fulfilling the United States Food and Drug Administration's requirement for the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule. For producers participating in the FSMA PSR Add-on, all FSMA PSR Add-on control points as well as all IFA Fruit and Vegetables control points will be available.
The merits of our checklist system include: 1. Intuitive design, 2. Straightforward API interface to connect with existing systems, 3. Low-bandwidth requirements for navigation, 4. Simple user interface and universal report outputs (PDFs, emails, etc.), 5. Dual language capabilities – initial English and Spanish users have provided feedback that the system is user-friendly.
About GLOBALG.A.P.
GLOBALG.A.P. is a leading global certification program whose mission is to bring farmers and retailers together to produce and market safe food to protect scarce resources and build a sustainable future.
Contact:
GLOBALG.A.P. c/o FoodPLUS GmbH
Claudia Meifert
Public Relations
T: +49 (0) 221-57776 997
Email: meifert@globalgap.org
Please download the Press Release.
Please download the Presentation.