ORGANIC FARMING

Certification Procedures

Organic Certification is the fist and foremost step towards the organic farming practices. The product from the organic certified farms is having higher demand and attracts a greater price in international trade. Fundamentally organic farming requires farming to be carryed out with the use of natural farm inputs as against chemical synthetic farm inputs. The organic farming practice starts with the certification procedure and curing of the farm simultaneously.

There are sets of guidelines and norms to be complied with, followed by the inspection by the certification agency before certification. These certifications are basically carried out on the basis of statutory certification norms and the voluntary/ civil certification norms. Typically the statutory certification norms are a subset of the voluntary certification norms

Statutory certification norms for the leading and the most important organic food consuming and importing markets

• European Economic Council (EEC) Regulation for organic foods in EU  member states.
• United   States   Department  of griculture   (USDA)  standards for organic foods  in USA.
• Japanese Agricultural Standards(JAS) for organic products  in Japan.

The generally accepted international certifications are from agencies and associations like

• CODEX
• IFOAM
• Naturland
• Demeter
• Soil Association

These are widely recognized across the three key organic markets of US, EU and Japan and are trusted by a large section of importers and consumers and hence are as important as the statutory certifications.
In the year 2000, the Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India, launched the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) to ensure a focussed and well-directed development of organic agriculture. A National Steering Committee (NSC) comprising Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Spices Board, Coffee Board and various other government and private organizations associated with the organic movement was set up to formulate the National Programmme for Organic Production (NPOP).
National Steering Committee is entrusted with the preparation  and approvals of  

• The national standards (NSOP)
• Accreditation criteria for accrediting the inspection and certification agencies
• Accreditation procedure
• Inspection and certification procedures

 
These documents were prepared on the basis of the guidelines evolved by the representative international organizations, viz., International Federation for Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM), EU Regulations and Codex standards (FAO).

Accreditation Agencies

National steering committee of the NPOP has appointed following boards / authorities as accreditation agencies

• Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)
• Coffee Board
• Spices Board
• Tea Board
• Coconut Development Board
• Directorate of  Cashew and Cocoa Development

Evaluating Agency

The evaluating agency is appointed by the accreditation agency, consist of persons from the accreditation agency or experts from outside. The evaluating agency receives and screen the applications from the inspection and certification agencies for their certification programmes, The evaluating agency submits an evaluation report along with its recommendation to the accreditation agency for considering accreditation for the particular inspection and certification agency.

Inspection and Certification Agencies

Based on the recommendations of the evaluating agency suitable inspection and certification agencies are accredited by the accreditation agency.
The inspectors are appointed by these accredited inspection and certification agencies
They carry out inspection of the land and maintain records as per specified formats and also carryout periodic site inspection
Based on compliance to the standards and programmes, accredited inspection and certification agencies will certify the organic status or products and operations, indicating their conditions along with their recommendations.

Inspection and Certification Process in India

The following steps are to be followed by a person for organic inspection and certification process

• Select an accredited inspection and certification agency
• The selection of agency is to be based on the acceptability of the exporter or exporting country and the standards prescribed by that country and other factor such as proximity of the agency to the farms, quotations for costs of the inspection and certification
• File application form detailing preliminary information about the size of the farm/ units, location of units, company activities, etc. to determine the cost of inspection and certification and based on application a cost of inspection and certification is determined and a contract regarding the same is signed between the producer and the agency.
• Based on the information provided by the producer, the agency carries out farm inspection on a mutually convenient day and time.
• The inspection includes:
  • Interviews with persons responsible for production
  • Physical inspection of fields, premises, processing equipment, storage area, etc
    Inspection of paper work, book keeping, etc
  • Testing for residue analysis is carried out if the inspector feels the need for the same.
• After fulfilling the necessary inspections, the agency provides the report of inspection and testing (if carried out). Based on the findings of the report, the agency decides whether or not to grant a certification.
• If certification is not granted then the agency provides the reasons for rejection. If only certain parts of the business can be certified, the agency does so, providing the producer with certain recommendations for the remaining parts of the business which could not be certified.
• Each year following the official certification, the agency performs inspections to determine whether the requirements for certification are still met.

Following table shows the approved / standard charges for certification by NPOP

APPROVED MAXIMUM TARIFF STRUCTURE FOR CERTIFICATION

Leading Inspection and Certification Agencies in India

Following are the leading international inspection and certification agencies, which have so far been approved by most of the accreditation agencies in India.

Sourse: apeda
For Fees structures of the inspection and certifying agencies
Please visit
http://www.apeda.com/organic/

Last updated: 04-1-2008