Services

Grower Groups

Grower Groups are organized group of producers who intend to produce organic products/engage in organic processes in accordance with the applicable standards.

Internal Control System (ICS)

Internal Control System means the control system organized by the member farmers in the grower group to ensure that the standard requirements are met.

Service Provider

The service provider is an external body (e.g., Self-Help Groups / NGOs / Private Agency / State Govt. Agency) contracted by Grower Groups for maintaining the documentation, training, quality control, facilitating certification by an accredited Certification Body and for marketing of the produce of the Grower Groups.

Benefits of Grower Group Certification

• Organic certification helps in building trust between person involved in production, processing and trading of organic products.
• Certification marks help to recognize your group/company logo and access to local, regional, and international markets.
• The cost of certification per hectare per year is very low in comparison to individual farmer certification.
• The group will market the products under a single entity and able to bargaining with buyers.
• The group will linked with the national and international buyers.
• The Government Department will easily implement the departmental schemes

Requirement for Grower Group Certification Under NPOP:

• A grower group, SHGs / NGOs / Private Agency / State Govt. Departments seeking a Grower Group Certification must fulfill the following requirements
• The grower group certification is based on Internal Control System (ICS) and applies groups, farmers, cooperatives, contract production and small scale processing units. The producer in the group must apply similar production systems and the farms should be in geographical proximity.
• The group consists of minimum 25 and maximum 500 farmers. Individual farmer with land holding of 4 hectares and above part of the group but will have to be inspected separately every year by the GCS.
• Note: The farm or farmer having total area is 3.90 hectares must be inspected annually as per the latest circular received from APEDA.
•  The ICS have a registered legal identity and have a constitution of the organization. The responsibilities of ICS staff must be defined according to the organizational chart.
• The grower group must have a written contract with each member confirming the member understanding and compliance with the relevant standards, permitting internal inspections and external inspections. The contract may be written in the local language.
• Grower Group Certification is based on the concept of an Internal Quality Management System (IQMS). The ICS manual must include policy and procedures related to implementation of the ICS, internal standards and risk assessment.
• The ICS must have sufficient and competent personnel, financial and technical resources to manage and implement a system incorporating the Management Plan and to maintain conformity with the relevant Standard.
• The internal standards must be prepared in local language by the ICS Manager. The internal standards would contain the definition of the production unit, deal with part conversion, conversion period, Maintenance of buffer zone, Farm production norms and Harvest & post harvest procedures.
• The ICS personnel should not have any conflict of interest that might hinder the work. All possible conflicts should be declared in a written statement.
•  The certification should be granted according to the applicable standard.
•  The products will be marketed under a single entity and develop the relevant procedure.
•  The ICS should develop the procedure for registration of members, provision of documents supplied by ICS to the group member and provision of exit of the member from grower group.
• The ICS should prepare the operating documents such as overview map, farmer list, sanction farmers list and risk assessment. The operating documents must be available at ICS office.
• The internal inspection must be conduct at least twice in a year by the internal inspector
• At least one internal inspector per 50 – 60 farmers for ensuring 100% internal inspection of all farmers in the group is carried out at least twice a year (one in growing season of each crop).
• The inspection will be carried out in presence of the member or his representative and inspection checklist duly signed by inspector and the member or his representative.
• The ICS will have a defined procedure to approve or impose sanction on the farmers in the group. All internal farm checklists are screened by internal approval committee or approval manager with special focus on the critical control points of risk / difficult cases.
• The accredited certification body will inspect some of the farms for the evaluation of the grower group for efficient ICS on the basis of risk perceived by the inspector.
•  Yield will be estimated for each crop for individual farmer in the group by the ICS. The risk assessment of the grower group should be conduct every year.
• The certification body will inspect central processing unit. The processing steps will be documented and the products should be separated from non organic products during processing.
• The ICS should develop the procedures for deal with non compliance and sanctions. The ICS should maintain a sanction record.
•  A competent person will train each internal inspector annually and date of training, participants and topic should be documented.
•  The Government Department will easily implement the departmental Regular farmer training organized by ICS and ensure that each farmer receive at least one initial advisory visit by the extension service or in an organized training. The farmer training should be documented.
• The ICS should develop the buying procedure and ensure that integrity of the products must be maintained. The buying records should be clearly indicating the status of the products and bags should be labeled as ‘Organic’ or as ‘in-conversion’.
• The ICS should develop the storage and handling procedure and ensure that integrity of the products must be maintained. The products should be identifying at all stages of product flow during transition and labeled. Fumigation of containers, irradiation and ionization are prohibited.
•  In case the farmers cannot run the ICS, they may enter into a contract with an external service provider.

Input Approval

Manufacturers who are manufacturing agricultural inputs like soil conditioners, growth promoters, plant protection, etc. from natural, herbal, biological, etc. sources must get their products approved. These products will be approved as per the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) based on the ingredients present within the product. In organic agriculture, it is mandatory for the producer to use only Approved Off-farm Inputs for growth & plant protection.

Organic Certification Wild Harvest

Millions of people live in and nearby forest area depends on the forest. They collect the forest produce for their livelihood without disturbing the forest.
The high consumer demand and steady growth in recent years demand of forest produce is gradually increasing in the world market due to use of forest products in food and medicinal industry. Therefore wild harvest certification offers opportunities for tribal communities or collectors whose livelihoods are depend to forest resources.
Wild harvest collection refers to the collection of medicinal and aromatic plants as well as sea and aquatic plant products (like seaweed) from their natural habitats. The main purpose of certifying the collection of wild plants/crops is to show that the collection does not endanger the ecosystem, and that the stability of the plant population or the ecosystem is not threatened.

Benefits of Organic Certification of Wild Harvest

• Building trust between person involved in production, processing and trading of organic products.
•  The traceability system for tracking of a product from its collection area to the place where it is consumed.
• The collection should come from a clearly defined collection area.
•  The wild harvest certification helps to conserve endangered or threaten species available in the forest.
•  Protect the habitat losses and to a complete depletion of these resources.
•  Protect natural resources.
•  Certification marks help to recognize your company logo and access to local, regional, and international markets

Requirement for Organic Certification of Wild Harvest

A person seeking an organic certification of wild harvest must fulfill the following requirements

• The collection of wild plants and parts thereof, grown naturally, and not received any treatment with products other than those authorized for use in organic production.
• Organic operators should collect products only from within the boundaries of the clearly defined wild collection area.
•  Organic collection management should ensure that in case of minor forest produce collection, law of the land should be applicable and should not exceed the sustainable yield of the collected species or otherwise threaten the local ecosystem.
•  Products can only be certified organic if derived from a designated area for collection, clearly depicted in the map of the authorized area of collection by the forest department or state department, which is subject to inspection.
• The collection area should be at an appropriate distance from conventional farming, pollution and contamination.
• All records pertaining to production, storage, purchase and sales available and maintain all records at least five years beyond its creation.