Chapter 4: Farming
The Farming chapter focuses on sustainable production practices, soil fertility and conservation, integrated pest management (IPM), and safe agrochemicals management.
In this section we will cover updates to the requirements on farming. Generally, only a few changes have been made to this chapter, as we have removed some requirements and made simplifications.
You can review all changes to the farming requirements in the documentation found in the Resources section.
We would like to highlight the simplification of the requirements for IPM.
What has changed?
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All essential elements for IPM are now covered in two requirements instead of eight
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The removed requirements used to explain how to create an IPM strategy; now it is up to the Certificate Holder to create their own strategy (in consultation with an IPM professional)
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The IPM strategy must be documented so its quality can be reviewed during the internal inspection and the audit
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Threshold levels for pests are now included
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The guidance document will remain available
To reflect these changes, requirement 4.5.1 has been adapted. It clarifies that management needs to implement an IPM strategy, including processing facilities, as developed by a competent professional and it also needs to document this strategy. The IPM strategy has to include the prevention, monitoring, threshold levels and intervention measures. The IPM strategy is based on climate conditions, pest monitoring results, implemented IPM actions and pesticides application records. The IPM strategy has to be annually updated.
Let's look at what that means for IPM:
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The number of IPM requirements has been reduced but NOT the importance of IPM
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IPM implementation will be similar
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The focus is on Certificate Holders ownership of their own IPM strategy
If you want to learn more about IPM (and exceptional use policy) please visit our E-course