Participatory Guarantee System for India

Department of Agriculture and Cooperation National Center of Organic Farming Hapur Road, Kamla Nehru Nagar Ghaziabad-201 002. Third Party Certification – An organic guarantee program operated under the National Program on Organic Production which is an independent agency for verification and certification of organic production processes involve.

Trust

Horizontality

National networking

Advantages of PGS over third party certification system

3 At ground level, transparency is maintained through the active participation of the producers in the organic guarantee process which can include. Being practicing organic farmers themselves has a high degree of understanding of day-to-day knowledge or knowledge of the farm.

Limitations of PGS

National Advisory Committee for PGS (PGS-NAC) .1 Structure

Role and Responsibility

Make changes, improvements and changes in the program and structure of the national coordination as a whole without interference in the autonomous functioning of the district councils and local groups.

Meetings of PGS-NAC

NCOF as PGS Secretariat

Appeal authority for local groups against the actions and decisions of regional councils/zonal councils and for regional councils against the actions of area councils. Apart from the supervision and monitoring of Zonal/Regional Councils, the PGS Secretariat will in no way interfere with the autonomous functioning of Zonal/Regional Councils and local groups.

Zonal Council

Appointment of Zonal Councils

Oversight of PGS products through residue testing, including the collection of PGS samples, having those samples tested for residue analysis and the presentation of residue analysis results on PGS website. Even in some cases where secretariat undertakes monitoring of some local groups and finds certain non-compliance, the same will be reported to the concerned Regional Council for further action at its discretion.

Role and Responsibilities

Complaint by farmers and local groups against the functioning and actions of regional councils. Appellate body for appeals against the refusal of certification by the RC or sanctions imposed by the RC on local groups.

Regional Councils

Eligibility criteria for appointment of any agency as RC
Role and responsibility of Regional Council
Requirement and eligibility criteria for a local group
Role and Responsibility of Local Group
Role and responsibilities of farm family

Collectively declares the group as being in compliance with PGS standards (in the case of small groups, up to 10 members). Participate in local group meetings and advise neighbours, share information and improve the capacity of the group as a whole.

Certification Process

Certification process with Farmer and Farm Step 1
Certification Process by Local Group (LG) Step 1
Certification Process by Regional Council Step 1
Grant of Logo and unique certificate ID code
Separate logo for PGS organic and PGS under conversion status

Unfavorable results on either count could impact the certification status of the Local Group as a whole. They can only approve or not approve the certification of the Local Group as a whole.

Consumers or the public will have access to LG's summary reports, details of groups, products offered by each group and their certification status. The information regarding farmers/groups who have lost their certification will be available on the website for a minimum period of 5 years after the loss of certification status has occurred. With access to the unique ID code of a particular product, consumers can access all information about the group regarding its history, cultivation practices and peer review reports etc.

As part of the program, we will also work to introduce an online traceability system based on SMS messages, in which consumers will be able to find out the certification status of the product in question with the origin of the product via SMS messages.

General Requirements .1 Habitat Management

Diversity
Integration of Animals/ livestock
Conversion period
Contamination control
Soil and Water conservation

The entire agricultural business, including crop production and livestock farming, is converted to organic management. The conversion period shall be not less than 24 months in the case of seasonal and annual crops, and not less than 36 months in the case of perennial and perennial crops from the last date of use of prohibited inputs or from the date on which the pledge is done depending on what is later. The conversion period for animal products is not less than twelve months, provided that they are fed completely organic feed and animal feed and that all members of the group are satisfied that the standard requirements have been met during the previous twelve months.

All organic farms must either be protected with biological fencing (fence/guard rows etc) or maintain a buffer zone.

Standard requirements for crop production .1 Selection of seed and planting material

Fertilization
Pest, Disease and Weed Management including Growth Regulators
Equipments/ implements and storage containers
Storage and Transport

Can also be used off-farm/ Biodegradable material purchased of microbial, plant or animal origin, provided it is ensured that no prohibited substances have been used in their preparation. Off-farm/industry produced inputs approved by NPOP accredited certification body as approved input for use in organic agriculture may be used without further group approval. Mineral fertilizers will be used in their natural powder form as a supplementary source of nutrients.

Microbial or botanical preparations purchased from the farm can also be used provided it is ensured that such products are approved as organic inputs under NPOP by accredited certification agencies.

Standard requirement for animal production .1 Conversion requirements

Rearing environment
Animal Nutrition
Veterinary Medicine
Requirement for Bee Keeping

Vitamins, trace elements and supplements will be used of natural origin when available in adequate quantity and quality. Vaccinations will only be used when diseases are known or expected to be problematic in the region. Bee hives will be located on organically managed farms and/or natural wilderness areas, away from fields or areas where prohibited substances have been used.

Veterinary drugs/antibiotics may not be used in beekeeping and no repellents consisting of prohibited substances are used when working with the bees.

Storage

General requirement
Storage
Ingredients, additives and processing aids
Processing

Processes that are biologically approved under PGS are: mechanical and physical, biological, smoking, extraction, precipitation and filtration. Single-ingredient products may be labeled 'PGS organic' if all standard requirements are met and the product is declared PGS organic. In the case of mixed/processed products where at least 95% of the ingredients are PGS organic, the product may be labeled as PGS organic.

If the proportion of organic ingredients is between 95 and 70%, the products can be labeled as "Made with PGS organic ingredients", but in such cases the PGS logo cannot be used.

Regional Council

I/ We have read the operational guidelines of PGS-India and are confident that the proposed organization. I/we understand that the PGS-India Program does not provide financial assistance and that the entire operation will be drawn from the organization's resources. I/We declare that the organization is in sound financial health and is capable of achieving the size necessary for the functioning of the Regional Council.

I/we declare that, on being selected as a Regional Council under the PGS-India programme, we undertake to abide by the PGS-India guidelines and instructions issued by the NAC/PGS Secretariat from time to time and the program will implement in the true spirit of PGS principal. .

Signature of Head of organization with seal (Name Head of organization)

28 I/We, the members of the organization, hereby declare that the information provided above is true to the best of my/our knowledge.

Designation Date

It is understood that the Local Group or RC is not entitled to any financial assistance from the Government of India or the PGS-India Secretariat. The Executive Secretary, PGS-India, Secretariat shall have full authority to monitor, verify and monitor the functioning of local groups. Name of LG) by being registered as local group under PGS-India program hereby declare that they shall not be part of any other certification process except PGS-India including the similar PGS program run by others not -government agencies, without prior approval from the RC/PGS-India Secretariat.

In addition, it is also stated that none of the LG and RC partners have any conflict of interest in the operation of the PGS-India organic guarantee process.

PGS-India Programme

Term of Reference for Operation of Local Groups

Enter all the details online on the PGS website and send a signed copy of the summary worksheet to the RC. The KR must decide on the request for certification within 15 days from the date of uploading the LG summary sheet or submitting the hard copy of the group decision to the RC. I also undertake to participate in all PGS Local Group activities including regular attendance at group meetings, key field training programs and farm assessments of other group members.

I undertake to respect the rules and regulations of the local group and to follow all instructions.

Organic Farmer’s Pledge

Application format for Registration of the Local Group (LG) with Regional Council

We undertake to comply with the guidelines and instructions of the PGS-India program and the instructions/guidelines of the Regional Council issued from time to time. We undertake to abide by the decision of the Regional Council and will work on building the image of the program. For uploading data on the PGS-India website we have the necessary facilities and competence available on our side and will do so by our own.

We request the regional council to kindly provide all such facilities and for the same we will provide all the details in hard copy to the regional council.

Tentative Certification Team

Local groups Name: _________________________________

List of Farmers (Members in group)

Sl No Farmer Name Code No. Village Certification member

Group Leader Signature After Approval of Local Groups

Endorsement of Local Group

List of documents to be submitted at the time of registration of Regional Council

Peer Inspection / Field Inspection Appraisal Worksheet – Part 1

Peer Inspection / Field Inspection Appraisal Worksheet – Part 3

Are you satisfied that veterinary drugs meet PGS standards and are only given in emergency cases? Are you satisfied that all animal production requirements are met according to PGS standards? Are you satisfied that no banned substances have been used in raising or treating bees?

Three opinions (A) on a given topic in three consecutive assessments lead to serious non-compliance (M) and threaten the certification status.

Peer Inspection / Field Inspection Appraisal Worksheet – Part 4

Transport facilities available to you or any transportation convenience arranged for you for transportation of organic products per cluster/RCs/.

Peer Inspection/Appraisal Worksheet for Processing and Handling

Are you satisfied that the necessary measures have been taken to prevent co-mingling and. Are you satisfied that no prohibited substances have been used in storage?

Are you completely satisfied that the entire processing process meets the standard requirements or not.

Non-Compliance Guidelines

LOCAL GROUP SUMMARY WORKSHEET

In the event of denial of certification approval by the Regional Council, the local group may appeal to the National Council or to the NAC through the PGS Secretariat within 2 weeks of the date of notification of the denial of certification by the Regional Council OR to the appeal authority appointed by the NAC.

PGS - India

Scope Certificate

PGS-India National Standards For Organic Production

This Scope Certificate

Any of the type of logo used depending on the organic farming status of the farmer). The validity of this certificate depends solely on the continued compliance with the required standards and PGS-India guidelines. 1 Format -17 Annual status report for the year ……….(Report submitted by the regional council). Soft copy sent to [email protected]) Name of the Regional Council…….

Present Status of PGS-INDIA