The Proponent Groups (PGs) of Mountain Province and Kalinga coffee enterprise subprojects supported under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) have taken steps towards Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Certification.

Part of the quality control measures incorporated in the business plans of the Kalinga Integrated Coffee Processing and Marketing Enterprise and the Mt. Province Arabica Coffee Enterprise is the adoption of GAP and the installation of an Internal Control System (ICS) for their enterprise subprojects to ensure food safety and the production of quality coffee green beans.

Thru the DA-CAR’s GAP program, the coffee farmer-members of the PGs for the said enterprise subprojects are undergoing a training for the development and installation of ICS that shall serve as a binding commitment to the coffee farmers to adhere to one production standard.

The activity is a four-phase training that intends to prepare the coffee farmers for GAP coffee certification. It specifically aims to orient them on the Philippine National Standards (PNS) for GAP coffee, develop and install ICS, train internal pre-audit inspectors on inspection and empower the farmer groups to sustain their compliance certification.

Meanwhile, GAP refers to approaches to reduce contamination which address the sustainability of on-farm processes to ensure safety and quality of food and non-food agricultural products, workers health and safety and clean environment.

At the end of the training, the PG members will have a final ICS Manual comprising practical standards with corresponding personnel requirements and qualifications as well as policies and procedures that each coffee farmer should follow to ensure the quality of their produce. (Elvy S. Taquio, DA-PRDP CARPCO InfoACE Unit)