TOPIC-ADOPTION GAP(Good

agricultural practices)

Good agricultural practice (GAP) is a certification

system for agriculture, specifying procedures (and attendant
documentation) that must be implemented to create food for
consumers or further processing that is safe and wholesome,
using sustainable methods. While there are numerous competing
definitions of what methods constitute good agricultural practice
there are several broadly accepted schemes that producers can
adhere to.

A farmer who practices Good Agricultural Practices

implements proactive food safety control measures to
prevent crop contamination. GAP guidelines can be
grouped into four categories; health and hygiene, water
quality, soil supplements, and environmental hazards. A
brief discussion of each is discussed.
Health and Hygiene – Growing fresh produce requires a significant amount of hand contact during
harvesting, sorting, and packing. A worker who shows signs of diarrhea, vomiting, or sudden yellowing of
the skin or eyes may have a disease that can be transmitted through food and should not handle fresh
produce

Water quality—Water has a many pre- and post-harvest uses for irrigation, pesticide application,
washing harvested produce, cleaning harvest containers, and for drinking and hand washing. Food safety
risks are greatest when surface water from ponds, streams, or rivers comes into contact with the edible
parts of fruits and vegetables
Soil supplements—Healthy soils contain abundant populations of microorganism and most are harmless
to people. In fact, they are beneficial to crops because they break down organic matter into more readily
available plant nutrients. However, when animal manure is used as a soil conditioner or a source of
nutrients, contamination risks increase. It should be assumed that all raw manure contains microorganism
that can make people sick.

Field and Packinghouse Hazards—Farms and packing houses are by no means sterile environments
and there are ample opportunities for contamination from harvest equipment and containers, harvest
implements, packing equipment, storage facilities, and during transportation. Currently under
development from Penn State Extension and the Department of Food Science is a training program that
will help growers understand farm food safety risks and develop a food safety plan.

What Growers Should Know

Growers can minimize the pre-harvest risk of contamination from pathogen sources such as irrigation
water, green or inadequately composted manure, or wild animals, through the following GAPs practices:

Irrigation and Spray Water Quality

E.coli and Salmonella

 Irrigation water is from a capped well in good condition that can be readily treated if indicator
organisms are detected in annual water test.
 Source of water for topical sprays is from a capped well in good condition that can be readily
treated if indicator organisms are detected in annual water test.
 All water sources are tested for indictor organisms such as thermo tolerant coliforms and generic
E. coli with records kept on file.
 Findings and efforts of local watershed committees are known.

Manure Sources and Application Practices

 Manure handling documentation from provider is on file.

 Only mature-animal manure is applied to produce fields (never from young, immature animals).
 Manure is never spread to fields that are water saturated, prone to flooding or runoff, and is not
spread on frozen or snow-covered ground.
 Detailed records are kept of manure use.

On-Farm Manure Storage and Handling

  Manure storage areas are isolated from produce fields and handling facilities.
 Proper slurry storage periods are observed, prior to field application.
 There are records of slurry storage engineering design and inspection, with emergency plan for
pit failure or spills.
 There are records on file of farm environmental impact assessment, with record of necessary
changes made.

Compost Sources and On-Farm Storage

 Compost handling documentation from the provider is on file.

 Records of composting conditions for manure and bedding are on file.
 On-farm compost storage is secured, prior to land application.

Compost Application Practices

 No compost teas are used.

 No produce crops are side dressed with compost.
 Barriers are in place to reduce compost runoff or movement to surface water sources.
 There is detailed record keeping of compost use

Harvest and Post-harvest sources of contamination are addressed under GAPs as follows Harvest
Sanitation

 Workers are trained regarding quality and grade of harvested product.

 Harvest aids, field packing equipment and machinery are washed and sanitized daily.
 Workers practice proper hand washing.
 Soil is removed from produce and bins in field. Bins are cleaned and sanitized prior to field use.
 Written SOPs exist for all aspects of field harvest sanitation, with documentation that SOPs are
being implemented.

Post-harvest Packing House Sanitation and Safety

 Written SOPs for pest control of rodents, birds and insects in storage and packing areas, with
daily inspections and records.
 Soil is removed from produce and bins in field.
 Overhead light bulbs are screened or covered.
 Gloves, smocks and aprons are properly worn during packing.
 Shipping trucks are properly sanitized, with recorded documentation.
 There are written SOPs for all aspects of packing house sanitation, with records of routine
verification of practices.

Post-harvest Handling of Produce

  Soil is removed from produce and bins in field to prevent contaminating wash water or other loads
of produce.
 Potable-quality water is used for washing produce and making ice, with results of annual water
test on file.

Top

Proper cleaning of produce before storage

 Water quality in dump tanks, flumes, hydro coolers or other batch-water tanks is monitored
several times a day, with appropriate chlorine or other disinfectant levels maintained for each
particular crop. Water pH is monitored and adjusted to correct levels.
 There are written SOPs for temperature management of water in dump tanks (no more than 10˚ F
cooler than produce).
 Records are maintained of scheduled cleaning of ice storage and handling facilities.
 Backflow devices separate dump tanks from water source.
 Harvesting, packing and shipping containers are new or clean and sanitized prior to each use

Proper Storage of produce

 Proper storage of containers used for packing and shipping ensures containers are not exposed
to rodents, dust or condensation.
 A cold chain is maintained to minimize growth of pathogens, with records of monitored
temperatures.
  There are written SOPs for cleaning of temperature-controlled produce storage, with records to
verify implementation.
 There is proper refrigerated- or cold-room loading and management.

Crisis Management

 Farm owner/operator has received crisis management training, and a written crisis management
plan is in place.
 The farm has individuals who have media training and are familiar with farming operations to
answer questions from the media. These individuals are familiar with all farm food safety
protocols that are in place to prevent problems.
 The farm has a crisis management team designated and a plan to assign employees to different
tasks should a crisis occur. Each critical person has a backup.

Pesticide Use

 Pesticides are applied according to label directions and at less than label rates when effective.
 Any person who handles and applies pesticides is a certified applicator.
 All pesticide applicators have access to and wear proper safety equipment for applying pesticide.
 The pesticide storage area is locked and used only for pesticides.
 Pesticide storage area is designed with impermeable shelves over and impermeable floor with
curbs or dikes to contain leaks or spills. There is no floor drain or drain is to an acceptable holding
tank.
 Signs are posted notifying of pesticide applications. Workers are prevented from re-entry to fields
until the re-entry period has expired.
 No produce is harvested until the legal number of days, post application, as stated on the
pesticide label.
 Proper pesticide container disposal is followed.

Personal practices

 Smoking, eating chewing gum, drinking beverages, or using tobacco should be confined to areas
away from the growing area
  If there is a significant risk for contamination, policies should be established to minimize this risk.

Assessment of technological
gap constraints and remedial
measures : A farmers
purview-
Barriers encountered by the farmers in
minimization the technological gap:
It is general observation during the study that
productivity of crops in study area found to low, while,
there exist high potential and prospect for increasing the
crop productivity. The low productivity of crops could
be due to various reasons. Large scale adoption of
technological innovation is essential feature of
agricultural development.
However, some farmers adopt all the recommended
practices while some others don’t. The personal, social,
economical and technological aspects of the farmers play
a major role in their adoption process. It was felt that
information about the adoption level is limited and
technological gap in cultivation of crops are too wide.
Due to low adoption of technology there exist vast
technological gap in adoption of recommended crop
 production technology.
Table 1 : Barriers encountered by the farmers in
minimization the technological gap (n=300)
Sr. No. Constraints Frequency
Always Sometime Never
Mean score Rank
Unavailability of basic facilities
1. Unavailability of inputs in time
2. Non accessibility to electricity
3. Unavailability of mass media
Barriers to uptake of new technology 1
1. Traditional belief
2. Lack of relevant technology
3. Lack of basics training facilities for use of ICT
tools
Economic barriers
1. Inadequate operational funds
2. Unable to fetch reasonable prices for their
produce
3. Costly technology and inputs
Social and motivational issues
1. Lack of knowledge about technology
2. Lack of adoption awareness
3. Absence of accountability
4. Missing link of farmers in extension programme
5. The extension personnel have little interest in
helping
the farmers through with their problems

Lack of adoptable information

1. Lack of information towards uptake of technology
2. The information provided by the extension service
appear to lack relevance to the need of the farmers
3. Huge disconnect between the flow of latest
information from the research institutes and the
farmers
Economic barriers:
The result presented in Table 1 shows that out of
the total ICT user farmers, the maximum proportion
of
the ICT user farmers 38.33 per cent confronted
always
faced this constraint followed by 31.67 per cent
farmers
confronted sometime faced this constraint and 30.00
per
cent farmers confronted never faced this constraint
in
minimizing the technological gap.
Barriers to uptake of new technology :
The result presented in Table 1 shows that out of
the total ICT user farmers, the maximum proportion
of
the ICT user farmers 38.33 per cent confronted
always
faced this constraint followed by 32.00 per cent
farmers
confronted sometime faced this constraint and 29.67
per
cent farmers confronted never faced this constraint
in
minimizing the technological gap.
Table 2 : Suggestion for minimizing the
technological gap at farm level (n=300)
1. More extension activities should be given
2. More technological demonstration should be conducted
on farmers field
3. Subsidized supply of inputs should be on priority basis
4. Availability of crop production and marketing credit.
5. Availability of technical help in greater degree
6. Need to address farmers’ economic and social issue
7. Equipping the farmers with the necessary knowledge
inputs
8. Needs to restore farmers credibility of the efforts meant
for them
9. Information related with agricultural development
should be easily
available and affordable

10. The agriculture information should be specific

requirement of each region
and each socio economic category.
11. The solution of problems should be on localized based
and with multiple
technological options to choose from depending upon
farmers resources
12. The proper and basic training facilities should be
available at block level for
use of ICT.

Precision agriculture
Precision agriculture (PA) is an approach to farm management that uses
information technology (IT) to ensure that the crops and soil receive exactly
what they need for optimum health and productivity. The goal of PA is to
ensure profitability, sustainability and protection of the environment. PA is also
known as satellite agriculture, as-needed farming and site-specific crop
management (SSCM).

Precision agriculture relies upon specialized equipment, software and IT

services. The approach includes accessing real-time data about the
conditions of the crops, soil and ambient air, along with other relevant
information such as hyper-local weather predictions, labor costs and
equipment availability. Predictive analytics software uses the data to provide
farmers with guidance about crop rotation, optimal planting times, harvesting
times and soil management.

Sensors in fields measure the moisture content and temperature of the soil
and surrounding air. Satellites and robotic drones provide farmers with real-
time images of individual plants. Information from those images can be
processed and integrated with sensor and other data to yield guidance for
immediate and future decisions, such as precisely what fields to water and
when or where to plant a particular crop.

Agricultural control centers integrate sensor data and imaging input with other

data, providing farmers with the ability to identify fields that require treatment
and determine the optimum amount of water, fertilizers and pesticides to
apply. This helps the farmer avoid wasting resources and prevent run-off,
ensuring that the soil has just the right amount of additives for optimum health,
while also reducing costs and controlling the farm's environmental impact.

In the past, precision agriculture was limited to larger operations which could
support the IT infrastructure and other technology resources required to fully
implement and benefit from the benefits of precision agriculture. Today,
however, Mobile apps, smart sensors, drones and cloud computing makes
precision agriculture possible for farming cooperatives and even small family
farms.
The Modern Greenhouse-

Greenhouses have come a long way since Rome’s early horticulturists devised simple yet
effective methods to meet Emperor Tiberius’ year-round demand for fresh cucumbers. Now
driven by the needs for efficiency and resource conservation, modern greenhouses are all
about shattering barriers and expanding possibilities.
For the small backyard greenhouse, daily visual inspections provide sufficient observations
regarding plant health and crop development. However, larger commercial operations, often
with several thousand square feet of greenhouse space, simply cannot rely on eyeball
judgments. That’s where the use of computer-based monitoring systems with digital
representations has replaced long walks.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
For most people, the terms “planting,” “crops,” and “harvest” intuitively imply the use of some
measure of natural soil. But soil isn’t always necessary to the practice of growing plants. As
Giacomelli stated, constant pressure to achieve greater efficiency, while conserving what he terms
“the big four” resources – water, labor, energy, and plant nutrients – has spurred intensive R&D into
soilless planting options.
Central to this theme is hydroponics – the practice of growing plants in water. Aeroponics, which
suspends plants in racks and irrigates them with nutrient misters, is considered a subset of this
practice and a good option for space-limited greenhouses. Another option to the standard
hydroponic setup is a soilless medium such as coconut fiber, composted pine bark, and perlite
(made from volcanic rock) with a nutrient-rich water infusion.

“For example, in the same area of a greenhouse compared to the open field, you can get 10 times
more production per year .You’ll use more water than in the open field, but less per product – weight
of product or numbers of heads of lettuce or numbers of tomatoes.