Archives

Vol. 8 No. 6
June 1-30, 2007

Linking info gap through GAP
by Rita T. dela Cruz

Photos by Anthony A. Constantino

Dr. Edralina P. Serrano provides the lecture on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) on fruits and vegetables. She is a horticulture professor and former head of the Postharvest and Seed Sciences Division, Crop Science Cluster of the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

The Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), through its Research Coordination Division (RCD), conducted an orientation-seminar on “Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for Fruits and Vegetables” on 19 June 2007 at the BAR lobby, RDMIC Building, Visayas Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

The purpose of the orientation-seminar was to create awareness among stakeholders on the importance of food production and security, food safety and quality, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.

Dr. Edralina P. Serrano, horticulture professor and former head of the Postharvest and Seed Sciences Division, Crop Science Cluster of the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), gave the lecture on GAP for fruits and vegetables.

Participants from Regions 1-5 and CAR attend the activity. The orientation-seminar hopes to increase awareness among stakeholders on food production and security, food safety and quality, and the environmental sustainability in agriculture.

GAPs are sets of recommendations that can help improve the quality and safety of the commodity grown, which can be adapted and/or incorporated into any productions system. GAPs focus on four primary components of production and processing: soil, water, lands, and surfaces. (ISU, 2004).

Last year, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes the Philippines, released a publication titled “ASEAN GAP: Good Agricultural Practices for Production of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in the ASEAN Region.” The publication details voluntary standards to prevent risks to food safety, produce quality, environment and workers in production, harvesting and postharvest handling of fresh fruits and vegetables. It sets the standard practice for on-farm production activities, as well as that of local industries where the produce are processed and packed for sale.

The ASEAN GAP was developed based on the criteria and experiences of national GAP implementation in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The BAR orientation-seminar is an offshoot of the “Luzon-wide Zonal Research Center Meeting-Workshop” held in Baguio in May. The workshop's main agendum was the development of R&D plans for fruits and vegetables. In the orientation-seminar, most of the participants came from Regions 1-5 and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

It is hoped that through this activity, a draft R&D proposal will be finalized for presentation at the next zonal meeting, which is tentatively slated in Palawan.

Other key attendees of the orientation-seminar were Mr. Tito Arevalo, OIC head of RCD, who also provided the welcome remarks in behalf of BAR Director Nicomedes Eleazar; and Mr. Amador Macabeo, head of Crop Section-RCD.

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June 1-30 2007 Articles:

:: DZRH's Ito ang Palad ko features two CPAR success stories on ubi and ducks
:: Luzon Cluster A moves forward with technology commercialization; 9 technologies presented
:: DA to unify GIS with support from Taiwanese government
:: BAR links up with private sector to establish bio-fertilizer production facilities in the regions
:: ARMMIARC conducts in-house review and planning workshop
:: BAR participates in DA's ICT and ISSP review workshop
:: FCSSP holds 19th Scientific Conference; Yap promotes sustainable technologies to increase farm productivity and income
:: BAR, Optiserve orient regions on e-Pinoy project and its potentials
:: IP awareness continues with staff bureaus
:: Providing livelihood and protecting the environment through community-based watershed management
:: BAR highlights CPAR projects at 6th Agraryo Trade Fair
:: ACIAR taps Philippines to conduct joint impact assessment studies
:: Linking info gap through GAP
:: International conference on coconut proposed