Principles of Smallholder Group Certification

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Principles of Smallholder Group Certification

• A central body ensures the compliance of all
  smallholder
• Farmers with organic standards
• Group has a formal InternalControl System (ICS)
• One certification for the group (not for single
  farmers)

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Definition ICS

• IFOAM Definition
• An Internal Control System (ICS) is a
• documented quality assurance system that allows
  the external certification
• body to delegate the annual inspection
• of individual group members to an
• identified body/unit within the certified
• operator.

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Certification of a Smallholder Group
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Conditions for Smallholder Group Certification

• Cost of individual certification
  disproportionally high in relation to sales
  value.
• Homogenity of members (location, production
  system, size of holding).
• In principle, only small farmers (by local
  standards) larger farms can belong to group but
  must always be inspected externally each year.
• Usually common marketing system

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Basic Types of Smallholder Projects
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Risk Management

• Risks that may jeopardize the organic quality
  must be known and taken into account in all
  internal procedures
• Initial risk assessment has to be done
• All necessary measures must be taken to
  minimize the risk

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The Internal Inspector. Potential conflicts of
interest

• The internal inspector is a key position in the
  ICS. The roles requires technical and social
  skills.
• A conflict of interest is a situation where the
  inspector/approval managers ability to make an
  impartial judgement could be perceived to be
  compromised
• Potential conflicts of interest need to be
  declared and to be prevented.

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Training is very Important, for Farmers and
Inspectors
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