The Department of Agriculture (DA) approved the Administrative Order No. 25 series
of 2005 on the Certification of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for Fruits and
Vegetables Farming. This regulation is the Department’s response to the
“farm-to-fork” principle of ensuring food safety being promoted by the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO). The goal/objective of the Good Agricultural Practices
(GAP) Certification Program is to provide fresh and safe agricultural food products for
the consumers. It focuses on the reduction of risks from pathogens, heavy metals and
pesticide contamination. Additional benefits of the program are to ensure worker
health and safety, and protection of the environment.
Although the Code for GAP is generic and has a wide application, the industry-led
National Mango Action Team (NMAT) deemed it necessary that a specific GAP
Manual for mango production be adopted and implemented by the Department
considering its high domestic consumption and significant export potential.
In response, the Department created a Technical Working Group (TWG) composed of
experts from the concerned government agencies namely, Bureau of Plant Industry
(BPI), Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries
Product Standards (BAFPS), National Crop Protection Center of the College of
Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños (NCPC-UPLB) and industry
representatives from the NMAT and CropLife Philippines Incorporated. The TWG was
tasked to draft the Philippine National Standard (PNS) – Code of GAP for Mango and
facilitate the conduct of its presentation to the stakeholders through public consultative
meetings.
This Code of GAP for mango lists down the practices for pre-and post-production of
safe and high quality mangoes intended for both domestic and export markets. It
provides common understanding on farm location, farm structure and maintenance,
cultural and farm management, integrated pest management (IPM), and pesticide
management geared towards GAP compliance. This PNS – Code of GAP for Mango is
applicable for both small and large-scale farms and will be used as a basis for
evaluating farms towards obtaining a GAP Certification.
 PNS-BAFS45-2009GAPMango.pdf | [GAP for Mango] | 595 kB |
