**4. Good agricultural practices**

Today, increasing attention is focused upon the impact farming practices are having on the environment, and there is an increasing emphasis on more sustainable methods of crop production. Systems need to be adopted that are more sensitive to environmental issues, genetic diversity, wildlife and their habitats and in some cases the social structures of rural communities. Furthermore, consumers around the world are more sophisticated and critical than in the past, demanding to know how and what has been used to produce their agricul‐ turally derived products.

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) are defined "practices that address environmental, economic and social sustainability for on-farm processes, and result in safe and quality food and non-food agricultural products'' by the FAO. The aims of the GAP are as follows:


General principles for GAP were first presented to the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) in 2003 in the paper "Development of a Framework for Good Agricultural Practices" the annex of which broadly outlined farm-level GAP recommendations in 10 fields; which are "soil", "water", "crop and fodder production", "crop protection", "animal protection", "animal health and welfare", "harvest and on-farm processing and storage", "energy and waste management", "human welfare, health, and safety" and "wildlife and landscape".

Although there are some GAP used by different organizations to succeed different purposes and goals, GLOBALGAP (EUREPGAP) is the widespread certificate in agricultural produce worldwide. GLOBALGAP documents consists of; ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System, ISO 14000 Environmental management system, OHSAS 18001 Work Health and Safety Management System and ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System principles [83].
