Participatory Guarantee Scheme

  • FSSAI expects, the Agriculture Ministry‘s PGS to incentivise more farmers to grow organic food.
    • Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS) is a process of certifying organic products.
    • It ensures that their production takes place in accordance with the laid-down quality standards.
    • The certification is in the form of a documented logo or a statement.
    • The certified organic food production is still very low. The PGS brings together peer group of farmers and the costs are low.
    • According to PGS-India,
  • An Operational Manual for Domestic Organic Certification‘published in 2015.
  • It was published by the National Centre of Organic Farming‘, Ghaziabad, under the Ministry of Agriculture.
  • PGS is a quality assurance initiative, operates outside the framework of third-party certification.
    • According to a definition formulated by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM),
  • PGSs are ―locally focused quality assurance systems.
  • It certifies the producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.
  • IFOAM is a Bonn-based global umbrella organisation for the organic agriculture movement.
    • The pillar of PGS in India is its participatory approach in which peer groups will appraise the products instead of third-party inspections.
    • Mutual recognition and support between regional PGS groups ensures better networking for processing and marketing.
    • It offers every farmer individual certificates, and the farmer is free to market his own produce independent of the group.
    • Individual farmers or group of farmers smaller than 5 members are not covered under PGS.
    • They either have to opt for third party certification or join the existing PGS local group.

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