Advantages of Good Agricultural Practices

Advantages of Good Agricultural Practices SWAGATA SETH Â   Good Agricultural Practices History The U. S in 1998 issued a guidance under which the contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables and how to reduce it was given by Food and Drug Administration was there. (USDA, 2011). In 2002 GAP was established by the agengy which are existed so they donot require any reauthorization. ( National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, 2014) Good agricultural practices have main points of food safety with the points like harvesting, transportation of products and advice the grower to implement the general recommendation of adopted the best management practices( Sudheer & Indria, 2007). Good agricultural practices are the practices which are used for the good economic conditions and also social conditions as well as it encompasses environment al issues for the commercialisation and good market value of horticultural and agricultural products also it tries to give good quality food which is healthier, safer, nutritious to the consum ers( The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia , 2012). Good agricultural practices also includes non-food products as well as processing foods. These practices make the food more safe from consumption point of view(Anonymous, 2008). Farming practices includes a very large scope of good agricultural practices at different at different levels. In these practices sustainable agriculture methods are also included(TNAU, 2015). Rules and regulations for the good agricultural practices includes a huge number of activities which may include from the product which are in the farm at cultivation stage, then it also includes the fields the polyhouses, type of fertilisers, seeds which is used then irrigation facilities, pesticides, composting, then interculture operations and then harvesting and also the process which are done outside the fields, like the processing of the products or the products may go through a long distributing channel which includes the middleman, producer and various agents, retailers upto the consumer that is the consumption point(Watts, 2012). Objectives Good agricultural practices needs to keep a proper record of the production process or the technologies which is required for processing or for harvesting of each crops for the areas which are very much good or important agricultural based and ecological regions, and to collect and then plan and the execute then the final process of distribution the knowledge in that major regions (ANONYMOUS, 2015). Good agricultural practices is required for the following reasons There may be contamination in the products which may be biological like fungi, bacteria, viruses, attack when the products are in the field or they are brought to home, although washing, cleaning and cooking can kill the pathogen but if consumed raw then harm can occur ( Eaton& Watson, 2012 ). Some of the important factors which should be keep in mind for Good agricultural practices. 1. Washing of products :- a)Â   Washing of products are necessary to remove the dust particles, chemicals, soil pathogen, microorganisms with fresh water( Srivastava & Kumar, 2009). b) Clean and fresh water is necessary when tanks are used. Paddle conveyor washers and rotary machines are used for washing(Gupta, 2015). 2. Cleaning: cleaning is a practice where the unwanted materials are removed which may be the green, yellow brown, dead insects soggy parts of fruits or other undesirable items either by hand picking or mechanically( Sharma, 2009).