PFID News

INDIA DEVELOPMENTS—MANGO

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The PFID–F&V India Partnership—including members from the Maharashtra State Agricultural Market Board (MSAMB) and Michigan State University (MSU)—coordinated an India Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Facilitation Meeting in New Delhi. Meeting participants included key stakeholders in the Government of India (GoI) and some NGOs as noted in the following list:

• Mr. K S Money - Chairman, APEDA
• Dr. S Dave - Director, APEDA
• Dr. M L Choudhary - Horticulture Commissioner, GoI
• Gen. Lal - Head of Quality Division, FICCI
• Dr. E N Sundar - Principal Quality Consultant, FICCI
• Mr. Anurag Bhatnagar - Director General, NIAM
• Dr. Reddy - Director (Marketing) DMI
• Dr. S C Khurana - Deputy Director, DMI
• Dr. O R Reddy - Joint Director, Plant Quarantine, MoA, GoI
• Ms. Sarika Gupta - Senior Research Fellow, UNCTAD, New Delhi
• Mr. Aleen Mukherjee - USAID
• Dr. Les Bourquin- MSU
• Dr. Deepa Thiagarajan - MSU
• Mr. Sunil Borade - MSAMB
• Dr. R R Mohite - MSAMB

The specific objectives that were agreed upon at the end of the meeting were:

1. A voluntary, generic IndiaGAPs Protocol will be developed under the leadership of National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) with assistance/consultation provided by the PFID-India Team and other individuals and organizations participating in the June 16 meeting. The proposed deadline for completing a first draft of the IndiaGAPs Protocol is 8 weeks from June 16th, approximately August 15, 2005.
2. The meeting participants will continue to act as a "Core IndiaGAPs Working Group," and will invite additional key individuals and organizations to participate in the development process. The group will be re-convened formally as needed to discuss issues relevant to development and implementation of the IndiaGAPs Protocol. We envision the development of these standards to be an iterative process that will take some months prior to requesting the IndiaGAPs Protocol be vetted by the Ministry of Agriculture.
3. A mango-specific "Package of Practices" will be developed with leadership by MSAMB and support/consultation by the PFID-India Team and other interested individuals and organizations. This Package of Practices will be developed initially for Alphonso and Kesar mangoes in Maharashtra. The proposed timeline for development of this Package of Practices is "as soon as possible."
4. The group will pursue specific procedures for accreditation and certification of training programs, trainers, auditors and certifiers related involved in implementing the IndiaGAPs Protocol.

Stay posted for further developments with PFID–F&V work on IndiaGAP Standards over the coming year.

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