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Planters' World _________________________ 
Internal Control System in Organic Farming

S. Kamala Bai and Y. Raghuramulu

The organic market is regulated by various organic standard and regulations. Hence all the steps in organic production, processing, storage, transportation, packaging and marketing need to be fulfilled as per defined criteria for organic production. Further these rules have to be inspected and certified by an organic certification body.
On the other hand, a majority of farmer's world wide are small holders and often located in remote areas with long travel times from one place to another, thus focusing to averse use of any chemical fertilizers and plant protection measures in their package of cultivation. Consequently, leading to low yield and also the overall revenue from their economy resorting them from having a viable farm income or go for independent organic inspection by each grower for their product to be qualified as organic by external inspection body.

For these reasons, small holders in developing countries formed small-holder's organization viz., farmer's co-operatives, growers association, Non-Government organizations and self help group to apply for organic certification as a group to economise the cost of certification. Hence, the small holders through co-operatives & associations in cooperation with certification bodies developed system to assure compliance to organic standards for producers as a group called Internal Control System (ICS)

The coffee industry in India also reflects the same situation as mentioned above, characterized by both subsistence oriented small growers and market oriented large and corporate producers. Small growers with less than 10 ha land account for 98.45 covering approx. 71.2% of land under coffee and contribute around 60% towards the country's production.

These small growers are basically averse to use of any chemical fertilizers or pesticides to coffee. Majority of these smallholdings are located in Idukki zone of Kerala, Bodinayakanur zone of Tamilnadu and all the tribal holdings of Andhra Pradesh and North Estate states, which could be categorized under, default organic ones. Thus there exists good scope for converting these small and tribal holdings into organic without much changes in the existing cultivation practices by introduction of internal control system.

What is Internal Control System?

As per International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM): An Internal control system is a documented quality assurance system that allows the external certification body to delegate the annual inspection of individual group members to an identified body/unit within the certified operator.

This means that the group of growers identified as internal inspectors basically controls all the growers involved in organic production, inspects whether all the growers are in compliance with defined organic production procedures/standards. Later after entering into contract with an inspection & certification agency, the agency evaluated whether the internal control systems are working well and efficiently. The evaluation is done by check of the ICS documentation system, staff qualification and re-inspection of the farmers.

Who can initiate Internal Control System?

Any small holder organization viz., farmers' co-operatives, growers association, self help group, NGO's, farmers contracted by exporter or Government body handling organic project and ready for small holder group certification can initiate internal control system.

Who is eligible for entry into small holder group certification?

For entry into small holder group, the following conditions should be fulfilled by the grower members :

  • There should be homogeneity of members in terms of geographic location, production system, type of crop grown, size of holdings and marketing system.
  • Most of them farm operations should be managed by family labour.
  • In principle, only small farmers can be members of the group for group certification. Large farms (i.e., when the expense of the direct certification is more than 2% of the value of the commodity produced) can also belong to the group but have to be inspected annually by the external inspection body. Processor and exporter can be part of the structure of the group, but have to be inspected annually by the external inspection body. What does small holder group certification means?

    This implies that
    • A central body of ICS will be responsible for ensuring group's credibility in following organic standards/procedures.
    • Combined certification for all the registered members in a group will be issued.
    • No individual grower/operator within a group will be eligible for independent certification.
    • The ICS maintains all the files of all their members of the group and inspect each members operation at least once before external inspection.
    How to develop ICS?

    The basic steps to develop ICS are
    • Identify the group of growers interested in organic production and create awareness in organic farming.
    • Identify qualified persons among the group as internal inspectors and impart necessary training on organic production.
    • Develop suitable formats and procedures that could be actually implemented and understood by all staff for executing ICS. Some of the forms and procedures included for developing ICS manual are.
      1. Farm Control and Approval Procedures.
      2. Organisation and ICS Personnel.
      3. Training.
      4. Additional internal ICS manual
    • It is important that the ICS principle and procedure i.e., ICS manual are known to all the member growers involved in ICS. Further, it has to be regularly updated and distributed to all the parties.
    • The external organic certification body before the first inspection or during the first inspection will screen and assess the internal documents and give suggestion/conditions for gradual improvement of the ICS document and their implementation by the organic staff.
    The above-mentioned text prescribes minimum requirement to be followed for preparing the ICS. However, the central body of ICS can adopt the text according to their situation/needs of the member growers and the type of the crops grown.

    Acknowledgement : The first author is grateful to Director of Research for deputing to IFOAM training on harmonizing Internal Contral System (ICS) for organic certification held at Bangalore from 21-24 Jan, 2004.

    References :

    1. Anonymous, 2000, Package of Practices for organic coffee production, pp.43
    2. IFOAM Small holder group certification guidance manual for producer groups, pp.28

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    S. Kamala Bai, Research Assistant, Gr.II, Dr. Y. Raghuramulu, Coffee Scientist, (FAO Project) & HAD, Analytical Laboratory, Coffee Board, Bangalore.
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