 |
 
“Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) is an internationally applicable organic quality assurance system implemented and controlled by committed organic farmer-producers’ along with consumers through a process based on verifiable trust, personal ideology and peer integrity. The farmer pledges that the production process is free from manufactured chemicals (fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, hormones, etc) and lives by his word of honor. The “Local Group” of five or more organic farmers is the fulcrum of the self-regulatory support system of PGS. The quality assurance standards are harmonised by the PGS Organic Council, which permits the use of its PGS label on a product as a mark of quality.”
In India, PGS began with an initiative by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India; holding consultations with farmers, NGOs and state government officials, to work on a model specific to India's needs. After a national workshop in Goa in September 2006, pilot programmes were launched in different parts of the country. Presently, the overall PGS network in India is coordinated by the PGS Organic Council, with an estimated number of 5, 275 farmers already certified through PGS within India.
The PGS Organic Council is registered as a society. Its work is carried out through eleven organisations spread across the country which perform as PGS Organic Facilitation Councils. These being: Institute for Integrated Rural Development (IIRD), Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI), Keystone Foundation, Deccan Development Society (DDS), Chetana Vikas, Covenant Centre for Development (CCD), Timbaktu Collective, Pan Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation (PHGDF), Maharashtra Organic Farmers Federation (MOFF), Green Foundation and Botanical Society of Goa. The Executive Committee consists of Joy Daniel, Claude Alvares and Mathew John as President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively. The PGS Organic Council meets every 6 months for a review of its work and to chalk out a plan for further action.
For detailed information visit: http://www.pgsorganic.in/
|
|
