Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) system is an international safety production standard of agricultural products, established gaining the consensus on the safety problems among countries according as the trade amount increase. Also this system is expe...
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) system is an international safety production standard of agricultural products, established gaining the consensus on the safety problems among countries according as the trade amount increase. Also this system is expected to play roles in producing safe agricultural products and controling hazardous factors' impacts on the environment. GAP is on an increasing trend around international organizations such CODEX and FAO, and the United States, EU and Japan have introduced and practiced the system in government and private level. As most countries have tendency to introduce the GAP system recently, and needs of GAP introduction increase because consumers keep an eye on the food safety issues.
This study analysed the characteristics of GAP guides which established by CODEX and FAO and have been adapted to all over the world, and as well addressed how the guides are applied to such early-adapted countries as the United States, EU and Japan. By comparative studies of the GAP guides among early-adapted countries, I established the GAP guides which are appropriate to protected cultivation crops in Korea. In addition, I investigated the adaptability of GAP system on protected horticulture farmers and suggested the policy and guide line so that GAP might be early settled in Korean protected horticultural products.
The CODEX guide put for producing fresh vegetables and fruits safely, and put a stress on safety and hygiene, while FAO guide chiefly aimed at practicing the practice of sustainable agriculture. The GAP system which was introduced in Korea, through the pilot program executed by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), is a hybrid of GAP guides of CODEX and FAO.
When the Korean GAP guide was compared with others of the United States, EU and Japan as divided by items as seeds, water, soil, nutrient management, disease and pest control, harvest, and preparation management, there were no differences among the detailed parts. The early-adapted countries have improved their GAP guides to be suitable for each crop through revising and complementing the draw-backs of the existing guides. And thus they have extended the GAP guide to specific crops, but Korea has not done it yet.
The domestic GAP guide practiced by MAF, according to comprehensive analyses on international organizations and advanced countries, including investigations of domestic states on GAP introduction and the level of horticulture farmers' complying to the GAP law, appeared to be unadaptable as a GAP guide for protected horticultural crops. The results showed that more adaptable GAP guide is required to the protected horticultural crops. For protected horticultural crops, the management items were added to the pilot GAP guide executed by MAF with references to the GAP guides of the United States and Japan.
Based on the survey results of the farmers' adaptability of GAP, it appeared that information and training activities of the executive agency for the water quality examination are necessary, because the percentages of the farmers who received the examination on the water quality that used in cultivating crops was low. The percentages of agricultural workers who completed the education program on the safety supervision, putting on sanitary equipment of workers, individual sanitation and prevention of pollution in agricultural products were under 60% in most inspected crops except for paprika, in which showed higher rate of 79.6%. The percentage of farmers completed the education programs was 40 to 50% in strawberry, and 23.1% in watermelon which was lower than other crops.
The survey results on existence of waste-media depot showed that about 13 percent of waste media were deposited in depot on occasion of paprika cultivation. Over 90 percent of used-media were recycled in strawberry soilless culture, and its composite did not lead to serious problems as put into the soil after use.
Based on the survey results on sanitary facilities, the established rate of toilet and washroom near the cultivation facilities was very lower in small scaled farmers like those who grows watermelon. Therefor, it is recommended to build up public sanitary facilities at the collective cultivating area.
The survey results on disposal method of waste-solution showed that soil drench and stream discharge were over 70 to 90%, so educational guidance for disposal method of waste-solution and soilless culturing method of closed system were in need.
In addition, the survey results on existence of cold storage room near the shipping facilities showed that, about 77 percent of farmers possessed the cold storage room in paprika, while very lower in watermelon. Farmers of watermelon needed more postharvest treatment facilities than the cold storage room, and they preferred the simple rain shelter among shapes of protected house to other farmers.