Instant Insights: Good Agricultural Practices

This book features five peer-reviewed reviews on good agricultural practices (GAP). The first chapter describes GAP, notions of good farming and how GAP standards have developed over time. The chapter also identifies opportunities to evolve these pre- and post-harvest or slaughter standards, and their related principles and practices in the future. The second chapter reviews the role of GAP in preventing microbial contamination of fresh produce. The chapter also summarises how GAP have evolved, as well the impact they have had on the fresh produce industry. The third chapter considers emerging aspects of GAP in the context of controlled environment agriculture and explores how performance criterion and monitoring programmes can be developed as part of an effective food safety control programme. The fourth chapter explores the role of GAP in optimising maize-based cropping systems. The chapter illustrates the importance of setting targets and measuring performance through the inclusion of a case study on improving maize cultivation in the US, Ethiopia and Argentina. The final chapter reviews the range of GAP in smallholder organic export banana production and the ways in which they can be improved to make banana production more sustainable.