1 Report Regional Workshop on Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) for organic agriculture in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS): Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward Bangkok, Thailand 04 - 06 April 2017 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) - Main Conference Room Participating countries: Cambodia), Lao PRD, Myanmar, People's Republic of China (Guangxi), Thailand and Vietnam
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Report from GMS Regional PGS Workshop V2 - …€¦ · Regional Workshop on Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) ... development of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) ... Report
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1. BackgroundTheglobalmarketoforganicproductsincreasedfivefoldbetween1999and2014,1OrganicMonitorprojectsgrowthtocontinue.2ThistrendisalsotruefortheAsianregionwherethethird largest market for organic products in the world and forty percent of the world’sorganic producers are located (a total of 0.9 million producers, mostly concentrated inIndia).3Consumersintheregionareincreasinglydemandingorganicproductstoensurefoodsafety.4 This trend represents an opportunity for smallholder farmers practicing organicproductiontoincreasetheirsalesandimprovetheirlivelihoods.Yet,thisopportunityisnotreadilyavailabletosmallholderfarmersintheregion.Onereasonbehindthisisthehighcostof third-party certification,meaning that farmers practicing organic farming are unable tofetchpremiumpricesinthemarketbecauseof lackofdifferentiationintheirproducts. At
the same time, consumers also face difficulties in finding and trusting labelled organic orsafefoodproductsinthemarket.According to IFOAM - Organics International, the PGS certification scheme “offers acomplementary,low-cost,locally-basedsystemofqualityassurance,withaheavyemphasison social control and knowledge building”, it represents an alternative to the third-partycertification, especially adapted to local markets and short supply chains suitable forsmallholderfarmers.In2013,duringthe“AsiaPacificSymposiumonEntrepreneurshipandInnovationinOrganicFarming”jointlyorganizedbyFAOandIFOAM–OrganicsInternational,countriesrequestedtechnicalassistancefortheestablishmentandpromotionofParticipatoryGuaranteeSystem(PGS)certificationschemes intheregion. Inresponse, in2015apilotprojecttitled“Small-ScaleFarmerInclusioninOrganicAgricultureDevelopmentthroughParticipatoryGuaranteeSystems (PGS)” was initiated in Lao PDR and Cambodia. The project addresses thecertification and marketing issues through the promotion of PGS in the participatingcountriesaswellasawarenessraisingonthebenefitsoforganicproductionandPGSfortheenvironment,healthandlivelihoodsofruralcommunities.Similarly,TheAsianDevelopmentBank(ADB)throughtheCoreAgricultureSupportProgram,Phase2,supportscountriesoftheGreaterMekongSub-region(GMS)5andissupportingtheproductionofagriculturalfoodproductsthatcomplywithfoodsafetyandqualitystandards,andmarketaccess.Inthiscontext,FAOincollaborationwithADB,IFOAM–OrganicsInternationalandEarthNetFoundation (ENF) have organized a 3-day Regional workshop on Participatory GuaranteeSystems(PGS)fororganicagricultureintheGreaterMekongSub-region:LessonslearntandtheWayForward.(SeeprogrammeinAnnexI).
2. ObjectivesThe objectives of the workshop are (i) to exchange the lessons learnt during thedevelopmentoftheParticipatoryGuaranteeSystem(PGS)fororganicagriculture,(ii)exploreandplanfurtherSub-Regionalcollaborationsandpolicyadvocacyand(iii)agreeontheWayForwardonPGSfortheGreaterMekongSub-Region.