GUIDE FOR GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES (G.A.P.) FOR POTATO TRAINING OF TRAINERS – 2 TO 4 MAY 2018

By Cok Duijvestijn, trainer Q-Point

In the framework of the Nuffic NICHE-programme Capacity building for food security through sustainable potato value chain development in Rwanda (RWA/185), NICHE pays special attention to capacity building of UR-CAVM staff in practical potato knowledge and skills. In the (inter)national market quality and food safety issues are very important. This also helps them with the development of their own Potato Academy.

GLOBALG.A.P.

For that it is important that UR-CAVM staff and the local farmers have knowledge and skills to support the implementation of G.A.P. at farmers’ level. This training focused on the basic principles of GLOBALG.A.P. and the market needs so that extension officers/teachers/growers will be able to transfer this knowledge to other (Irish potato) growers in Rwanda. A group of 26 enthusiastic participants signed up for this training.

Participants UR-CAVM staff and local farmers

TRAINING

We started the 3-day training with the subjects food safety developments, market and consumer demands (BRC/IFS/HACCP) to gain more knowledge of what is requested by supermarkets in Europe. A lot of practical questions were answered by the trainer.

Next GLOBALG.A.P. was introduced, the developments of GLOBALG.A.P. and the General Regulations of GLOBALG.A.P. A practical approach to go through this GLOBALG.A.P. checklist was chosen. The group was divided into small groups to discuss how to implement a rule in the Potato Academy. The main part of GLOBALG.A.P. is registration, we showed practical documents the Potato Academy can use. Together a checklist for making a baseline measurement on the farm was made.

Introduction of GLOBALG.A.P.All the participants used this baseline-measurement checklist when visiting a potato farm and a potato seed stock building built by the government. During these visits the participants of the training asked a lot of questions related to GLOBALG.A.P. implementation.

RESULTS

Visit potato farm

The result of this training is that all participants have more knowledge about GLOBALG.A.P., yet there is still a long way to go before the farmers in Rwanda will reach this level of growing. An important result of the training, as the need of a Potato Academy on the UR-CAVM University is high, is a good practice example for the potato growers in Rwanda.

The result of the training is also a list of topics to train potato farmers in Rwanda, handed to the director of CAVM.

Potato seed stock building