The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has recently released the "Basic GAP guidance for vegetable production in Vietnam" (Basic GAP Process), said Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Online Newspaper.

Viet GAP has been prescribed compulsory regulation for large-scale farmer to follow and has 65 criteria to produce the safe crop. Some agriculture traders and crop production companies have gained the certification of Viet GAP and produced safe and high quality vegetables.

These private enterprises target foreign markets and limited consumers who require high quality and guaranteed safe vegetables in Vietnam. Other individual GAPs have been also introduced and applied by private sector and donors in the nation, targeting much higher restricted foreign markets.

On the other hand, some 90 percent of Vietnamese farmers are small scale producers with low income and their produced agriculture crops are mainly consumed by domestic market. In reality, these farmers are hard to follow Viet GAP and other higher GAPs.

Therefore, “Basic GAP" has been established by MARD - Department of Crop Production supported by JICA as a primal step for majority of farmers in Vietnam to carry out GAP to produce the safe crop and target its domestic market. It is simplified by selection of minimum essential criteria from the current Viet GAP and adoption of unnecessary certification and registration system.

So far, “Basic GAP” has been already applied in some northern provinces of Hung Yen, Ha Nam, and Quang Ninh, aiming to raise awareness for technical staffs and extension workers of departments of agriculture and rural development and general farmers on GAP in crop production to ensure food safety.

Applying "Basic GAP" will help farmers now know how to select safe and proper agricultural chemicals and materials, how to use fertilizers, pesticides, harvest the crop safely and economically, and improve the production method in a sustainable way.

Raising awareness about food safety and expanding Basic GAP in crop production is considered an urgent task to protect public health, ensure social security and create the opportunity for Vietnam to become a country of reliable and high-quality agricultural product supply.-VNA