Director of the Dominica Bureau of Standards, Dr. Steve John, is urging farmers to take part in the National Farm Certification Scheme.
He says this will allow farmers to penetrate markets within the region, that would have otherwise, been untouched.
“With the National Farm Certification Programme, we in Dominica now have the instrument through which we now can penetrate other markets, not necessarily far off but right here in the region. The volume and the value of agricultural produce in the region is humongous and I would suggest that we take the opportunity and penetrate it by being part of the certification programme.”
The National Farm Certification Scheme was designed to reduce the cost of certification for Dominican farmers and allow more farmers to get certified.
Last Thursday the Bureau of Standards received equipment which will form part of that scheme.
The Director says standards and certification are of utmost importance.
“The farmers must be trained when they are applying chemicals to protect themselves, first and foremost. At the same time, the farmer must be trained that when he applies, he does not apply an over excess of chemicals that you have chemical residues in your food. Because when it is tested [in the regional market] you [will be posed with a] problem. Should they ever test the chemicals in the food and discover that it is higher than what is allowed you will have problems in the market after that because every shipment from Dominica will be checked and if it is ever found again that [famers here] are not meeting the requirements then Dominica may end up on the blacklist,” he warned.
The National Farm Certification Scheme is supported by the Dominica Good Agricultural Practice (DOM-GAP) pilot project.
The project targets five commodities namely dasheen, plantain, hot pepper, ginger and pineapple on fifty farms in Dominica’s seven agricultural regions.
The Ministry of Agriculture supports the vision of the Bureau of Standards and has since visited neighbouring French territories to discuss possible partnerships for the higher end markets.
Dom-GAP is being benchmarked against GLOBAL-GAP which allows for certification of fresh produce consumed locally, and exported to the regional and international markets.