Instant Insights: Good agricultural practices

This book features five peer-reviewed reviews on the development and deployment of good agricultural practices (GAPs).

The first chapter describes GAPs, notions of good farming, how GAP standards have evolved in developed and developing economies and the opportunities to evolve these pre- and postharvest standards.

The second chapter reviews the role of GAPs in preventing microbial contamination of fresh produce. The chapter also summarises how GAPs have evolved, the impact they have had on the produce industry, as well as how they are implemented.

The third chapter considers the debates about GAPs in the context of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and how GAPs can be developed as part of an effective food safety control programme in CEA systems around the world.

The fourth chapter addresses how GAPs can be used to optimise sustainable crop production and refers to three contrasting maize cultivation systems in the USA, Ethiopia and Argentina to demonstrate this.

The final chapter provides an overview of the GAP-related certification schemes in global banana production and how they can be utilised to address the yield gap, improve synchronisation between ecological processes, production routines and cost efficiency.