With guidance, training and support from Missouri-based Global Aquaculture Alliance and California’s Rubicon, 100 Indian shrimp farms will enroll in Global Aquaculture Alliance’s iBAP improvement program to make the enhancements necessary to apply for the Best Agricultural Practices (BAP) certification. A four-star BAP shrimp denotes that the product originates from a BAP-certified processing plant, farm, hatchery and feed mill.
“The structure of the iBAP program allows for a longer term of improvement while rewarding farmers for using best practices. It also provides for oversight and training of the smallest family farms at a reasonable cost. I expect this joint GAA-Rubicon initiative will attract more farms than our initial target for 2016. It will offer certification to the largest segment of farms that, because of their small size, have not had access to major international markets,” said Gregg Small, Rubicon’s VP of technical services and sustainability.
According to FIS, the Indian farms will apply for BAP certification as two groups of 50 farms, and upon enrolling in iBAP, the farms will have 12 months to attain the BAP certification.
