Crop Management – New Farmer-Friendly Standard

Crop Production Quality Management – New Farmer-Friendly Standard

23 March 2010
Farmers can now improve their farm's performance and increase customer satisfaction with a new Standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for implementing an ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) for crop production. Quality management systems – Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001:2008 to crop production ISO 22006:2009 can be used with farm operations of any size, growing all types of food, feed, and non-food crops.

'The Standard will give farmers a powerful advantage,' says Richard Cantrill, Convenor of the working group that developed ISO 22006:2009. 'Although the application of a quality management system can take some initial added effort, overall, this is built from existing activities and should not cause excessive paperwork or lack of flexibility. A solid quality management system can bring important net benefits, not only to farmers, but to their clients and customers.'

Step-by-step guidance

ISO 22006:2009 provides step-by-step guidance through the requirements of AS/NZS ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems – Requirements with a practical approach to crop operations.
ISO 22006:2009:

• provides subject-specific suggestions and uses agricultural terminology

• includes a user-friendly flow diagram listing all the farm operation activities to help determine how they fit together and where there is need for improvement

• highlights the eight quality management principles from AS/NZS ISO 9001:2008 and relates them to crop production (customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision-making, and mutually beneficial supplier relationships).

• does not add or change any of the requirements in AS/NZS ISO 9001:2008 and is not intended for certification, although it can be a useful tool in helping prepare for certification to AS/NZS ISO 9001:2008.
ISO 22006 is part of the ISO 22000 family of documents developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 34 'Food products', focusing on the food, feed, and related supply chains. Other Standards in the ISO 22000 family include:

• ISO 22000:2005 Food safety management systems – Requirements for any organization in the food chain

• ISO 15161:2001
Guidelines on the application of ISO 9001:2000 for the food and drink industry

• ISO/TS 22002-1:2009 Prerequisite programmes on food safety – Part 1: Food manufacturing

• ISO/TS 22003:2007 Food safety management systems – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management system

• ISO/TS 22004:2005 Food safety management systems – Guidance on the application of ISO 22000:2005

• ISO 22005:2007 Traceability in the feed and food chain – General principles and basic requirements for system design and implementation

• ISO 22006:2009 Quality management systems – Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001:2008 to crop production

ENDS

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