Quality

Internal Quality System (IQS)

An Internal Quality System has been formed as per the requirement of organic standards, which monitors and verifies that the activities are as per the stipulated standards. The Internal Quality System looks after the internal inspection of farmers, identifies new areas and farmers, conducts trainings and motivates the farmers, acts as intermediary between the government departments and farmers, arranges external inspection and certification, maintains all documents with regard the farming activities and relevant data. It consists of one Agricultural Officer, one IQS Manager, one data entry operator and seven Internal Inspectors.

Internal Control System (ICS)

An Internal Control System (ICS) is the part of a documented quality assurance system that allows an external certification body to delegate the periodical inspection of individual group members to an identified body or unit within the certified operator. This means that the third party certification bodies only have to inspect the well-functioning of the system, as well as to perform a few spot-check re-inspections of individual smallholders.

The rational behind ICSs for group certification is two-fold:

• 01. to facilitate smallholder certification i.e. simplify certification and reduce its cost for smallholders through coordinated documentation.
• 02. to implement and maintain a high quality assurance system for organic standards in smallholder production.

Group certification enables smallholders to access organic markets and enables developing countries to commercialize their products at the international level. ICSs also provide a good basis for sound quality systems to ensure organic quality and provide consumers with imported organic products at reasonable cost.