A Proposal for Improving Organic Group Certification Quantification of Internal Control Systems' Performance and Sample Size Determination

Abstract

Organic certification, especially for smallholders, often uses group certification procedures. An internal control system (ICS) visits all farmers, and then the external certification body (CB) inspects a sample to assess the ICS' performance. Harmonised methods for measuring the ICS' reliability are missing so far. Here, we define criteria of "ICS performance", propose a new procedure for quantifying this performance and, based on this procedure, suggest that the sample size can be determined using classical statistical methods for survey sampling, instead of using the square root or a percentage of group size as in current practice.

Compliance Enhancement in Tourism: Regulatory Alignment and Design Optimization at Kedai Kopi Kosong Lima

“…One of the records in terms of compliance here is related to waste management, where there has been no separation between organic and non-organic waste. This is important to emphasize because waste management and waste sorting at the source are impossible without the role of the community (including business actors) as the main producer of waste [41,42].…”

On-farm Research to Diversify Organic Farming Systems

“…The journal Organic Farming (ISSN 2297-6485; doi: 10.12924/librello.OF) provides a platform for contributions in diverse areas related to organic farming and food production and will especially welcome articles describing the process and results derived from on-farm research. Recent papers in the journal show a diversity of on-farm research such as farmers assessing the carrying capacity of traditional farming in South East England [7], insights from modified 'Stable Schools' as a consulting tool for organic dairy herds in Northern Germany [8] and related to on-farm organic group certification, a proposal for improving internal control systems' performance [9]. We call for submissions from practically relevant work in organic farming especially with a systems' perspective and integrated solutions for diversified crop-livestock systems.…”