Mitigate social risks at farm level

What is the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice?

Responsible farming practices aren’t just about products – they’re also about people. The GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP) is an add-on to Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) for the evaluation of workers’ well-being at farm level.

Building on the IFA principles and criteria (P&Cs) related to workers’ health and safety, and covering topics such as labor and human rights, representation of workers, and the protection of children and young workers, GRASP is a simple but robust evaluation checklist that producers can use to assess, improve, and demonstrate their responsible social practices. 

Applicable to the IFA scopes of plants and aquaculture, the add-on is implemented by more than 120,000 producers in over 100 countries worldwide – promoting the health, safety, and welfare of 1.78 million workers.

The social assessment of choice for more than 120,000 producers | Why choose the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice?

The well-being of workers is under increasing scrutiny, with social risks in supply chains being a major concern for brand owners, retailers, and suppliers. 

The GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP) offers a cost-efficient way for farm operators to assess these risks and demonstrate responsible social practices. 

Which topics does GRASP address?

Developed in collaboration with industry experts in the technical committees, GRASP covers a broad spectrum of social challenges faced by the world’s farms. Our approach to standard setting ensures that GRASP remains robust, realistic, and cost-efficient for producers, while meeting the evolving demands of buyers.

Core topics in GRASP v2 include:

Workers’ voice

• Right of association and representation

• Worker representation

• Complaint process

Human and labor rights information

• Producer’s human rights policy

• Access to labor regulation information

• Disciplinary procedures

Human and labor rights indicators

• Terms of employment documents

• Payments

• Wages

• Time recording system and working hours

• Forced labor indicators

Child and young workers’ protection

• Working age, child labor, and young workers

• Compulsory school age and school access

An additional quality management system (QMS) check is also carried out if a QMS is in place. Learn more about how GRASP helps you address social challenges in supply chains.

Who should use GRASP?

Farm size and type

GRASP is applicable to farms of all types and sizes, from smallholders to larger cooperatives, producers with hired or subcontracted labor to family farms. To account for the unique situation of family farms (farms that only have core family members working on them, with no hired labor), they are evaluated according to an abbreviated checklist with fewer P&Cs (15 in total). The rest of the P&Cs that are not applicable to family farms are removed.

Product Categories

As the assessment is combined with an IFA audit, GRASP is applicable for the same types of farms under the product categories:

• Fruit and vegetables

• Flowers and ornamentals

• Combinable crops

• Plant propagation material

• Hops

• Aquaculture

Assessment options

GRASP is applicable to both individual producers (Options 1 and 3) and producer groups (Options 2 and 4). For producer groups, there are additional requirements in place for the QMS.

How does GRASP work?

• Compliance with the add-on requirements is assessed annually by an independent third-party certification body (CB) together with the annual IFA audit (or an audit against a benchmarked scheme/checklist).

• Producers can choose from any GLOBALG.A.P. approved CB active in the relevant country – although the same CB which conducts the IFA audit must also conduct the GRASP assessment.

• A successful assessment results in a letter of conformance valid for one year.

The add-on is composed of P&Cs. P&Cs are graded in two levels: Major Must and Minor Must.

Principles

• Fundamentals that set the foundation of a GLOBALG.A.P. requirement

• Written in statement form

• Describe the outcome to be achieved in the corresponding criteria

Criteria

• Methods that producers can use to demonstrate a principle to be true

• Compliance can be demonstrated in different ways, e.g., data, record of procedure

• Evidence must demonstrate that the outcome is achieved

Country-specific methodology and interpretation

Evidence methods for GRASP P&Cs are determined by the country risk classification issued by the World Bank. High-risk countries require a different assessment methodology than low-risk countries. 
To further strengthen the integrity of GRASP, national interpretation guidelines are developed for each country, providing guidance on national legislation that affects GRASP.

GLOBALG.A.P. P&Cs on workers’ well-being

The IFA checklists already include some basic P&Cs on workers’ health, safety, and welfare. GRASP builds on this basis with 68 further P&Cs (full checklist; family farms only have 15 applicable P&Cs). The topic breakdown of the P&Cs in GRASP is as follows:

+ Click picture to Zoom

 + Click picture to Zoom

 Which industry challenges does GRASP address?

• In global supply chains, social and economic issues such as workers’ health, safety, and welfare, labor exploitation, and human rights are increasingly in the spotlight from media, consumers, and civil society.

• Due diligence laws, such as the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act, Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, LkSG), the French Duty of Care Law (Devoir de Vigilance), and upcoming European Union legislation seek to address and prevent human rights abuses in the labor market.

• Voluntary social standards represent a practical resource for producers and lead to trusted certification that facilitates transparency for buyers, but the increasing range of farm assurance standards that producers are expected to implement results in audit fatigue.

• The supply chain requires cost- efficient tools to manage social risks at farm level that complement rather than compete with existing certification.

• GRASP represents a practical and accessible solution for all types of farms with IFA certified production processes – including smallholders and family farms – to demonstrate that they are addressing requirements for workers’ well-being.

 Five steps to GRASP to get started

1. Download the documents

You will need the GRASP general rules, the GRASP P&Cs, and the checklist. All of the required documents are available online, for free, and in multiple languages. They are linked below and can easily be found in the GLOBALG.A.P. document center.

2. Implement the requirements

Use the documents to guide the implementation of the add-on requirements, and then conduct a self-assessment using the checklist. Our worldwide network of Registered Trainers can also provide assistance during assessment preparations.

3. Request a CB assessment

choose from the list of GLOBALG.A.P. approved CBs by region, country, scope, and status. 

4. Complete the CB assessment

The CB will conduct the assessment and upload the results to Audit Online Hub. Any non-compliances which are detected during the assessment must usually be corrected within the specified period and verified by the CB before a letter of conformance can be issued.

5. Receive your letter of conformance

Once all requirements are met and verified by the CB, they will issue your GRASP letter of conformance. Your GRASP status is then publicly visible in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems for transparency in the market.

Required Documents you have to implement: