General principles for Good Agricultural Practices were first presented to the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) in 2003 in the paper 'Development of a Framework for Good Agricultural Practices' (html), the annex of which broadly outlined farm-level GAP recommendations in 10 fields (see table below). Work is on-going to refine these technical recommendations.

FAO's approach to GAP is non prescriptive, and in line with guidance received from COAG. FAO is not defining a rigid set of principles but provides a technical reference for concerned stakeholders to assess existing GAP schemes and, using best expertise available, develop locally-appropriate good agricultural practice programmes.

These local-level good agricultural practices, with the FAO GAP approach, would draw inspiration from texts already existing in international regulatory frameworks such as the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) (html), Codex Alimentarius Commission (html), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) (html) and from broader GAP principles that promote environmental, economic and social sustainability.

FAO Key Documents on GAP