Description:
The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) is a national membership organization for organic agriculture stakeholders in Kenya. KOAN coordinates, provides leadership and professional services to all members and other stakeholders in the organic agriculture industry in Kenya. They aim at supporting the development of organic agriculture in areas of Organic Production; Marketing; Standards and Certification; Training; Extension and Information Exchange; Networking; and Policy. Their membership base is drawn from exporters, input suppliers, Green Groceries and supermarkets, certification bodies, NGOs and research institutions. With the vision of creating a vibrant ecological/organic agriculture sector for healthy, resilient communities and environments, KOAN’s mission is to lead, coordinate and create public exposure of the National Ecological Organic Agriculture Sector, promoting its contribution to economic, environmental and social benefits. It supports public awareness on the benefits or organic agriculture; it validates documents, in liaison with local universities, and disseminates key research findings in organic agriculture; it provides certification support, including pre-certification advisory, development and implementation of Internal Control Systems (ICS) and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) for organic, fair trade and good agricultural practices. Moreover, KOAN participates in the formulation and implementation of pro-organic agriculture policies.