Participatory certification or Participatory Guarantee System (Semi-formal System)

• “Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems.
• They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.
• Participatory Guarantee Systems are also referred to as “participatory certification”.

Internal control system (ICS)

• ICS is a documented quality assurance system that allows the external certification body to delegate the annual inspection of individual group members to an identified body/unit within the certified operator (IFOAM).
• The main objective is to facilitate the process of certification through keeping eyes on the growers’ activities, whether they are in compliance with the standard or not.
• It reduces the expenditure as it is done in farmers’ group.