ISO 18716:2024
(Main)Professional farmer organization — Guidance
Professional farmer organization — Guidance
This document gives guidance on the characteristics and best practices of a professional farmer organization. This document is applicable to commercially oriented farmer organizations. It does not apply to purely socially oriented farmer organizations or individual farmers. It provides a common standard of professionalism for commercially oriented farmer organizations, which can serve as guidance to inform, harmonize, and complement existing and future organizational development and assessment processes. This document is applicable to large and small farmer organizations, without regard to the number of members, volume of business, output or capital investment, nor to the specific crop or product. It can also be applicable, when adapted, for very small or nascent organizations, for specific or differentiated products or for markets with special requirements. It does not address every capacity or aspect of professionalism that can be of importance to a specific customer or market, nor imply the need for uniformity in organizational type or structure.
Organisation professionnelle agricole — Lignes directrices
General Information
Relations
Standards Content (Sample)
International
Standard
ISO 18716
First edition
Professional farmer organization —
2024-09
Guidance
Organisation professionnelle agricole — Lignes directrices
Reference number
© ISO 2024
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ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Key performance areas and characteristics of a professional farmer organization . 3
4.1 General .3
4.2 Organization's purpose and governance practices .3
4.3 Business management .4
4.3.1 General .4
4.3.2 Member engagement and planning.5
4.4 Human resources management .6
4.5 Financial and property management .6
4.6 Community and stakeholder engagement .7
4.7 Member services and business activities .7
4.7.1 General .7
4.7.2 Production plan .8
4.7.3 Land preparation and irrigation .8
4.7.4 Input supply .8
4.7.5 Product collection, post-harvest handling, processing and storage .8
4.7.6 Sales and marketing .9
4.7.7 Financial services .9
Annex A (informative) Record-keeping. 10
Annex B (informative) Production and quality management plan.12
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through
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with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent
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Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
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related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 34, Food products.
This first edition cancels and replaces ISO/IWA 29:2019, which has been technically revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— the Introduction has been updated to further clarify the background and purpose of the document;
— Clause 1 has been extended to further elaborate on the farmer organizations the document is applicable to;
— Clause 3 has been updated;
— Clause 4 has been updated to further elaborate technical elements;
— Clause 5 has been incorporated into Clause 4;
— Annex A has been extended.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
iv
Introduction
Farmer organizations can play an important role in agricultural development and in farmers’ well-being by,
for example, enabling members to improve agricultural and environmental management practices, increase
yields and productivity, access better markets, gain exposure to model farmers, access affordable financing,
and engage with other key business partners. This can increase the creativity, innovation, socio-economic
inclusion, effectiveness and profitability of farmer organizations and their stakeholders.
There are numerous stakeholders with an interest in the professionalization of farmer organizations,
including, but not limited to, governments, financial institutions, value chain actors (e.g. suppliers, buyers,
aggregators, transporters), business development service providers, international development and
non-governmental organizations, and the farmers themselves. Each of these actors can have their own
expectations, tools and approaches. For decades, this has led to fragmentation, redundancy and limited
efficiency in the provision of services to and by farmer organizations. For example, it is not uncommon to find
farmer organizations that have received the same training many times, and yet are unable to demonstrate
the clear progress toward professionalization that can help them access more or better markets, financing
and enhanced benefits for their members.
The purpose of this document is to establish common guidance and best practices that describe a
professional farmer organization. The guidance can be used to develop more harmonized and efficient
farmer organizations. This facilitates different stakeholders to more effectively align in their support
for farmer organizations and for farmer organizations to demonstrate professionalism in a universally
understood way. The guidance is based on the premise that the more professionally a farmer organization
operates, the better it will engage with its stakeholders (e.g. members, clients, business partners) and the
more likely it is to have better business opportunities and greater sustainability. Figure 1 illustrates how
establishing common global guidance can lead to improved business performance.
Figure 1 — From common global guidance to improved business performance
Organizational development is a process of continuous learning and improvement. It is not expected that
all farmer organizations must meet every criterion described in this document. Rather, this guidance
is intended to build a common vision of professionalism that can be used as a tool to inform and support
different actors, including farmer organizations and the business development service providers, investors,
funders, partners and others that work with them, to increase the professionalism of farmer organizations,
leading to improved performance and value for members.
The guidance may be applied in a range of ways, including, but not limited to:
— supporting farmer organization members and staff (where applicable) to supervise and hold their
organization and leadership accountable, and guiding staff to execute their day-to-day responsibilities;
— building confidence of buyers, suppliers, investors and others doing business with farmer organizations;
— directing and harmonizing the expectations and actions of providers of training, assessment, advisory,
and other organizational and business development services for better efficiency and effectiveness;
— aligning the vision and interventions of stakeholders, including, but not limited to, government, non-
governmental organizations, civil society organizations, service providers, donors, investors and
capacity builders in their efforts to professionalize farmer organizations;
— encouraging active engagement with broader stakeholders.
v
International Standard ISO 18716:2024(en)
Professional farmer organization — Guidance
1 Scope
This document gives guidance on the characteristics and best practices of a professional farmer organization.
This document is applicable to commercially oriented farmer organizations. It does not apply to
purely socially oriented farmer organizations or individual farmers. It provides a common standard of
professionalism for commercially oriented farmer organizations, which can serve as guidance to inform,
harmonize, and complement existing and future organizational development and assessment processes.
This document is applicable to large and small farmer organizations, without regard to the number of
members, volume of business, output or capital investment, nor to the specific crop or product. It can also be
applicable, when adapted, for very small or nascent organizations, for specific or differentiated products or
for markets with special requirements.
It does not address every capacity or aspect of professionalism that can be of importance to a specific
customer or market, nor imply the need for uniformity in organizational type or structure.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
farmer organization
cooperative
cooperative union
producer organization
producer association
farm marketing association
formal voluntary entity formed by or with farmers for business and/or other purposes, which can take any
legal form and which provides services/benefits for its members, including, but not limited to, production,
irrigation, processing and marketing of agricultural products (e.g. crops, livestock, animal products, forest
products, aquaculture products, other member products), development and operation of rural folk crafts
and products, leisure agriculture and rural tourism resources
Note 1 to entry: Farmers include
...
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