Add-on to core solution
GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice
The GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP) is an add-on for the evaluation of workers' well-being at farm level. It covers four major social responsibility topics: workers’ voice, human and labor rights information, human and labor rights indicators, and child and young workers’ protection.
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.
GRASP at a glance
Assessed together
with IFA to minimize the audit burden for producers
Assessment options
for a variety of farm sizes and types, including family farms, smallholders, and producer groups
Implemented worldwide
with a global network of approved CBs and Registered Trainers
Covers all social and labor
criteria in the International Labour Organization’s core conventions
Supports
the UN Global Compact Food and Agriculture Business Principles 3–6
Contributes
to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Assessed together
with IFA to minimize the audit burden for producers
Covers all social and labor
criteria in the International Labour Organization’s core conventions
Assessment options
for a variety of farm sizes and types, including family farms, smallholders, and producer groups
Supports
the UN Global Compact Food and Agriculture Business Principles 3–6
Implemented worldwide
with a global network of approved CBs and Registered Trainers
Contributes
to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
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.
Read more about the assessment process and add-on requirements .
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:
How is conformance status verified?
Every producer registered in the GLOBALG.A.P. certification system is assigned a 13-digit GLOBALG.A.P. identification number (e.g., a GLOBALG.A.P. Number (GGN)). This number allows real-time verification of conformance status in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems , upholding our rigorous transparency requirements throughout the supply chain.
Producers can control data access and privacy rights for audit reports, and the reports are not shared publicly or with third parties. This process is handled via your chosen CB.
Country risk classification concept
To improve efficiency and keep costs as low as possible, evidence methods for GRASP P&Cs are determined by the country risk classification. This is similar to other social standards such as SA 8000 and amfori BSCI.
The GLOBALG.A.P. country risk classification concept groups countries into three different risk levels according to rankings issued by the World Bank ( Worldwide Governance Indicators, WGI ). Each risk group requires a different methodology for conducting the required worker interviews, including rules for sampling, interview duration, and document review. The higher the risk level, the higher the level of evidence necessary.
The list of countries assigned to the three categories is updated each December, following the revision periods of the World Bank. The new risk classification level becomes applicable from the following January.
National interpretation guidelines for GRASP
GRASP national interpretation guidelines (NIGs) are also an important tool for harmonizing requirements for responsible farming practices around the world. Created by local stakeholders such as national technical working groups (NTWGs) or approved CBs, NIGs provide guidance to producers and auditors on the legal framework in the respective country.
This is particularly important within the context of GRASP, as legal labor requirements such as minimum wage, legal minimum age of employment, or working hours differ from country to country. To create the GRASP NIGs, the local stakeholders evaluate the GRASP normative documents in combination with applicable national legislation.
Where a GRASP NIG exists, CBs are required to use it to apply the rule that provides more protection to the workers. If GRASP P&Cs provide more protection, then they override local legislation, and if local legislation provides more protection, it overrides the GRASP P&Cs.
Where there is no legislation (or legislation is not as strict), GRASP provides the minimum requirements for a good social management system. There are no exemptions from the GRASP P&Cs, and NIGs must always be applied to GRASP assessments if available for the respective country.
Find your GRASP NIG in the GLOBALG.A.P. document center .
Countries without a GRASP NIG
If a country has no GRASP NIG, the CB may apply for special registration for that country by contacting nonig@globalgap.org .
In the special registration process, the GRASP assessor must demonstrate that their qualifications and technical skills are applicable to the country where the assessment will be conducted and provide documentation explaining how GRASP P&Cs correspond to local legislation.
For more information on applying GRASP in a county with no NIG, please see the GRASP general rules .
For information on creating a new GRASP NIG, please see the rules for the development of GRASP NIGs and the NIG template or contact us at graspnig@globgalgap.org .
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