The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and sector organizations, including the Canadian Horticultural Council, has released a voluntary biosecurity guide for producers in the greenhouse vegetable sector. The guide supports the National Voluntary Farm-Level Biosecurity Standard for the Greenhouse, Nursery and Floriculture Sectors that was released in March 2016.
The biosecurity guide, in combination with the Standard, will assist producers by:
- Raising awareness of biosecurity risks in the sector and the measures that can help reduce the risk of pest introduction and spread.
- Providing a nationally consistent approach to develop and implement biosecurity plans at the farm level.
The Standard and producer biosecurity guide are voluntary and can be adopted in their entirety or can supplement existing on-farm biosecurity programs. Funding to develop the Standard and producer biosecurity guides has been provided under the Growing Forward 2 Agricultural Policy Framework.