{"id":1028632,"date":"2018-10-02T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T08:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28632&#038;source_id=28632&#038;target_id=1028632"},"modified":"2024-10-16T10:18:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T08:18:41","slug":"asc-launches-new-improver-programme","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/news\/asc-launches-new-improver-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"ASC introduces new Improver Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"block wysiwyg\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p><strong>The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>has today officially introduced its new Improver Programme, an initiative to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">facilitate\u00a0<\/span>accessibility of the standard by helping producers that are not yet ready for certification to improve their practices and mitigate their environmental and social impacts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The ASC Improver Programme will also expand the benefits of the ASC\u2019s industry leading aquaculture certification beyond those producers that choose to obtain certification by providing support to help more farmers update their practices even if they decide not to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>attain all the benefits of ASC certification.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil now there has not been guidance for producers on how to improve their practices so they can meet the requirements in the ASC standards, but the Improver Programme will help to bridge that gap,\u201d said Roy van Daatselaar, Producer Support Manager at ASC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe aquaculture industry includes a significant amount of small-scale farms, particularly in Asia, and providing guidance to these producers on how to improve practices will play an important role in the ASC\u2019s mission to raise the overall standards of aquaculture worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The programme will not only help producers through access to expertise and networking opportunities, but it will also benefit the wider industry by encouraging a pre-competitive and collaborative approach to improvement. Farmers who participate in the programme will be supported by the ASC, and given access to tools and networks to help them succeed through the ASC\u2019s online academy. The programme will be open both to those producers that want to obtain certification and those that simply want help to improve farming practices without certification as an immediate goal.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As well as supporting individual farmers, the flexibility of the AIP will allow collaboration with groups of producers, and local governments, to implement improvements on a larger scale.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Work within the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>AIP programme<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>has already begun, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/news\/new-asc-vietgap-benchmark-provides-guidance-for-vietnamese-farmers\/\">collaboration with the Vietnamese government and WWF Vietnam to produce a benchmark between VietGAP, the local Vietnamese certification, and the ASC standards for shrimp and tilapia<\/a>. 85 per cent of shrimp in Vietnam is produced by small farms, meaning that targeted guidance to help them improve their practices could have a big impact on overall aquaculture standards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/producers\/farmers-support-improver-programme\/\">Read more about the Improver Programme here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you would like to get involved, email: <a href=\"mailto:roy.vandaatselaar@asc-aqua.org\">roy.vandaatselaar@asc-aqua.org<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1028635,"template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028632","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1028632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}