A paper submitted to and presented at the Sixth International Date Palm Conference, Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates March 19-21, 2018

1. GAP and GHP Analysis in Small Date Farms in Baharia Oasis
Abdelmeged, A. R.Kassem, A. Z.
Agronomy specialist
Central Laboratory for Date Palm
Research and Development, Egypt
Lecturer
Agricultural Planning and
Development Center,
Institute of National Planning, Egypt
Abstract
This paper aimed at assessing the agricultural practices related to food safety in
Small Date Farms (SDF) in Baharia Oasis in terms of the food safety hazards either
biologically, chemically or physically. A questionnaire was designed to assess the
agricultural practices in 38 Baharia Oasis SDF located at Bawity, Mandisha and
Zabo areas in specific against the applicable requirements of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good
Handling Practices (GHP) guide (USDA, 2011). The descriptive approach was
utilized, and some statistical indicators was extracted using Microsoft excel
program, i.e. average, minimum, maximum, standard deviation and variation
coefficient. The study reached some major findings, which are: The average
dilution of pesticides used in Baharia small farms was estimated at 0.01% (the
standard dilution is 0.003%) with a minimum of 0.001 and a maximum of
0.05,This may attribute to unstandardized manners of dilution. also the pesticide
per acre amounts were estimated at 2.649 litter in average (the standard
amounts are 1 litter per acre) with a minimum of 0.571 litter and a maximum of
8 litters, with a variation coefficient of 95.2%. These results may attribute to the
arbitrary usage of the pesticide from farmers, where they believe that they need
to excessively adding the pesticide in order to insure the controlling and killing
the red palm weevil or making a precaution procedure. On the other hand, the
actual Pre Harvest Interval (PHI) was estimated at 74,23 days in average (the
Exact time for chlorsan 48% is 15 days and less than 7 days for Malason 57%)
with a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 210 days, with a variation
coefficient of 294.96%. This may indicate that nevertheless the excessive
addition of pesticide per acre or per tree, the long PHI may helps in reducing the
pesticide traces at the end of the day. Due to the traditional manners of
harvesting the mechanical damage loss of date during the harvest stage is
estimated at 9% at average with a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 20%, with
a variation coefficient of 51,77%. The average loss of date during "Sun
Dehydration or Tanshir ‫"تنشري‬ process is estimated at 10% with a minimum of 2%
and a maximum of 20%, with a variation coefficient of 55,46%.
Key Words: GAP, GHP, Food Safety, Date Farms, Baharia Oasis

2. 1. Introduction:
The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an important fruit crop in Egypt, where
Egypt is the first producer of date palm worldwide with approximately 1,694,813
tons in 2016 (FAO Statistics, 2017). Nevertheless Egypt Exports of date palm are
not exceeded 36,4 thousand tons only in 2015, this may be due to some quality
issues that needed to be improved to satisfy extended market segments
otherwise Morocco, Indonesia and Malaysia the top three importers of the
Egyptian dates respectively, where they imported together about 92% Egyptian
exported date in the same year (Egyptian Food Export council, 2016). Baharia
oasis is one of the distinguished date palm area in Egypt producing "Siwi" verity,
according to the Baharia Oasis Agricultural Directorate, the registered
possessions of date palm are 8,500 acres, while the unregistered date palm
possessions estimated at 21,250 acres. The current estimated number of date
palm trees in Baharia oasis in the registered land only estimated at 595000 trees
(Baharia oasis agricultural directorate, 2017). The Egyptian traditional date palm
sector consists mainly of small farmers possessing less than 10,000 acres is
suffering from poor agricultural and handling practices alongside the date palm
value chain specifically at the pre and post-harvest stages. From the technical
point of view, if more systematic efforts are directed to enhance the Good
Agricultural and Handling Practices of producing the Egyptian Siwi variety, the
Egyptian date exports will elevated significantly.
2. Material and Methods:
This study was carried out during the first week of October 2017 in Baharia Oasis,
where 38 small farms were surveyed against the applicable requirements of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Good Agricultural Practices
(GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) guide (USDA, 2011). A questionnaire
consists of 15 main questions were designed to give information about: farms
profile, registration and tractability requirements, workers' health and hygiene,
chemicals usage, pesticides, fertilizers, animals/wildlife/livestock, water, Soil
amendments, farm cleaning, organic fertilizers, adjacent lands, harvesting,
adjusting moisture before storing "Sun Dehydration or Tanshir ‫,"تنشري‬ storage and
transportation. Direct questions were directed to farmers individually or in
groups at the time of rest after 3:00 pm, in addition to farm visits to some
selected farms to validate the questionnaire by auditing the GAP and GHP
requirements. Surveyed SDF are located in three main villages in Baharia oasis,
namely; Bawity, Mandisha and El-zabo, where the numbers of Surveyed SDF in
the selected villages were 15, 14 and 9 in those villages respectively.
3. Results and Discussions:
The study reached some major findings, which are:

3. 3.1. Unapplied GAP and GHP practices in Baharia small date farms:
The study found that some GAP and GHP are totally or partially missed in Baharia
small date farms, such as:
3.1.1. Registration and recall requirements:
All the surveyed SDF were not using any kind of registration either for the
incoming supplements or even for the sold final product. All surveyed SDF did
not use any label cards at any stage in the farm.
3.1.2. Chemicals licensing requirements for pesticide application:
None of the Surveyed SDF has a license to apply pesticides, since there is no
obligation in the Egyptian law concerning this requirement.
3.1.3. Water analysis:
All the Surveyed SDF were using groundwater in irrigation either from their
private wells that range in depth between 200m to 800m or from the
governmental wells (picture 1). No sedimentations were applied to groundwater
nor any kinds of periodic analysis were in place that supposed to be thrice a year
according to the USDA.
3.1.4. Arrangements to eliminate the hazards of adjacent farms:
All Surveyed SDF explained that there were not any arrangements in place to
eliminate the hazards of the adjacent farms such as: simultaneously pest control
or establishing physical barriers with adjacent farms.
3.1.5. Workers health and hygiene:
All Surveyed SDF shown that they were not issuing health certificates to their
workers or providing them with training on hygiene. On the other hand, although
all Surveyed SDF were having a bathroom attached to a designated place for
eating and smoking called "Saqifa" - a place with celling to save them away from
the sun at the rest time-, the bathroom lacks the hygienic requirements. The
farm owners bring potable water for drinking purposes due to there was no
permanent source of potable water.
3.2. Applied GAP and GHP in Baharia Date Small Farms:
3.2.1. Animal/wildlife/livestock:
All Surveyed SDF considered the "Za'rb" or the small palm leafs wall between
farms as a manner of preventing wildlife from entering their land (picture 2). All
SDF do not consider birds as a hazard to their crops, so they do not use any birds'
threatening tool. 92% of SDF stated that their livestock were in their barns and
they did not represent a potential hazard to their crops, while 8% of them and

4. the audit results found that cattle and donkeys were allowed to enter some
farms and represent a potential source of damaging the product of the young
short palm trees from aside and being a potential source of microbiological and
physical contamination through their manure from another side (picture 3).
3.2.2. Farm cleaning:
All Surveyed SDF emphasized that they are cleaning the farm on periodic
intervals to get rid of wastes resulted from refining the palm tree heads and
cutting the ground grass. Sickles and hatchets are the common cleaning tools
(picture 4). In regular the farmers clean the farm twice a year; the first is in
September before harvesting and the second in January or April (after cultivating
the alfalfa plant). The audit results revealed that the periodic interval between
cleaning is too long as the grasses are so high at the time of the study (picture
5), and this is may the most probable cause of the red weevil and other pest
invasion to Baharia oasis date farms, in addition to the uncared infected palm
trees in the streets (picture 6). Audit indicators emphasized that the burning
process of wastes was done near or in between palm trees in some cases without
assigning an isolated area away of the harvesting land, and this is a potential
source of physical contamination with ashes.
3.2.3. Transportation:
All SDF are agreed that the transportation process is done by the buyers either
manufacturers or traders. The transported vehicles lack the hygienic design in
terms of; open sided, ambient temperature and being a potential source of cross
contamination.
3.3. Critical GAP and GHP in Baharia date small farms:
3.3.1. Pesticides:
All Surveyed SDF stated that they are storing chemicals in isolated place away
from the crops. The audit results reveal that the chemical storage is attached to
"Saqifa" or the place of rest and taking lunch, where there is often a designated
room for chemicals, or even being in the same place without physical separation.
Related to the pesticides groups and brands used by Baharia small date farms,
the study results as in table (1) revealed that 68.4% of Surveyed SDF were using
the brand Chlorzan 48% EC (Chlopyriphos), while 10.6%, 8% were using Malason
57% EC (Malathion) and Tafaban 48% EC (Chlopyriphos) respectively. According
to the manufacturer of chlorzane, 48% EC Kafr El-Zayat co. for pesticides and
chemicals the dose of 300 cm3
per 100 litters (0.003% dilution) is needed for
controlling the red palm weevil in date palm with a pre harvest interval (PHI) of
just 15 days. (Osman, 2015) found also that the residue level of Chlorozan
(Chlopyrifos) was 0.01 equal to LOQ (Limits of Quantification) which was 0.01
after two weeks from treatment. Tafaban 48% EC is recommended by the
manufacturer to be used at the same dose and PHI of chlorzane 48%. Malathion,

5. the organophosphate insecticide listed by the American Cancer Society as a
probable carcinogen especially linked to prostate cancer was used under the
brand name (Malason 57% EC). for pesticides and chemicals also that
recommend a dose of 250 cm3
per 100 litter (0.0025% dilution) with a PHI less
than 7 days in case of date palm. The diluted solutions of all the above
mentioned pesticides to be used as the manufacturer as 1 litter per acre in
common.
As shown in table (1) the average dilution of pesticides used in Baharia SDF was
estimated at 0.01% (the standard dilution is 0.003%) with a minimum of 0.001
and a maximum of 0.05 with a variation coefficient estimated at 138%. This may
attribute to unstandardized manners of dilution, where some farmers were
using 2-3 pints of pesticide per 20 litters water and others were using 0.5-1 litter
of pesticide per 300-350 litters of water, another group of them were using 3- 5
cm3
pesticide per litter of water. An experimental study (Osman, 2015) tested
the efficiency of Chlorozan (Chlorpyrifos) against R.ferrugineus larvae and adults
after 48hr, and declared that the least effect of Chlorozan recorded on adult
female where LC50 values were 341.44, 352.03 and 499.32 ppm respectively. As
respect to LC90, and declared that Chlorozan was more effective on larvae than
adult male while the least effect of Chlorozan recorded on adult female where
LC90 values were 1245.17, 2038.91 and 2847.80 ppm, respectively.
As in table (1) also the pesticide per acre amounts were estimated in average at
2.649 litter (the standard amounts are 1 litter per acre) with a minimum of 0.571
litter and a maximum of 8 litters, with a variation coefficient of 95.2%. At the
same time the diluted pesticide amounts per palm tree estimated at 10.200
liter/tree in average with a minimum of 5.6 liter/tree with variation coefficient
of 43.88%. This results may attribute to the arbitrary usage of the pesticide from
farmers, where they believe that they need to excessively adding the pesticide
in order to insure the controlling and killing of the red palm weevil or making a
precaution procedure.
In most cases the pesticide application was done in March and April during the
inoculation period by overwhelming the palm tree starting from the head, and
this may done for a second time after the harvesting in November. Just one
farmer of 38 Surveyed SDF determine the PHI exactly for the pesticide used. As
shown in table (1) the Surveyed SDF determined the actual PHI to be 74,23 days
in average (the Exact time for chlorsan 48% is 15 days and less than 7 days for
Malason 57%) with a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 210 days, with a
variation coefficient of 294.96%. This may indicate that nevertheless the
excessive addition of pesticide per acre or per tree, the long PHI may helps in
reducing the pesticide traces at the end of the day.

6. 3.3.2. Fertilizers:
52.6% of the Surveyed SDF declared that they were using potassium nitrate
(KNO3), while 39.5% of them were utilizing Urea 46% nitrogen and a few farmers
were using Superphosphate (5.4%). as shown in table (2), the amount used of
potassium Nitrate fertilizer in Baharia SDF was estimated at 1.9 kg/tree with a
minimum of 1.5 kg/tree and a maximum of 2.5 kg/ tree with a variation
coefficient of 73%. On the other hand, the average amounts used of Urea 46%
nitrogen fertilizer was estimated at 2.278 kg per tree with a minimum of 0.5
kg/tree and a maximum of 5 kg/ tree, with a variation coefficient of 21.49%. The
chemical fertilizers and pesticides used over a long period of time have adverse
toxic effects on the production potential of the land and the ultimate consumers
of the products (Kumari, et.al. 2014). When water soluble nitrogen fertilizers are
applied to the soil, a good portion of added nutrients does not become available
to the plants, but is lost to the ground water through leaching or run off. The
excess nitrate leached in to rivers or ponds encourages the growth of organisms
and thus a lot of organic matter produced which on decomposition lead to bad
smell, which has an adverse effect on health. (Kumari, et.al. 2014).
3.3.3. Organic fertilizers:
All Surveyed SDF stated that they are using animal manures as an organic
fertilizer. As in table (2) the average PHI after applying the animal manure was
estimated at 100.8 days with a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 365 day,
with a variation coefficient of 79.8%. According to USDA the animal manure
should be applied 2 weeks prior to planting and a minimum of 120 days prior to
harvest. This means that the application of animal manures in some Baharia SDF
is a potential source of contamination of the harvest area with biological
contamination, and it is needed to be adjusted. Most of Surveyed SDF declared
that they are applying animal manure twice a year every six months either in
October and December or in March and November.
3.3.4. Harvesting:
All surveyed SDF were manually harvesting the dates with traditional methods
and tools using plastic covers or mats ‫يري‬‫ي‬‫ص‬‫ح‬ on the ground and using the old tool
"El'dahr ‫"الضهر‬ to elevate the palm tree to cut the palm branches ‫العرجون‬ by Sickles
or hatchets. 63.16% of the Surveyed SDF were harvesting their date in the
middle of October, while 15.79%, 10.53% and 5.26% of SDF were harvesting date
at the first week of November, the first week of October and the middle of
September respectively. The later time to harvest the better if the precautions
were taken to receive the ripened date safely instead of making the fruits to be
fallen on the dust. Due to the traditional manners of harvesting, the mechanical
damage loss of date during the harvest stage was estimated at 9% in average
with a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 20%, with a variation coefficient of
51,77% as shown in table (3). It's highly recommended to use cloths bags to

7. surround fruit bunches ‫اجني‬‫ر‬‫الع‬ from the early time to prevent it from insects and
dust, and to save the ripened date inside in a good shape till the time of the
harvest as in picture (9)
3.3.5. Sun dehydration "Tanshir ‫:"تنشير‬
The improper harvesting manners used as shown before resulting in collecting
non-homogenized date in terms of ripening and moisture content. So farmers
have to adjust the moisture content and homogenize the repining status by
exposure dates to the direct sun lights in the morning for 7-10 days or what so-
called "Tanshir ‫يري‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ش‬‫"تن‬ (picture 7). The Surveyed SDF still using their roofs and
assigned areas in front of their homes for this purpose. Mats ‫يري‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ص‬‫,ح‬ palm tree
leafs or plastic covers were used to separate the date from the grounds. In this
stage the insect infections, fermentation probability are increased due to the
improper conditions, in addition to the higher possibility of physical
contamination and mechanical loss (picture 8). The average loss of date during
"Tanshir ‫يري‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ش‬‫ين‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ي‬‫ت‬" process was estimated at 10% with a minimum of 2% and a
maximum of 20%, with a variation coefficient of 55,46%. More Enhanced
methods for adjusting the date moisture are required (picture 10)
4. Storing:
At the end of "Sun dehydration" process the dates is sorted as shown in table
(3). 42% only of the Surveyed SDF were storing date for their own account, while
the majority (68%) were selling the date directly after the sun dehydration
process to traders or manufacturers.
5. Conclusion:
Registration and recall requirements, Chemicals licensing requirements for
pesticide application, Water analysis, Arrangements to eliminate the hazards of
adjacent farms and Workers health and hygiene are the current inapplicable GAP
and GHP practices in Baharia SDF. Attention were not given to animals and
livestock as a source of contamination on the crop safety. Farmers giving less
importance to refining the tree head, cutting grass and cleaning the farm, and
this may the most probable source of food safety hazards i.e. microbiological
hazards, red weevil invasion, etc.

8. Recommendations:
Egyptian and Arabian as well GAP and GHP user's guide for small vegetables and
fruit farms should be developed. Arbitrary application of pesticides and chemical
fertilizers that considered a probable source of chemical hazards should be
adjusted via proper extension services and by enforcing legislations and laws.
Out-dated traditional tools of harvesting and adjusting the moisture in dates
should be gradually substituted by more technologically advanced techniques
and better practices to ensure the safety of date and reduce losses. It's highly
recommended to use cloths bags to surround fruit bunches ‫اجني‬‫ر‬‫الع‬ from the early
time to prevent it from insects and dust, and to save the ripened date inside in
a good shape till the time of the harvest.
References:
Al Raoji, K. A. (2010). Evaluation the level of understanding of people involved in
date farming regarding pesticide use in date palm cultivation in Al-Qassim
region, Master thesis, Nature Resources Institute, University of
Greenwich (UK).
Baharia Oasis Agricultural Directorate. (2017). Unpublished raw data.
Egyptian Food Export Council. (2016). Unpublished raw data.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). FAOSTAT. Last updated December 15,
2017. Accessed February 20, 2018.
http://www.fao.org/publications/about-us/en/
Kumari, K. A., et.al. (2014). Adverse Effects of Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides
on Human Health and Environment, National Seminar on Impact of Toxic
Metals, Minerals and Solvents leading to Environmental Pollution-2014,
Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Osman S. H. K. (2015). Studies on Red Palm Weevil and its Control, Master thesis,
Dep. of Plant Protection, Al-Azhar University (Egypt).
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). (2011). User’s Guide: Good
Agricultural Practices and Good Handling Practices Audit verification
Program: Fruit and Vegetables Programs. Retrieved from USDA website:
http://www.canr.msu.edu/foodsystems/uploads/files/Good-practices-
audit.pdf

9. Annex
Table 1: Pesticides dilution, amounts and PHI*
dilution
Diluted
pesticide
amount
per/ tree
pesticide
amount
per/ acre
PHI (actual)statistics
0.0015.6000.57115.000Min
0.05015.0008.000210.000Max
0.01010.2002.64974.231Average
0.0144.4762.52256.505Standard Deviation
138.00943.88595.205294.958Variation coefficient
Source: the study questionnaire.
* PHI, Pre Harvest Interval
Table 2: Amounts of chemical fertilizers and PHI of animal manure used in SDF
Animal manure
(PHI), days
Urea 46%
nitrogen
(kg/tree)
Potassium Nitrate
(kg/tree)
statistics
30.0001.5000.500
Min
365.0002.5005.000
Max
100.8331.9002.278
Average
80.4900.4081.663
Standard Deviation
79.82521.48773.024
Variation coefficient
Source: the study questionnaire.
Table 3: loss in the harvesting and "Tanshir ‫*"تنشير‬ stages
Sun dehydration
"Tanshir"*
Harvestingstatistics
2%2%
Min
20%20%
Max
10%9%
Average
5%5%
Standard Deviation
55.46651.768
Variation coefficient
Source: the study questionnaire.
* "Tanshir" is the stage of adjusting the moisture of date before storing under sun light for a
week

10. Pictures
Picture 1: Ground water wells and basins Picture 2: Work animals on the orchard
eating grass between the palm trees
Picture 3: "Za'rb" a tree leaf wall between two
orchards
Picture 4: Traditional Sickles and hatchets
used in farm cleaning and harvesting
Picture 5: High grass among palm trees Picture 6: Uncared infected palm trees
with red weevil in the streets

11. Picture 7: traditional adjusting of moisture
under the sun "Tanshir"
Picture 8: damaged dates by pressing in
the plastic boxes
Picture 9: Enhanced methods of harvesting
date via cloths bags
Picture 10: Enhanced adjusting of
moisture methods although
unacceptable wooden frame that still
used
Photos are taken by authors during the field audit