A Systematic Literature Review of Good Agricultural Practices for Rice

In 2013, the Philippine Food Safety Act was enacted. In the same year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) released the implementing rules and regulations on the certification of Philippine Good Agricultural Practices (PhilGAP) for crops. Rice farmers are encouraged to undergo PhilGAP certification to help them establish a strong market linkage with institutional buyers who demand PhilGAP-certified products. However, only few rice farmers sought certification, although an uptick in number was observed in 2024. This study reviewed literatures related to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for rice to gather global evidence on GAP’s effects and how it was perceived or accepted by rice stakeholders. The rich information gathered could aid in identifying and designing research that could help direct GAP implementation in the Philippines. This paper used a systematic literature review using PRISMA checklist. Literatures were searched from Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. A total of 93 materials passed the screening based on a set of criteria (i.e., research area, document type, language used). The list was reduced to 20 after checking for eligibility (i.e., rice and GAP-focused, assessment/adoption study, accessibility of full text). Many studies used descriptive, costs and returns, and regression analyses, reporting better yield, income, and input use efficiency for GAP-certified farms. GAP foster sustainable rice production but some of its aspects perceived as difficult to attain. Participation factors included sociodemographic, land-, labor-, and extension-related variables, financial resources, and market demand. Research on net benefits of PhilGAP for rice, marketing study on PhilGAP-certified rice, and policy analysis may be explored.