The adoption of safe food production standards and the related certification systems by farmers play a crucial role in safeguarding public health, environmental integrity and meeting regulatory requirements. Production standards consist of a system of activities or functions that must work together to ensure that the best practices represented in the standard are implemented and complied with. Farmer groups have emerged as effective platforms for promoting the adoption of safe food production standards, offering collective support, knowledge sharing, and resources to individual farmers.

We present key insights into the effectiveness of farmer groups in fostering the adoption of safe food production standards, drawing upon existing literature and from experiences working with farmer groups on a production standard in Ghana and Kenya. We specifically evaluate factors that contribute to the success of farmer group initiatives, while also identifying potential challenges faced by such groups and proposing strategies to enhance their effectiveness.

By offering a comprehensive review, this study brief contributes to a better understanding of how farmer groups can effectively promote the adoption of food safety standards, ultimately improving the overall safety and quality of agricultural products. The lessons learnt from this study may be customized and used in improving existing initiatives in other countries in future.