Good Practices for Food Systems Transformation: A Case from Nepal

Urban Farm DB summary

A paper documenting good practices for food systems transformation using a ROSE (review, observation, survey, and experience) approach, framing the food system as encompassing six key components: crops, livestock, agro-insects, agro-microbes, forages, and aquatic agricultural genetic resources (AGRs). It notes that efforts to increase yield have relied on developing and expanding mono genotypes — single uniform genotypes across large areas — of a few crops such as rice, wheat, and maize with chemical inputs, but that as agriculture has advanced, many localized AGR-based food systems and farmers' rights have been neglected. Promoting and maximizing genetic diversity and localized food systems is described as crucial for food, nutrition, health, business, and environmental security. Effective food systems are characterized by site-specific staple foods, diverse genotypes, product diversification, incentives, circular and inclusive agriculture, waste reuse and recycling, and urban agriculture. The paper suggests that respecting every aspect of farmers' contributions — treating a farmer's household as a "shop" — would be a beneficial strategy.