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Hunger and malnutrition are critical challenges for developing countries. Access to sufficient safe and nutritious food is the key factor in addressing food security, health, and nutritional goals. Food safety and security are vital components of sustainable food systems. However, in developing countries like Nepal, food safety issues have received limited attention within the food systems. This study aims to review the relationship between food safety and food security, sustainable food systems, awareness, and food policies in Nepal, while also discussing the potential roles of women in these areas. Furthermore, the empirical examination presents our findings based on primary survey data from 604 consumer households in five major metropolitan areas of Nepal, Particularly focusing on gender differences in food safety awareness and purchase of fresh produce. Our overall findings suggest that the basic food safety practices and the enforcement of regulations have been overlooked in Nepal. Moreover, the study also underscores the potential roles women could play in enhancing awareness of safer fresh produce systems and safer food consumption. However, the findings also indicate that women in Nepal have lower awareness of food safety compared to men, emphasizing the need to improve education and awareness among women. To fully harness the potential of women as effective initiators, implementers, and promoters of enhancing food safety and sustainable food systems, awareness and training programs on food safety should prioritize the participation of women. It is crucial to encourage their involvement in food-related activities, leadership and management, and entrepreneurship.

The Agriculture Development Strategy of the Government of Nepal (2015-2035) has identified maize as one of the key commodities for commercialization. Maize constitutes at least 50% of the total ingredients in poultry feed, with approximately 3,000 tons of poultry feed consumed daily in Nepal. However, while the demand for feed is increasing at about 10.0% per annum, maize production is only growing at 2.5% per annum. The low productivity with inferior grain quality and a lack of value chain coordination mechanisms starting from inputs (seeds) to output (grains) have hindered the commercialization of the domestic maize sector. Because of the inefficient market mechanism and competitive market structure, farmers are not able to pursue commercial maize production. To address this issue, action research on the value chain was conducted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), focusing mainly on Sudurpaschim and Lumbini provinces, to implement the maize commercialization model (MCM) between 2020 and 2022. Results demonstrate that public-private partnership approach can increase maize production, improve farm gate prices and farmers’ incomes, improve value chain coordination; improve access to services to farmers and enhance information flow among stakeholders. The study recommends that policies aimed to streamline commercial maize production should adopt a value chain approach, with a focus on chain upgrading and governance and promote coordination among actors to scale up commercial maize production throughout the maize-growing areas of Nepal.

The resource over-exploitative, waste-burdening, linear developmental model has transgressed the planetary safe operating limits of the earth systems engendering climatic emergencies and also exacerbated socioeconomic imbalances. The only way of mitigating these planetary and social crises is to formulate and strictly enact ecofriendly, resource recycling, circular economic, equitable, decentralized and peoples´ participatory developmental policies and practices. The objective of this review is to contribute to the discourse on transformative agriculture-centred, circular economic policies and practices that foster nature-based solutions and prudent extraction, use, re-use, and recycling of resources while minimizing waste and environmental externalities. The review highlights Nepal’s geophysical, agroecological and socioeconomic realities, their manifestations and policy implications. It also explores how past development policies have been mismatched with these realities, eroding the indigenous resource bases and knowledge systems, and thereby, disrupting the agriculture-based, self-reliant, and food sovereign livelihoods systems. The article argues that agroecology, as a science, practice and movement envisions a nature-based, circular economic and socially just transformative pathway towards sustainable agri-food systems embracing food sufficiency, safety and sovereignty. This pathway contributes to healthy people, healthy animals and healthy ecosystems, hence strengthening the vision of One Health. Building on the agroecological perspectives, this article presents the resynthesized eight operational elements referred to as “8-S-elements” for agroecological transformation. These elements pertain to the prudent management of space (S1), species (S2), seeds (S3), soils (S4), seasonality (S5) and stress factors (S6) through the synergistic integration of agroecosystems and livelihood systems components (S7) with socioeconomic rationality (S8). In the Nepalese context, as an agriculture-based economy, agri-food and livelihoods are viewed as complementary facets. This study recommends the transformative policy options based on the principles of ecological stewardship and socioeconomic objectivity.

Formal breeding strategies and processes focus on developing uniform and non-evolutionary populations. However, many farmers continue to cultivate heterogenous cultivars and populations. To understand the recognition of genetic diversity (heterogenous cultivars and populations) in policies and the fields, a literature survey along with field survey, interaction and field action research were carried out in 15 districts of Nepal. Existing policies demand varieties to go through DUS (distinctness, uniformity, stability) testing and be registered in National Seed Board (NSB) for commercial production and sale. This means all native landraces and other broad genetic-based genotypes cannot be marketed without registration. A formal agriculture system accelerates the cultivation of a single genotype in a large area, leading to a lack of pollinators and the loss of many genetic diversities. Legal agricultural systems have focused mainly on modernizing agriculture through exotic resources, giving less priority to making native landraces and technologies globally competitive. In contrast, the informal seed system deals with polymorphic and evolutionary populations. Therefore, policies should consider the strategies that favor and increase genetic diversity, evolutionary population, site-specific genotypes and staple food, self-seed production system, ecological services, insects/birds/ microorganism-friendly systems, etc. Native agricultural genetic resources (AGRs) with broad genetic bases are essential for food, nutrition, health, environment, and business security. Therefore, native landraces of all six components of agrobiodiversity (namely crops, forages, livestock, aquatic genetic resources, insects, and microorganisms) should receive priority in research, development, extension, and education. Additionally, a favorable policy for the commercialization of such native landraces and/ or their products without registration should be established. Alternatively, a registration system should be developed for broad genetic base genotypes and heterogenous and evolutionary populations.