Safe Food Production Regimes and Potentiality of Integrated Multi-Level Food Certification System in Nepal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3126/aej.v22i0.46817Keywords:
Certification, Nepal, Organic, Pesticide-free, Safe-food, TraditionalAbstract
There is continuum of agricultural production systems between highly agrochemical intensive farming and pure organic system. The current certification system in Nepal involve two levels – organic and good agriculture practice (GAP). Other middle-way alternatives for safe food like traditional and pesticide-free systems have not been considered for certification. This paper analyses various safe-food production regimes and explore potential for integrated multi-label food-safety certification system. Taking four typologies with varied levels of food safety i.e. traditional, good agriculture practice (GAP), pesticide-free and organic products as alternatives to input-intensive production systems, this paper concludes that the integrated multi-label food safety certification system would provide choice for consumers to make price and food-safety trade-off. Labelled safer food alternatives would enable consumers to choose and pay for their safe-food need and increase consumption of safer food contributing to sustainable growth of agriculture sector