Sustainability of rural supply chains in Nepal: selection, characterization and labelling of spices for the local market. In: “Innovation, Quality and Sustainability for a Resilient Circular Economy - The Role of Commodity Science, Volume 1

The agricultural sector plays a major role in Nepal’s economy, contributing about one-third of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Although subsistence farming still dominates agricultural production, the proportion of farmland used for the production of high value crops like spices increased by 24% (2008-2018). However, Nepal has not yet been able to establish direct trade relationships with buyers in potential destination markets. This paper focuses on the project “Spices and sEEDs value chain improvement for rural development in Nepal, enhancing women and youth empowerment”, implemented by ASIA NGO and funded by AICS. The project aims at supporting small-scale farmers by improving agricultural production and the sale of seeds and spices of high commercial value. The work focuses on the sustainability of rural supply chain of Nepali spices and the actions carried out aims at describe the action-research carried out by ARCO PIN-Unifi in order to introduce upgrading in the processes of selection, preservation and packaging/labelling of the selected spices. Spectrophotometric analysis are also carried out for the evaluation of polyphenols, flavonoids and antioxidant activity, in order to enhance the functional value of spices and for the preparation of data sheets, also useful for the possible export of the product.