Key Messages

• Nepal’s food systems face interconnected challenges. Rising import dependency, climate change, biodiversity loss, weak local markets, and persistent malnutrition require a systems approach rather than isolated agricultural interventions.
• Agroecology offers a practical pathway for food system transformation. Agroecology addresses the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution while strengthening resilient food systems, nutrition security, healthy ecosystems, and sustainable livelihoods.
• Localizing agroecology is critical for achieving resilient food systems. Provincial and local governments are well positioned to drive agroecological transitions by integrating agroecology into local planning, extension services, public investment, and community institution. Localised approaches enable context-specific solutions that reflect Nepal’s diverse agroecological, socio-economic, and cultural contexts.
• Strengthening local institutions accelerates agroecological transition. Empowering local governments, community institutions, and farming communities strengthens innovation, collective action, and inclusive governance while enhancing local ownership of food system transformation.
• Investment in local innovations and local food economies delivers multiple benefits. Agroecological model villages, participatory action research, Farmer Field School (FFS), Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), local branding, local markets and institutional procurement, and biodiversity-based enterprises simultaneously improve livelihoods, nutrition, biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and local economic development.
• Institutionalizing agroecology within local governance is essential. Embedding agroecology into the Palika Agroecology Plan (PAP), annual programmes and budgets, while aligning investments with the National Agroecology Roadmap and Right to Food and food sovereignty commitments, provides a practical pathway towards resilient and inclusive local food systems.

This policy brief is published by LI-BIRD under the Promoting Resilient Agroecological Systems (PRAS) project and the Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) Local Led Adaptation Fund, funded by the United Kingdom International Development.