STDF

STANDARDS AND TRADE DEVELOPMENT FACILITY (STDF)

Spices Board in collaboration with Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) under WTO and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), India, is implementing the project entitled “Strengthening spice value chain in India and improving market access through capacity building and innovative interventions”. The tenure of the project is three years. The goal of the project is to expand exports of safe and high-quality spices from India to overseas markets. The project targets four spices viz; Cumin, Fennel (Gujarat and Rajasthan), Coriander (Madhya Pradesh) and Black Pepper (Andhra Pradesh).

The project aims to scaling up the standards of practices in farming, production and post-harvest to meet food safety standards and expand market access and thus help to boost incomes of small-scale farmers, empower women and other marginalized (tribal) communities, and support efforts to reduce poverty. The project is funded by STDF, FAO and Spices Board. FAO is the international implementation partner. The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific through its country office in India is responsible for the implementation. Spices Board is the Local partner of the project and will ensure the implementation of all local activities and their coordination. The project is expected to directly benefit up to 1200 smallholder farmers, who rely on farming as their only source of income. The project aims to address the challenges in the four selected spices to enable poor, rural households to improve food safety and quality, and benefit from trade opportunities. This will also contribute to improved food safety and consumer health in India and export markets.

The project will be implemented based on a collaborative, public-private partnership model, with the expectation that the spices training programme developed would be scaled up in other parts of India by the private sector and government agencies after the end of the project. The baseline survey of the selected farmers in targeted project is under progress and crop specific GAP and GHP is under review. On finalization of the GAP and GHP the Training programmes for trainers will rolled out and the trainers will conduct capacity building programmes for the spices farmers in targeted villages and encourage the farmers to adopt GAP and GHP in their farms. At the end of the project, it is expected that the regions being considered under the project will have implemented good agriculture practices tailored to meet SPS issues with regard to the particular spices under consideration, thus generating access to new markets via linkages with major exporters. It is also expected to create a model which can be replicated in other spice growing areas.

Related links

STDF project Document
Brief Note on STDF project
STDF PROJECT PREPARATION GRANT
https://www.standardsfacility.org/fr/PPG-517