Quality assurance initiatives for peri-urban food production in India

The levels of air pollutants are rapidly increasing in many 'megacities' of the developing world. Air pollution reduces both the yield and nutritional quality of crop plants, and is also a major source of particulate contaminants that can accumulate at toxic levels in the edible portion of crop plants grown in urban and peri-urban (UPU) areas. This paper presents new knowledge on the impacts of UPU environmental pollution and on food safety attributes of the vegetable marketing systems in India. It explores the appropriate balance between public and private quality assurance initiatives and identifies wholesale markets as a potential entry point for quality assurance. Finally it locates the Indian system of regulated wholesale markets within and integrated quality assurance framework for public and private mechanisms to improve food safety.