Food Security Nepal Project #12849

Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal

by Educate the Children

Project Report | Mar 11, 2014
Final project report: Sustainable Agriculture

By Lisa Lyons | U.S. Director

Mankumari Thami, successful farmer!

On behalf of ETC staff and program participants, THANK YOU for supporting our Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal project! We have reached our goal of raising $7,000 to support training and resources for farmers in the Dolakha District of east central Nepal.

Below are but a few of the accomplishments from the past several months:

All members of ETC women's groups (more than 840 women!) are maintaining kitchen gardens, and some are maintaining larger-scale farming operations, to feed their families better and earn more money - which in turn allows parents to send all of their children to school, instead of needing to keep some of them home due to inability to pay for books, uniforms, and fees.
ETC hosted a plant clinic in conjunction with the District Agriculture Development Office (regional government entity). Participants in this event included 159 farmers, who learned about soil health maintenance and pest control. The farmers brought samples of 514 pest-damaged plants (364 vegetable and spice plants, 107 fruit plants/trees, and 43 cereal crops), which were inspected by trained agricultural specialists, and effective, eco-friendly plant protection measures were discussed.
A total of 50 women farmers participated in two training events to learn about, and receive resources to build/improve, goat housing. Goats are very popular livestock animals in Nepal: during the past few years, ETC women's group members have taken out 201 loans from their peer-managed microcredit funds to start or expand goat-farming enterprises.
ETC staff distributed high-quality vegetable seeds to all women's group members and the three Agriculture in Schools clubs (total membership: 60 students, ages 10-14).

All in all, we have achieved our stated goal of enabling women farmers to produce greater quantities of nutritious food for themselves and for literally thousands of their family members and neighbors. Some women, like Mankumari Thami (see attached photo), do exceptionally well: During our last program year, she raised nearly $800 worth of crops. Compare that with the national average household income, which is about $500 annually and is generally much lower than that in rural areas, and you can see that she has been very successful indeed.

Again, we thank you very much for your support, which has made all of this possible. Please click here or on the link below to visit our other GlobalGiving project!

ETC staff member visiting a farmer in her garden

Plant clinic for pest control assessment

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Feb 19, 2014
Spring is Just Ahead!

By Lisa Lyons | U.S. Director

Students at their school's vegetable garden

Dear Friend of ETC,

Spring is just ahead! But meanwhile in Nepal, the important work of ensuring that families can grow more nutritious food continues year-round.

Although Nepal's economy is heavily based on agricultural work - an estimated 80% of Nepalis work at least part-time in the agricultural sector - insufficient access to resources and inadequate infrastructure have meant that poor rural families often don't get enough to eat. They don't have the knowledge or the basic tools to avoid malnutrition and food insecurity.

ETC changes all that. We provide high-quality seeds and seedlings, tools and supplies (such as bamboo poles, plastic sheets, hoses, etc.), and training to help women grow more and better food, even in the winter! In the villages where we are presently working, the winter weather is suitable for certain crops such as cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage.

We focus on low-cost, eco-friendly methods. Take the example of using agro-chemicals for pest control purposes. Agro-chemicals are terribly expensive for small farmers as well as causing damage to the soil, thus eventually DECREASING crop yield. Earlier this year, we held a training at which dozens of women learned which locally available plants to put in place around their gardens and fields, to attract the beneficial insects that will not cause harm to the crops, but instead will destroy certain pests that do cause harm to the crops.

We have nearly reached our fundraising goal for this project. On behalf of the thousands of Nepalis who can now eat more and better food, I thank you for your interest in and support of this important work! I also encourage you to visit our other active GlobalGiving project, which is #15934 (link below), to learn more about our efforts to improve schools in rural Nepal.

Women harvesting food from their garden

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Nov 29, 2013
An Update on Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal

By Lisa Lyons | U.S. Director

Chock Badahur Thami with cabbage crop

Winter is approaching - rather quickly, for those of us living in the northeastern United States! In Dolakha too, although the colder weather is on its way, late fall and early winter is the time for women farmers to start planting and cultivating cold crops in their kitchen gardens and small farms.

Those of us who are at best casual gardeners, or who live fairly far north, may not realize that there are many nutritious foods that can be grown year-round. In Educate the Children's current project area in Dolakha, Nepal, while it can and often does dip below freezing at night, the daytime high temperatures during the winter often reach into the 50s and 60s Fahrenheit - about 15-16 degrees Celsius being the average daily high temperature in January. (While the elevation in this region is above 7,000 feet/2,100 meters, it is at about the same latitude as central Florida - so it doesn't typically get so terribly cold despite the elevation!)

What can be grown in the winter months, in Dolakha? Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are among the most popular crops. All are relatively easy to grow, being suited for the soil and climate, and not requiring extensive labor on the part of the farmers.

ETC has stressed these "off-season" crops in our sustainable agriculture training activities in Dolakha, so that women farmers can feed their families more nutritious food and earn income year-round. In fact, many farmers have had such success on a small scale that they are now able and willing to grow these vegetables on a larger scale. In the previous project report, I mentioned that ETC's women's group members who now operate larger-scale farms earned an average of $283 in the past program year - which represents for them an increase of 50% or more in annual household income.

When I was visiting ETC's project area in March 2013, the cauliflower harvest had just been accomplished, and I was fortunate enough to be able to eat it - tastily seasoned - with many of my meals. It was delicious!

We are deeply grateful for your support of our Sustainable Agriculture project. Please visit the links below to learn more about ETC's work. Best wishes for the forthcoming holiday season!

Healthy head of cauliflower!

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