HPC has a focus on remote/poor/resource depleted farming communities in Surkhet & Humla districts of Western Nepal, and especially marginalised populations (women & low-caste), using low-tech appropriate technologies to increase domestic farm productivity through reducing costs of labour, money and other external resources while increasing farm diversity, reslience, health, education...

Himalayan Permaculture Centre (HPC) is a grass-roots NGO registered at national and district level. It has a focus on remote/poor/resource depleted farming communities in Surkhet & Humla districts of Western Nepal, and especially marginalised populations (women & low-caste), using low-tech appropriate technologies to increase domestic farm productivity through reducing costs...

One of the five point priority agenda of the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) is to build and strengthen farmers’ cooperatives and their enterprises that will give farmers a stronger involvement in value chains and increase their market power. Thus, AFA has established a Cooperative Development Program...

This is a compilation of case studies written by AFA members who implemented FFF projects in 2015-2016. The cases reflect the struggles, the actions and the lessons learned by AFA members in organizing and building the capacities of their members in forested landscapes, at village, commune or district/town levels, in...

Chandra Kala Thapa is a thirty-year-old smallholder farmer living in Ranichauri, a village in the Sindhuli District of south-eastern Nepal. Like many women farmers here and in other parts of the developing world, she has faced a number of barriers to improving her agricultural productivity and increasing her income.

Only a small number of governments have established meaningful and effective farmer-centred measures for the implementation of access and benefit sharing of genetic resources. One reason is the highly complex nature of the international regulatory system. This special issue of Farming Matters magazine presents practical ways in which access and...

This publication provides guidance on using a common methodology for monitoring pollinator diversity and abundance, as part of the GEF supported Project “Conservation and Management of Pollinators for Sustainable Agriculture, through an Ecosystem Approach” implemented in seven countries - Brazil, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan and South Africa. The project...

Since 2012, national teams in eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have been identifying options for policy, legal and administrative mechanisms for the implementation of the multilateral system of access and benefit sharing (MLS) for plant genetic resources. This article summarises if and how access and benefit sharing...

This study is undertaken to quantify the benefits of contract farming (CF) on farmers’ income in a case where new market opportunities are emerging for smallholder farmers in Nepal. CF is emerging as an important form of vertical coordination in the agrifood supply chain. The prospect for CF in a...

Using results from the three rounds of Nepal Living Standard Surveys (conducted in 1995, 2003, and 2010), this study empirically assesses whether access to rented tractors or custom hiring services is a binding constraint on the income growth of farm households in Nepal. Because four-wheel tractors of medium horsepower are...

This publication addresses the need to strengthen the interface between the scientific community, knowledge-holders and policymakers, and build capacity for and strengthen the use of science and knowledge in policymaking on the topic of ecosystem services. With respect to the ecosystem service of pollination, FAO developed a protocol to identify...

Yam has several nutritional benefits, yet the crop remains neglected and underutilized. In the absence of national research and extension programmes on yam, LIBIRD’s initiative to promote yam cultivation on terrace walls has caught up with the Chepang communities in Nepal.

Fish as a food is generally acceptable to all regardless of region, religion, race, gender and age across Nepal. The aquaculture and open-water capture fishery contributes about 2 % of agricultural gross domestic production; this share of fisheries sector is tiny but promising having a fastest 8–9 % annual growth rate. Nevertheless,...

The building of a zinc shelter in the market at Morahang, Nepal, has helped hundreds of women farmers to trade their produce. The initiative came as a result of reform of the market management committee to be led by local women.

In this video Nepalese farmers explain how they learned, after an FAO training course, to use bio-pesticides instead of the chemical ones.

About two-thirds of the developing world’s 3 billion rural people live in about 475 million small farm households, working on land plots smaller than 2 hectares. Many are poor and food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. Their choices are constrained, but they farm their land and...

The aim of the guidelines is to enhance restoration efforts in the world’s drylands. They provide specific guidance for policymakers and other decision-makers, and for practitioners. Well-informed policymakers and other higher-order decision-makers can be enablers in the design and implementation of effective restoration efforts by providing appropriate policies, governance mechanisms...

  Young men from even the remotest places in the Himalayan mountains are leaving their homes in search of income opportunities elsewhere. This trend of out-migration has been driven by increased mobility and access to information, in combination with the effects of climate change, including both increased flooding and drought. Drought...

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. Since then, the importance of the role that indigenous peoples play in economic, social and environmental conservation through traditional sustainable agricultural practices has been gradually recognized. Consistent with the...

Due to this underlying need, FAO, in collaboration with ICRISAT, ICARDA, and CIAT, organized an expert consultation workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in December 2013 on Community Seed Production. The workshop’s objective was to create a roadmap and develop strategies for enhancing effective uptake and implementation of CSP in developing...