With the aim to promote sustainability and inclusive agricultural growth through the introduction of improved vegetable production technique for small land holding farmers, marginalized community, and other people affected by the April 25th, 2015, Nepal Earthquake, ISAP with the support of Peace Winds Japan and JICA initiated the SAFII project. The various components of the projects mainly comprised of formation of farmers’ groups, technical training for farmers including crop selection and seasonal vegetable farming, assistance to purchase agro-inputs, bookkeeping, marketing of the products, and promote network establishment between traders and farmers.
The project created 20 farmer’s groups with an overall increase in the farmer’s production by 187.66% and the amount of production sold increased by 333.82% by the end of the project Through the sale of vegetables, famers were able to increase their agriculture income by 309.79%. Similarly, 45.90% of the farmers have learned new farming techniques from the exposure visit to other farms and Japan experience, 21.31% of the farmers have learned innovative and efficient marketing approach and 34.42% of the farmers have shared that they have been motivated to scale up their farming practices.
In the second year of the PIWA, it was seen that beneficiaries of Year 1 (Phase-I) had gotten involved in vegetable production on their own utilizing the water availed through the project. As both projects were being implemented in the same district, beneficiaries of PIWA were aware of the organizations’ agriculture extension project in Chautara Sangachokgadhi Municipality. Considering the vegetable produced by the beneficiaries of Year-1 and after further research on possibility of vegetable production in the district, both organizations fused components of from PIWA and SAFII and designed Project for Improving Water Access and Agriculture Income (PIWAAI).
