ICA Japan - Nepal 1999

Sustainable Agriculture Training for Self-Reliance of Women in Rural Nepal Participants are listening eagerly about 'the effect of natural pesticide and green manure'. A husband might take the place of his wife. The literacy rate of the Nepali is under 30%, and that of these women is under 20%..
Project Overview
The way to the village
	1. Kusma, in Parabat District, is 320km west of Kathmandu. It takes nearly three hours to get to Khanigaun village (altitude 945m) on foot or by donkey, crossing over three passes, thousands of rice terraces and several bazaars.
	2. In the mountain, we can find such resting places made of stones, where banyan trees are planted. Villagers and porters take a rest here and continue to walk.
	3. When approaching the village, we can see Mt. Annapurna (8091m) and Mt. Machhapuchhare (6993m) in the Himalayas. It is the harvest season for rice and millet in November .
The view of the village
	4. They cultivate rice, millet, maize and wheat up to the top of the mountain. Most of them do not use an irrigation system. Aspen, oak and pine trees are also growing.
	5. There is Health Post (Health center) in each village in Nepal. A health worker who received 1 or 2 week primary health care training is working with only several types of medicine. Common diseases include roundworm, fever, diarrhea, dysentery and tetanus.
	6. Villagers eat rice, vegetable curry and bean soup everyday. They eat more millet and maize than rice because rice, the staple food, is expensive in Nepal.
	7. This is a public primary school at Khanigaun village. There are classes for 2-3 grades and only one teacher is teaching 108 pupils. Only half of them attend classes because it is the farming season.
	8. These low caste people have a small house and a small vegetable garden. Most of them don't have rice fields. They can receive only one third of harvested rice and half of harvested millet if they work as a tenant farmer for the landlord. They are short of food grain for 6-9 months of the year, so that they have to work as a day laborer, such as carrying stones. Daily wage is only 70 yen. She is living with her husband, his another wife and 10 children in a 4x6m house.
	9. Most of the villagers depend on wood for cooking, so there is little natural forest at the Khanigaun village. It is said that all natural forests in the country will disappear in 30 years unless there is a positive change. She established bio-gas system using cow dung with the support of the government and an NGO. Back side: traditional fire stove, Front: Bio gas stove.
	-Organizing low caste womenﾕs groups- 10. ICA Parabat organized low caste (dalit) womenﾕs groups in February, 1999, in 7 villages of the Parabat district. More than 150 women in 15 groups are participating and they have weekly meetings. This is Progressive womenﾕs groupﾕ in Khanigaun village.
	-Micro Credit and Saving- 11. For micro credit, the interest rate is only 10 % per year, although it is 25-40% if they borrow money from the landlord. All the group members make decisions about the usage of the interest. The maximum of the loan is 6,500 yen and they have to pay back every 2 months for a year. Main usage is to raise poultry, goats and pigs and to prepare for tailoring shops and furniture shops, etc. They save 30 yen each month.
	-A Menﾕs group- 12. A menﾕs group was also organized in Khanigaun village in July, 1999. They started micro credit and saving and decided not to drink alcohol. It is the first day for micro credit loans distribution. Center (hat): ICA Prabat project coordinator, Pradip Timsina, Right: ICA Kathmandu staff, Atma Upudhaya
	-Gathering on the International Rural Womens Day- 13. On October 15th, Women were marching to the village office with placards saying ﾒWomenﾕs dignityﾓ, ﾒSuccess for the Womenﾕs dayﾓ, and so on. Nearly 100 people participated in the gathering, including women, men and children.
	-Bee keeping training- 14. 15 people participated in Bee keeping training, including villagers and NGO staffs. The facilitator is Ratna Thapa. Participants are learning about honey nutrition, diseases, advantage of bee keeping, and how to raise bees. We can collect 50kg of honey each year from 1 bee box and 4 bee hives.
	-Empowerment Training- 15. It included group organizing, micro credit and saving etc. This is training for trainers about adult literacy education.
Research and Preparation
	16. We visited a mothers group at Thanamaula village, by crossing over a pass through Limithana village. They give visitors like us beautiful floral wreaths and a red mark on the forehead. Right: Ruri Kitadai, Left: Fumiko Nakashima
	17. We interviewed about 30 villagers in each of 3 villages about agriculture. Mothers group repaired the soil road, constructed a meeting center, and are now constructing a milling house without any support from outside. They have started saving too.
	18. We made four small vegetable gardens in the courtyard of the ICA Parabat office for agricultural training. Broad beans and radish were sown by drilling method and were mulched with rice straw to demonstrate to the participants.
Sustainable agriculture training for self-reliance for rural women
	19. They like wearing red which they believe calls for fortune. These women wearing red shirts, necklaces and bracelets, come to the training center. It takes more than one hour for some of them to come, crossing over a pass from their villages.
	-Orientation and introduction- 20. The oldest person lighted candles which mean Love and Equality after some songs and dances. After that, they introduced each other by drawing each others portraits and explaining where they come from, what they like and what they expect to the training. The vice representative of the mens group also participated.
	-Making a map of the village- 21. Participants are drawing a village map, showing 9 wards, their own houses, common water, forest, a primary school, the village office and so on. This is one of the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques.
	-Making an agriculture calendar- 22. We made a calendar by asking participants about sowing and harvesting seasons of grains, vegetables, fruit and beans. We later discussed about what they want to sow and what kind of skills they need for this.
	-Weekly schedule- 23. We, local experts, and villagers taught about leadership, soil conservation, organic farming, compost and natural pest management, seeding bed, intercropping and mix cropping, indigenous micro organism, integrated home garden, and small scale poultry management in a week. We devised to do more training in the midst of the practical field work than lectures.
	-Sustainable environment/ Eco-system/Permaculture- 24. Mr. Umesh Subedi from ﾒ Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Nepal" (INSAN) gives a lecture on soil ingredients, land use, and soil improvement. Participants are learning about the importance of cooperation through games.
	-Utilization of Indigenous micro organism- 27. Materials for fermented fruit juice are seasonal fruit such as papayas and mangoes, wild fruit and crude sugar. After placing these alternately in an unglazed pot, it will be fermented in a few days. The juice can be applied on leaf surface to accelerate microbical activities or can be a beverage for human beings.
	26. After burying steamed rice in a wooden box into leaf mold of a bamboo forest, indigenous micro organisms can be collected in a few days. Then add crude sugar and keep it in an unglazed pot. Mix the liquid with rice bran. This can be utilized for compost or livestockﾕs bedding. Brown part: mixed soil, White part: micro organism
	27. Mix the indigenous micro organism with rice bran and add water for fermentation. It will be 45 degrees in 3 days and will be mixed with compost and used for promoting fermentation.
	-To make mature compost- 28. Dig a hole which is about 50cm deep and add fresh leaves, dried leaves, cow dung, cow urine, wood ash, garbage and rice bran. Pile them with some water. Cover the surface with mud to prevent rain and water evaporation. It became 50 degrees inside in 3 days.
	29. Turning over compost which was made 1 month before. It needs to be turned over again 1 month later to get matured. We also made liquid compost with cow dung, urine, and fresh leaves.
	-Making basket compost- 30. We stuck bamboo sticks in a circle and covered them with jute bags in the garden. Soil will be fertile if we put garbage and fresh grass everyday because insect and microorganisms propagate. It is good to plant vegetables around them.
	-Small scale poultry management- 31. Villagers are raising local chicken traditionally. They keep chicks in a small bamboo basket. When chicks become bigger, they are kept outside in the daytime, and on an earthfloor at night. We made a big bamboo basket which can be moved together with the chickens. Our field staff, Manu Kunwar, is giving a lecture about advantages of poultry raising, variety, diseases and self-supply feed.
	32. We tried making poultry house using bamboo. The size is 3x2x2(height)m. Left: Covered sleeping area Right: Uncovered play area
	-Natural pesticide management- 33. They are making natural pesticide using local grass or herbs such as marigold, neem etc. They crush neem and chinaberry by stone, mix tobacco leaves and a little soap, and boil them. It can be used as green manure after making them watery.
	-To make Neridoko (Soil block)- 34. Mix same amount of mountain soil, local soil and matured compost. Pour in water and kneed. Then cut the seedling bed (4x4 cm) by knife for transplanting vegetables. It is good for transplanting because there is no damage to the roots.
	- Collecting fresh leaves for green manure- 35. Collecting leguminous plants, mugwort, Adhatoda and Nepal pepper. These are to mix with compost or to plow in the field.
	-Making hot bed- 36. It is quite cold in the morning and evening from October because of the high altitude (945 m). So we made seedling bed with plastic sheets and bamboos. The size is 250(length)x60 (height) cm. They have to control the temperature one week before the transplantation.
	-Integrated kitchen garden- 37. The facilitator is Hem Sarma Tiwarie who works at the agriculture center of the Baglung district. We Visited his kitchen garden and learned about intercropping, mix cropping, use of gray water and so on.
	-Distribution of vegetable seeds- 38. We distributed vegetable seeds in small packages. These are peas, broad beans, soy beans, mustard, onion, cauliflower, and 2 kinds of radish for the 1st agriculture training, and mustard, onion, cabbage, carrot, and 2 kinds of radish for the 2nd agriculture training. We explained about each vegetableﾕs seeding time, need of transplanting, special features and spacing.
	-Sowing of distributed seeds- 39. Villagers often broadcast seeds. So, participants tried drilling onions this time.
	-Evaluation- 40. From top to bottom on the whiteboard are: How to make compost, Use of indigenous micro organism, Mulching, Making hot bed, Green manure, Small scale poultry management, and Natural pest management. During evaluation each participant checked what was most interesting to her in the category.
	41. They evaluated the training in small groups. Good points included We learned many things about vegetable cultivation. We want to continue to have various training for agriculture/community developmentﾓ. Improvement points included This is the festival and harvesting season, so we are so busy. December-March is the best season. Recording person : Field staff Chandra Bahadar Nepali
	-Following up- 42. She is Danbali Daludi. She sowed distributed mustard and radish, and covered them with banana leaves until germination. Also, she made liquid manure.
Participants of the Agriculture Training
	43. The participants of the Agriculture training held Oct 5-9 were from a womenﾕs group in Khanigaun village. Participants are selected in their group meeting, and 25 women a day participated on the average. Front (sky blue sari): All womenﾕs group leader, Kesha Kmar Daludi, in front of the Irrigation center
	44. The Nepali have breakfast at 10 oclock, snacks and milk tea in the afternoon, and supper at about 8 oﾕclock. Noone can skip the afternoon milk tea and snacks. On the last day, we had special snacks, which were crushed steamed rice with meat soup.
	45. The participants of the Agriculture training held Oct 28-Nov 2, from womens groups in Mudhikuwa and Devisthan villages. About 20 women participated in the training on average everyday. At the courtyard of the ICA Prabat office.
Study tours
	46. We visited a farmers group in Kudule of Baglung District. The leader of the farmers group, Tilakam Sakota, told us, Before we were always playing cards and gambling. But we started to cultivate tomatoes after joining the agriculture training.
	47. We visited Permaculture Learning Center which is organized by INSAN in Mathurapati village of the Kabhre district. This is their bio gas system, where cow dung will ferment in the tank and turn to gas for cooking and lighting. The rest accumulates in the compost hole as liquid manure (this side). They can get profits, more than 6000 yen per one season.
	48. They created a variety of other things such as half-underground house using solar and terrestrial heat system, gray water purifier, collection of rainwater, terraced vegetable garden, contour farming to prevent soil erosion, solar effective shower room, and so on. This is a rain water purifier which leads to the welcome garden. Cherry blossoms are in full bloom in November due to the high altitude (1900m).
	-Establishing a water tank- 49. Common water is supplied only between 5 and 8 oclock in the morning and the evening. But water flows out most of the time because there is no tap.
	50. We set up this 1000L water tank at Tiwalitor (the same ward as ICA Prabat office) . It should be of use for each villagers vegetable garden. Another water tank will be established in the Gahate ward, where most of low caste people are living and where there is no agriculture water channel due to its high slope.
	-The field staff of ICA Parabat- 51. 14 field staffs are working in 7 villages of the Parabat district. They are working everyday, organizing womens meetings, adult literacy education, and so on. This picture was taken in front of the ICA Parabat office.

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Sustainable Agriculture Training for Self-Reliance of Women in Rural Nepal