IFAD team visits country

A delegation from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) headed by its assistant president Lakshmi Menon and Asia Pacific director Hoonae Kim is in Nepal this week.

In collaboration with the Nepali government and the Asia and Pacific Division, the Independent Office of Evaluation organised a National Roundtable Workshop for the Nepal Country Programme Evaluation (CPE), today in Kathmandu.

Participants at the workshop included representatives from the government, civil society organisations, academia, private sector and donor partners. The objectives of the Nepal CPE national roundtable workshop were to discuss the main issues emerging from the Nepal CPE; provide inputs for the preparation of the evaluation’s Agreement at Completion Point; and provide an opportunity for reflecting on key issues for the forthcoming Nepal Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP).

The COSOP is established through a participatory process by the Country Programme Management Team (CPMT) grouping representatives of the government, private sector and civil society as well as farmer organisations. The CPMT will determine the country's national plans, agriculture development strategy and the needs of smallholders farmers, and the strategic orientations to be taken by the IFAD funded project for the next six years (2013-2018).

In addition to participating in the workshop on 23 January, the IFAD delegation from Rome conducted a field visit to the sites of an IFAD-funded project — the Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme. The visit offered the IFAD delegation an opportunity to directly hold discussions with beneficiaries and their groups, project staff, district-level government authorities and others, as well as see project activities on the ground.

A number of high-level official bi-lateral meetings with the government were organised on 22 January, in Kathmandu.

Rural finance supports entrepreneurship

A Magar community in Dhorphirdi-3 of Tanahun district has been able to double its income from vegetable farming within a year.

"We earned Rs 207,000 last year from vegetable farming, which is double than that a year ago," said chairman of Namuna Krishak Samuha-Malebagar Bhadra Bahadur Thapa Magar. "A year back, we had earned Rs 127,000," he said, adding that some 22 people are involved in vegetable farming. "The group is now planning to shift to organic vegetable farming as it can maximise income."

The collateral free loan from Sana Kishan Krishi Sahakari Sanstha (Small Farmers Cooperative) has helped us become entrepreneurs, said Thapa, adding that most of the males had, earlier, left the village for foreign employment due to lack of employment opportunities.

However, the new found success has made them more ambitious as the villagers also have a plan to start a dairy, fishery and piggery in a 50-ropani plot of land. "We need Rs 2.5 million," he said, adding that villagers have nothing except small plots of land and only collateral free loan could help them realise their dream.

However, there is a technical problem for Sana Kishan Krishi Sahakari Sanstha-Dhorphirdi that has been helping the villagers with financial and technical assistance. "We cannot lend more than the ceiling as we are a farmers cooperative," informed chairman of Sana Kishan Krishi Sahakari Sanstha Mitra Lal Bhattarai.

"We have confidence that the villagers can realise their dream as they have market access and demand too," he said, adding that if the government, apart from relaxing the loan ceiling, subsidises the interest for dairy — like in meat producing business loans to substitute meat import — it will not only help substitute the import of milk and milk products but also help create employment in the villages.

With 872 male and 855 female shareholders Sana Kishan Krishi Sahakari Sanstha-Dhorphirdi is working in nine wards of the Dhorphirdi village and has been providing support for goat farming, dairy, buffalo, fishery, poultry and piggery.

But it's not easy for villagers to operate Small Farmers Cooperatives that are supported by Rural Finance Sector Development Cluster Programme II under Asian Development Bank (ADB).

"We are facing competition from financial institutions," said Bhattarai, adding that they are also trying to expand their base in the villages and offering less interest making it difficult for us to survive.

Not surprising that they also have to fight for their existence at a time, when some of the urban cooperatives have been cheating people playing against the norms of cooperatives. "However, ADB, GTZ, IFAD and the government are supporting Small Farmers Development Bank that is helping 291 Small Farmers Cooperatives to operate smoothly and professionally to ensure their effectiveness in reducing rural poverty and economic growth," said manager of the Sana Kisan Bikas Bank (Small Farmers Development Bank) Krishna Aryal.

New agricultural project to help accelerate growth

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will finance a seven-year project in Nepal called 'Kisanka Lagi Unnat Biu Bijan Programme' — Improved Seeds for Farmers Programme (ISFP) — from next year.

The $60 million-programme, which will start from January 2013, aims to increase the income of about 150,000 poor rural households by accelerating agricultural growth in six districts — Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan, Pyuthan, Gulmi and Arghakhanchi — in its first phase, according to IFAD that will replicate the positive outcomes to more districts in its second phase.

The programme is a joint venture between the government and IFAD, designed in response to the government's request for an agricultural and livestock project for the country to be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture Development.

It is based on the strategy to improve formal seed and smallholder livestock by developing a partnership between farmer organisations and the private sector with a sustainable approach in line with the IFAD Country Strategic Opportunities Programme 2006-2012.

"Most importantly, like all the other projects and programmes initiated by IFAD, it also addresses gender equality and social inclusion strategy ensuring the participation of poor women, ethnic groups and low caste members in all stages of the programme," it added.

Nepal is still considered a Low-Income Food Deficit Country. Even though there has been significant improvements in Nepal’s poverty level — which decreased from 42 per cent in 1995-96 to 24.6 per cent in 2010-2012 — the rural-urban poverty ratio remains highly disproportional.

The country’s poverty level is still significantly higher in rural areas where a majority of the rural population rely on stagnant agriculture as their main source of livelihood. With a goal to enable the poor rural people improve their food security and cultivation, raise their incomes and strengthen their resilience, IFAD along with the government and other donor agencies has invested in the country for the past three decades.

IFAD started its first project in Nepal in 1978 and since then nine projects have been successfully completed and four are ongoing. The programme is IFAD’s 14th project in Nepal.

"What is significant about ISFP is that it aims to significantly improve the seed replacement rate in the programme districts thereby contributing to higher crop productivity in particular and ensuring the availability of substantial amount of ‘Truthfully Labeled’ open pollinated variety seeds in general," said IFAD’s country programme coordinator for Nepal Bashu Aryal.

The first component of the programme is dedicated to extension of the formal seed sector by introducing improved ‘Truthfully Labeled’ seed products to replace poor quality seeds for cereals and vegetables.

The programme's second component deals with the smallholder livestock commercialisation targeting improvements in goat breeding and expanding dairy production. The final component of the programme aims to develop sustainable private sector enterprises including institutional growth, improved access to and control over non-financial sectors like agro-vets and increased outreach of microfinance institutions.

The programme also promises to bring better income and healthier lifestyle for the poor rural populace through agricultural growth whose contribution to the gross domestic product is more than one-third.