Organic Agriculture
Make a Donation
Changing Lives Nepal creates new economic opportunity through innovative organic agriculture for rural farmers living in mountainous terrain.
Nepali farmers have traditionally been engaged in labor-intensive subsistence farming that produces small food yields difficult to survive on.
Our Nepali partner Parshu Dahal, Director of Society Development Center (SODEC), has brought new opportunities to village farmers in his home region, with the introduction of low-maintenance, high-value, commercial crops such as tea, coffee, macadamia nuts, and almonds.
Organic cash crop farming helps alleviate poverty over the long term. Our farmers are currently earning about 10% more income on average. As their plants mature and come to full production, some families’ annual incomes have tripled!
The farmers that we support, then create periodic employment opportunities for community members who don’t own any land. These workers can in turn increase their annual income by up to 25%. This cycle of increased income allows rural families to better meet their basic needs for food, medicine, school tuition, soap, shoes, clothes, home repairs, and other necessities.
CLN has helped to source seeds and saplings, establish plant nurseries, provide technical agricultural support, create market linkages, and facilitate the establishment of brand-new industries that create a rural economy where farmers can lift themselves and their families out of poverty through long-term investment in their land.
We have organized over 2,000 farmers into community cooperatives registered with their Nepali district office. This gives them a voice in local government and allows them to access financial resources unavailable to individuals alone. These community cooperatives create a space where women and men from varying socioeconomic levels and ethnic groups are brought together in partnership to form a level playing field.
Over 2 million coffee, tea, and nut trees are now being organically grown in areas where people did not previously have the technical knowledge for such crops. These crops are better suited to rocky soils and challenging conditions than traditional subsistence crops, providing more economic stability and more attractive earnings. An added benefit is that this encourages younger generations to stay on their family land and contribute to their home communities.
CLN has helped to source seeds and saplings, establish plant nurseries, provide technical agricultural support, create market linkages, and facilitate the establishment of brand-new industries that create a rural economy where farmers can lift themselves and their families out of poverty through long-term investment in their land.
We have organized over 2,000 farmers into community cooperatives registered with their Nepali district office. This gives them a voice in local government and allows them to access financial resources unavailable to individuals alone. These community cooperatives create a space where women and men from varying socioeconomic levels and ethnic groups are brought together in partnership to form a level playing field.
Over 2 million coffee, tea, and nut trees are now being organically grown in areas where people did not previously have the technical knowledge for such crops. These crops are better suited to rocky soils and challenging conditions than traditional subsistence crops, providing more economic stability and more attractive earnings. An added benefit is that this encourages younger generations to stay on their family land and contribute to their home communities.
Related Blog Posts
The Secret to Better Earning is Better Compost!
Dipa Adhikari is one of 136 farmers who are regularly making compost in barrels–a new technique that we brought to the area last year. Good and plentiful compost is essential to increasing the volume of coffee and nuts that each plant produces, which in turn...
Coffee & Nut Farms Keep Growing
Uddhav Trital with a mac nut tree. He has planted 75 trees and says his farm will generate a regular income like a pension for his family. At CLN we know that organic cash crop farming holds the power to change lives, both now and for generations to come. This is why...
Organic Coffee & Macadamias
Women sift the coffee beans in the same way they sift rice–on large round trays they shake to separate the smaller broken pieces and then pick them out. CLN’s organic agriculture program is going strong in 2024 with over 430,000 coffee bushes and 20,000 macadamia...
The Secret to Better Earning is Better Compost!
Dipa Adhikari is one of 136 farmers who are regularly making compost in barrels–a new technique that we brought to the area last year. Good and plentiful compost is essential to increasing the volume of coffee and nuts that each plant produces, which in turn...
Coffee & Nut Farms Keep Growing
Uddhav Trital with a mac nut tree. He has planted 75 trees and says his farm will generate a regular income like a pension for his family. At CLN we know that organic cash crop farming holds the power to change lives, both now and for generations to come. This is why...
Design: Misha Gehring
Photos: Deana Zabaldo
Changing Lives Nepal © 2022