Organic Agriculture
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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
2023 Update
We have so much good news about CLN projects that we want to share a mid-year update! Safe House Our Women’s Safe House, Samridhi Ghar, is going to have a permanent home! We recently secured a substantial land donation from the local Nepali government, which...
Meet the Farmers
Macadamia farmer Bindu Darji has a big smile because she just sold 22 lbs of freshly harvested nuts for nearly $100, and in rural Nepal that’s good earnings! Bindu Darji wins! She and her family of five have three mature macadamia trees, which produced 62 lbs. of nuts...
Organic Coffee
Coffee Farmer Prem Kumari Gautam Prem Kumari Gautam is 64 years old, and she has 300 coffee bushes and a family of 7 living at home. Not all of her coffee plants are producing yet, but she earned $160 from harvest at the beginning of this year (a 25% increase on...
2023 Update
We have so much good news about CLN projects that we want to share a mid-year update! Safe House Our Women’s Safe House, Samridhi Ghar, is going to have a permanent home! We recently secured a substantial land donation from the local Nepali government, which...
Meet the Farmers
Macadamia farmer Bindu Darji has a big smile because she just sold 22 lbs of freshly harvested nuts for nearly $100, and in rural Nepal that’s good earnings! Bindu Darji wins! She and her family of five have three mature macadamia trees, which produced 62 lbs. of nuts...
Design: Misha Gehring
Photos: Deana Zabaldo
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