Women master climate resilient farming for bigger and better yields in Nepal

Farmer Field Schools help to turn around perspectives and degraded lands

In the Churia region of Nepal, a watershed area with severe land degradation exacerbated by the effects of climate change, Gita Adikhari and her fellow community members are learning more effective and environmentally friendly agricultural techniques through an FAO Farmer Field School, financed by the Green Climate Fund. ©FAO/ Sewa Bhattarai

Gita Adikhari realised something significant had changed when her farm in the Jhapa District of eastern Nepal yielded nearly double the amount she would normally harvest.

The bumper potato crop was not by chance, but as a result of learnings from a Farmer Field School (FFS) run by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with funding from the Green Climate Fund.

The increased yield of potatoes “was like confirmation that we were doing things right, and it motivated me to keep learning and improving our farming methods for even better results later on,” says the 47-year-old farmer.

The region in which the FFS are concentrated is Churia, the watershed area of the country, where Gita and her fellow students also live. This region faces an array of environmental issues, such as deforestation, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity.

These challenges coupled with the impacts of the climate crisis are putting pressure on local community members’ livelihoods. As rainfall becomes increasingly erratic and temperatures rise, Gita says: “We're seeing crops struggle to grow like they used to, and sometimes they fail altogether.”

An overarching aim of the learnings is to make farming systems more resilient to climate change. For example, in order to reduce pressure on forests for fuelwood and forage, the FFS trains farmers to cultivate forage and plant trees for fodder on their own land and to collect dung and urine from livestock for liquid fertilizer and compost. These practices all help to curb open and uncontrolled grazing and the depletion of the soils.

Thanks to the project’s restoration efforts, 11.48 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent will be reduced over the next 20 years.

Since attending the trainings, Gita says, “I've changed a lot of things on the farm. Before, I didn't know much about farming practices, so I used chemical fertilizers without really understanding their harmful effects or how much to use. I also didn't know which crops to grow together. But now, I've started using jholmol (homemade bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide) and compost made from manure.”

Another important element that the FFS demonstrates is how to use biochar, a charcoal-like substance made from crop residue, to improve the soil and mulching techniques to conserve soil moisture. These practices are used alongside intercropping to make cultivation more efficient while providing organic matter to fertilise the new crops.

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Jholmal is a homemade bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide prepared by mixing and fermenting in a defined ratio locally available materials such as animal urine, water, beneficial microbes, farmyard manure, and leaves with a pungent odour and taste. It helps control insect pests that attack and damage crops, protects crops against fungal and vector-borne diseases, and improves plant health.

Jholmal is based on a local traditional practice, and its use in the agricultural farmlands safeguards both the environment and human health. Jholmal preparation involves mixing locally available plant materials with animal manure and urine. Since most mountain farmers already raise livestock for milk, meat, and manure, using jholmal is a cost- effective solution for smallholder mountain farmers. Instead of purchasing expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides that are harmful to environmental, land, and human health, the homemade jholmal promises economic benefits to the farmers and is ecologically beneficial in many ways.

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