Farmers reached with modern agro-tools 

Volunteer Mr. Kiran Chapagain checking the temperature of the beneficiary at distribution point in Chulachuli-2, Illam

On 24 March 2020, the Nepal Government imposed a complete ‘lock-down’ of the country including business closures and restrictions on all movements within the country to maintain COVID-19 health safety measures. Thousands of people have been affected economically, socially, and psychologically as the rate of deprivation in the mass population increased dramatically within 2 months of the lockdown. With the continued situation of the lockdown, the agriculture input market has been disrupted significantly affecting the large farming communities in Nepal including the communities in eastern Nepal.

After seeing the need to modernize agricultural practices for improving farmers’ production commercially and supporting them to enhance their livelihood status amidst the pandemic, CN partnered with Swiss Development & Cooperation for Livelihoods Support Project (LSP) which primarily focused on livelihood input distribution for 20,000 smallholder farmers from 5 districts of Province 1. 
Farmers received modern agricultural tools which have helped them to upgrade their productivity. Caritas Nepal’s highly prioritized sector of intervention, this livelihood enhancement initiative is a 3-month long project which meets our two objectives: economic supports and humanitarian assistance as per our strategic plan (2017-2021).     

Farmers were able to get the desired agricultural inputs using the voucher system and they were satisfied that they could get the inputs as per their requirement. Congratulations and thanks to Caritas Nepal for the successful implementation of this work.

Rajendra Upreti,
Spokesperson, Ministry, Province-1

Promoting the use of organic pesticides and fertilizers and its preparation for pest controlling, sprayers, seeds, plastic tunnels for seasonal farming were provided by organizing the agro-trade fair through a voucher system.
The project provided farmers with improved varieties of drought-tolerant seeds for farming in both the lowlands and uplands. With this livelihood, input support farmers are enabling themselves towards modern farming practices adaptive to climate change.

Farmers with less than 15 katthas (0.5 hectares) of land will get free agricultural inputs, fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and tools worth NPR. 5500 agricultural products as per the needs of farmers were supplied through local traders at low prices. Targeted farmers were selected in coordination with ward offices of the local municipality.

Devendra Pokharel
Manager, Sub-Office Damak

The project has been designed to enable the smaller holder farmers to access agriculture inputs, realize timely farming of various crops, and contribute to their food security and incomes in time of the COVID 19 Pandemic. Within the framework of this intervention, 10 hand washing platforms were also constructed targeting the communities those are socially marginalized and impacted by the lock down, restricting themselves to perform income generating activities.

Being a single woman, I had to face immense challenges to sustain my life during lockdown. This support gave me hope to improve my productivity. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about daily consuming foods and I am optimistic that this time we will have a significant increase in production.

Pabitra Devi Limbu,
Beneficiary, Morong