One of the farming families I've been working closely with
I have now visited dozens of dairy farms across the central regions of Nepal, each time helping with individual issues and training requests. From soil management to cheese making, to helping communities get a fairer price at markets – I’ve certainly been putting my experience as a Somerset farmer to good use.
Whilst talking to the small scale dairy farmers, I kept on noticing how eager they are to learn more. This has really opened my eyes to the lack of basic training they had received in the past, and I want to make sure that I leave them safe in the knowledge that they will continue to receive regular training and new opportunities to learn.
Therefore, I really am excited to tell you about the amazing local partner I met with and let you know all about our exciting plans for the future.
A new partnership
As part of my work as a VSO volunteer, I have engaged with an organisation called Forward Nepal. This experienced team of Nepalese started running agricultural training schemes in the 1990’s and together we will be running pilot training schemes sharing good practice on a wide range of agricultural activities.
If the pilot projects work, Forward Nepal will then take it to the government for scaling up with much larger funding. Due to my expertise, our pilot project will be based around the milk chain, ensuring more dairy farmers can produce quality milk to sell.
With farmers relying on each and every rupee that comes in from their produce, any improvement on a farmer’s income will have an immediate benefit to families. This could drastically change lives, allowing children to go to school, enabling families to afford medical help, and even persuading young men not to migrate to other countries for more money. Needless to say I’m keen to get this pilot up and running to give all farmers this better quality of life.
Focus points for training
One of the points that I’m really keen to impress upon farmers is that it’s unnecessary to cook livestock’s feed, which seems to be the norm here. It doesn’t benefit the livestock in any way, and not cooking the feed cuts the costs of firewood used by each family, and frees up women’s time.
Another worrying and common practice is that farmers here use normal laundry detergents to wash milk containers. Not only does this mean the milk can taste soapy, but it can also leave it very unsafe to drink. I’m on the lookout for a low cost chemical that will safely clean even when using cold water.
Our plans so far include making pictorial reminders explaining some of the basics of good dairy farming. Each farm can have a copy, and all farmers will be able to follow the guidance regardless of their literacy level. We will also use the local radio for farming updates and those that have mobile phones will receive text messages with extra reminders and any new top tips.
Spreading the word far and wide
We are also in the process of finding ‘lead farmers’ – confident farmers who can take ownership of training their peers after I have left Nepal and the training scheme has been scaled up. These ‘leads’ are essential to the project as they will make the change truly long term.
The government backs us too
One of the key (and most frustrating!) parts of ensuring long lasting change is getting local government support. Luckily Forward Nepal already have an established relationship with the government, and we managed to meet with the Food Safety Board just last week. I was astounded when the Head of the Board wanted to make our dairy training a policy before the pilot had even happened!
This is an enormous step for us. We had to actually persuade him to let us start with a pilot so we can really fine tune the training for maximum benefit to famers. However, we now have in writing a promise that we will receive further government backing!
Progress
This fast-paced partnership has already made impressive leaps to help thousands of farmers across the central region of Nepal. I hope you are proud of what your loyal support of VSO is managing to achieve. I must get back to it now, but let’s just say – watch this space!
Best wishes,
Simon
