As my time in Nepal comes to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to update everyone on my adventure here. Along with the local intern, Ankita, we spend the first few weeks at Nepal HQ working on translating and interpreting the new cooperative draft law here in Nepal.
The new law address various issues concerning the cooperative environment in Nepal and makes a lot more activities black and white. It forces many cooperatives to become more focussed on their core activities. This can influence which national federation they can join, thus influencing the benefits they can receive. This forces cooperatives to become more creative and think of ways to earn income within their fields.
New Cooperative Draft Law
There are many beneficial changes in the new law as well, such as board members cannot hold a position for more than three years and the board should be composed of at least 33% women. This brought smiling faces to the entire Agriterra team as it is in line with Agriterra’s own goal. Alongside this, we had “lunchtime lessons” from Trijan, to learn more about how the cooperative environment is organising in Nepal. At the end of our time in the office, we had a visit from Richard van der Maden and I joined him on a mission to Bajrabarahi to visit a potato cooperative that Agriterra works with. This mission was conducted with a very skilled Agripooler: Sander Dietvorst. We received the cooperatives business plan and Sander helped making it more realistic. It was very interesting to see this unique Agriterra concept in action. The next day we were supposed to leave to Hetauda, but we couldn't because one of the passes was blocked with snow. So we returned to Kathmandu and participated in Holi (the festival of colours). It was an interesting cultural experience, as Nepalis take it very seriously.
Marketing Pilot
When we made it to Hetauda, we got started with the second half of the assignment. This was to help the local agricultural district union (DAF) with the marketing pilot. The pilot focuses on 90 farmers producing three commodities; honey, turmeric and Maize. The pilot focuses on six primary cooperatives spread out over the Makwanpur district. This means 15 farmers per cooperative and two cooperatives per commodity. The pilot aimed to commercialize the farmers, but starting on a small scale. First we visited the cooperatives and had group interviews with the farmers and the cooperatives to evaluate what equipment they had in place and what they would need to invest in to become commercial. The pilot would also advice the cooperatives about which value adding steps they should do.
Starting level: Turmeric
For the turmeric producing cooperatives, the environments where the cooperatives were located are completely different, Harnamadi was flatland and Gadi was mountainous. Considering the starting level for turmeric, it was easiest to evaluate because both cooperatives where starting at the same level; they both had packaging machines and the terms for participating farmers were clearer. Currently all value adding steps are done traditionally apart from grinding. The turmeric is spread out on mats and dried in the sun. This step greatly depends on how much sun there is. This factor could be modernized with the help of a solar dryer. I suggested that the cooperative only had to take over the last step of value addition as it would be beneficial to the farmers income wise and would require less investments from the cooperative. After my first two visits, I realized that with DAF, we would need to go back and define the terms of the pilot more clearly. This would help with expectation management between the cooperatives and DAF.
Commercial level: Honey
For honey, it was more complicated as the SFACL Kakada was already producing at a commercial level, locally and internationally (through a wholesaler) but wanted to raise more farmers to that level and create direct contact with the internationally honey importers. The SFACL Manhari was just starting with honey, had no equipment and had only a few commercial farmers. That being said, the few commercial farmers were very successful and this was what was attracting the other farmers to honey farming. They had also engaged in a bee breeding program. Most of the honey was wild (collected from the jungle) from a particular area where the chyuri tree grows. This gives it a particular taste and it was interesting to see how the farmers at Kakada where well aware of the importance of the environment on their honey. They started a tree planting program, where they want each household to have minimal one chyuri tree. Although the honey cooperatives where not on the same page, the both had clear realistic ambitions for pilot. Expectation management with DAF and the honey cooperatives was a lot better than what I found in the turmeric cooperatives.
For both honey and turmeric, a chain analysis was created that the farmers together with DAF can use to create a business plan in how they plan to approach the pilot, as each cooperative is different. I also advised the junior technical assistants on what to focus on for the farmer field schools.
Nepal is definitely a country I will to return to in the future!
Tata,
Talash Huijbers, Intern at Agriterra
