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No abstract

The Himalayan nettle (Note 1) is a fiber yielding non-timber forest product that has cultural, economic and medicinal values to many ethnic communities residing in the hill and mountain areas of Nepal and India. If the nettle value chain can be strengthened at each node of the chain, then it has high potentiality to uplifting the livelihoods of many poor households in those areas. With this objective, the Himalayan nettle value chain development interventions in the form of promotion of local institutions, enterprise development, product value addition and development, capacity building at the community level and promotion of linkages through private sector engagement were initiated in Darchula, one of the remote districts in far-western Nepal. This paper essentially analyzes the impact of Himalayan nettle value chain development interventions on households' income from the sale of nettle products. Using propensity score matching (PSM) technique in a cross-sectional data, this study finds that participation in the Himalayan nettle value chain development intervention has positive and significant impact on the households' annual income from the sale of nettle products. The participating households' annual income from the Himalayan nettle increases by NPR (Note 2) 2265-2410 than that of non-participating households with similar socio-economic characteristics. The study therefore argues that capacity building and facilitation activities on product development and market linkages are important to help increase productivity and decrease per unit production cost of non-timber forest products like the Himalayan nettle. Value chain development and concentrated market linkages are hence essential to diversify livelihood options for natural resource dependent rural communities.

This paper describes the results of an action research project to identify and analyze a flood resilient value chain option for families of migrant workers in flood affected areas in six Village Development Committees (VDCs) in Udayapur district in Nepal. The best option was cultivation of green peas, with crop productivity increased using urine-biochar prepared on farm as an organic fertilizer and soil improver. The paper describes the value chain selection process and comparison of the effects of different fertilizers on vegetable crops. The yield of fresh pea pods from plots treated with urine-biochar plus Farm Yard Manure (FYM) was more than twice that with Nitrogen Phosphorus Potash (NPK) only, and close to three times that with FYM only (farmers' control). The yields of a range of vegetables increased markedly in plots treated with urine-biochar. Analysis of the value chain indicated that farmers would benefit most by marketing to large buyers or direct to supermarkets in the capital through a farmers' association. Suggestions are made for future actions both country-wide (promotion of biocharbased organic fertilizer as a priority) and locally (strengthening the pea value chain).

Green growth and flood resilient value chain development have been foremost in the minds of vegetable growers in six villages of Udayapur District when they agreed to join pea field trials for a self-made biochar based organic fertilizer. Like so many Nepalese women and men who depend on farming for their livelihoods their top concern was getting high crop yields while lowering their input costs. Farmers of six villages (240 migrant workers' families) are now showing how boosting agriculture productivity and saving costs at the farm level can go hand in hand with national climate change strategies particularly in replacing chemical fertilizers in tropical soils of Nepal, an Action Research project result revealed. The results demonstrated that the biochar based organic fertilizer has enhanced the nutrient efficiency by increasing yields of at least four vegetable crops (peas, bottle gourd, cauliflower, and tomato) in the study area, and this technology was found more resilient to adverse climate (flood and drought) conditions. The trials have further investigated that the combination of biochar and cow urine, a source of nutrients readily available to farmers, have increased fresh pea yields double folds from (3 to 7) t · ha −1 in off season (end of Dec.to Mar.). With this learning, a flood resilient pea value chain was developed, where farmers could get increase in income from 9.92 % (traditional value chain) to 44.32 % (upgraded value chain). Further benefits of biochar based organic fertilizer have been recorded with increase of soil organic matter content in the root zone of crops and soil moisture content.