For full transparency we publish reports received from our NGO partners on our Project Articles and Reports page. Our three latest reports have just been uploaded. They are also linked to here:
For full transparency we publish reports received from our NGO partners on our Project Articles and Reports page. Our three latest reports have just been uploaded. They are also linked to here:
Later this month, Narayan Dhakal, from our NGO partner EcoHimal Nepal, will set off to the villages of Hatiya and Chepuwa in remote district of Sankhuwasabha, near Nepal’s border with Tibet. Ahead of his visit we have put together on a short photo essay charting the journey of thirty ‘improved’ cooking stoves from a factory in Kathmandu to the high-altitude mountains of eastern Nepal.
Traditionally in Nepal and throughout the Himalaya, open fires are used to cook and heat homes. This creates two significant problems. Most immediately, homes are regularly filled with smoke causing long term damage to the lungs of adults and children. Secondly, wood burns faster on an open fire, leading to a high demand for wood and therefore deforestation and loss of habitat at an unsustainable rate. Having witnessed these problems first hand, our founder Robin Garton, worked on a solution with Narayan from EcoHimal Nepal. The project they conceived is now a reality.
Robin and Narayan worked closely with the local community to explain the potential benefits of cooking stoves with enclosed hearths and chimney’s. The community put faith in Robin and Narayan to identify the right kind of stove and agreed to find thirty homes willing to install and trial the new stoves. TGT funded the purchase, delivery and monitoring of thirty stoves. After several delays and false starts the stoves finally arrived in Hatiya and Chepuwa in September 2017. This photo essay charts their journey from Katmandu via trucks, tractors and strong Nepali sholders to the Nepal/Tibet border.
More news will follow in March, once Narayan Dhakal from EcoHimal Nepal has returned from his monitoring visit to Sankhuwasabha. We hope that the stoves are working well and that their owners are happy with them.
Narayan's visit later this month marks the end of the the first pilot phase of this project, we plan to continue testing the stoves and would like to raise funds to send more stoves to this extremely remote location. It costs £220 to provide a stove, transport it to Sanhkhuwasabha and equip each household with a user manual and basic training. If you would like to help fund a stove (or several), please get in touch.
Right now in Deurali across three villages, Dhabaha, Satakun and Durlunga, our NGO partners HICODEF are running farmer field schools. 93 farmers are now involved (44 men, 49 women), thirty more than last year. They are learning agriculture, water management and other climate change adaptation measures. Surbir Sthapit (HICODEF Director) sent us this outline of what is being learned as we move into spring.
The classes run using participatory techniques as much as possible. The facilitator organizes games, singing, dancing etc to make the class interesting and lively. After the class all the participants and facilitators visit demo plot to observe and carry out practical exercises such as nursery bed preparation, weeding, pest control etc. There are three technical agriculture apprentices in each location, who also attend the Farmer Field School classes. They have roles and responsibility to look after ten farmers each to apply the knowledge and skill in the farm in practical manner. The field schools are focusing on organic vegetable farming as much as possible. The farmers have gained knowledge and skill on modern agriculture techniques like polytunnel with mulching technology and use of sprinkle irrigation - a very adaptive method to climate change. Vegetables grow in the tunnel throughout the year, as it maintains optimal growing temperature.
We have been enabling climate change adaptation in Deurali for just over two years now, here are some of the outcomes in the latest project period:
The adaptations we are enabling in Deurali are still in their early stages and demand for farmer field schools, farming equipment and water management is growing.
Polytunnels cost around £45 and we want to provide five more of these to farmers in Deurali in 2018. A monthly donation of £3.75 will provide one Polytunnel. Simple but very effective.
Following on from last week's coffee training in Deusa, Hari Kumar Kharki, our EcoHimal project officer has been in Waku to train 35 farmers on how to use a coffee pulping machine. He sent us these photos from his workshop on Wednesday:
The pulping machine seen here is one of six that your donations enabled us to buy in 2017. They are shared by farmers who carry them from hamlet to hamlet during the harvest season. They are hand turned, so no need for fuel or electricity and no CO2 emissions. They are also very sturdy and easy to maintain, the farmers love them.
As coffee growing spreads into Waku, we need to provide six more machines. Your donations are vital to this. Each pulping machine costs £360. Make a monthly donation of £30 to buy a coffee pulping machine for Waku.
One of the most exciting developments in Deusa is the growth in coffee production on the lower slopes of the valley. Right now our volunteer, Meleah Moore, is in Deusa with our partners EcoHimal Nepal. There is a lot of activity going on there this week, farmers are getting specialist training on running cooperatives and learning some advanced skills to help them produce coffee more efficiently. The coffee training is practical, they need coffee beans, so it has been timed to coincide with the coffee harvest. Meleah is capturing this and posting updates on our Instagram account.
Coffee is grown in the shade of other trees like Banana and Moringa, a process called intercropping that farmers are learning in Deusa and Waku thanks to our Agro Forestry education programmes there. The trees help each other, farmers are working with nature, rather than creating boring mono-culture farms that are not sustainable long term. The Banana tree provides vital shade for the coffee plants, but also, thanks to their roots help keep water in the soil. The roots of the coffee help bind the soil and their fallen, rotting leaves provide it with nutrients to keep the soil fertile.
The banana's are also of course delicious and nutritious, the coffee is unbelievable! Through the Deusa AFRC and our partners EcoHimal Nepal, the farmers are able to sell their coffee to traders in Kathmandu. This is providing a great new source of income. The Glacier Trust is currently exploring ways to roast, bag and sell coffee grown in Deusa ourselves. We'll buy it from the farmers, process it, sell it and then reinvest the profits into more Climate Change Adaptation projects. Please get in touch if you'd like to find out more.
The Deusa AFRC (Agro Forestry Resource Centre) has elected a new chair and some new members to its board of governors. There is also a new look to the Advisory committee. Both bodies help to ensure that the AFRC runs in a democratic and transparent way with members of the board and advisory committee providing an essential link to the community.
Newly Elected Board Members for two year tenure:
Advisory Committee members:
TGT would like to congratulate and welcome all new members.
In 2017 we ramped up the blog section of our website, bringing you news and views from the world of Climate Change adaptation and our activities here in the UK. As a consequence, the important news from our projects in Nepal was getting lost. We decided that it needs a dedicated section. So here it is, new for 2018: 'Project News'.
We'll be sharing all the latest from our project work in Nepal right here to keep you up to date.