Nawalparasi Update - Summer 2025

Bridging the Gap in Nawalparasi

While we prepare to launch our next major climate adaptation initiative, our partners at HICODEF have been working tirelessly to keep momentum going in the hills of Boudikali and Hupsekot. Over the past few months, they’ve focused on strengthening local farming groups, reinforcing good agricultural practice and ensuring continuity for successful adaptation projects.

In group meetings across eight communities, farmers have been revisiting lessons on coffee cultivation, in time for harvest, along with tunnel farming and vegetable intercropping. These sessions have helped maintain enthusiasm and build confidence, with farmers now sharing techniques on seedling care, weed control and post-harvest processing. Out in the fields, over 10,000 coffee saplings are thriving in community nurseries, water tanks are in daily use, and silpaulin tunnels are producing healthy crops - clear signs that climate-smart farming is becoming embedded.

There’s also been real progress in turning coffee into a sustainable livelihood. 62 farmers produced and sold over 900kg of parchment coffee this quarter - an impressive 63% increase on last year. New equipment like a shared pulping machine, combined with growing market interest, is helping build a more stable and profitable value chain. Local traders are now coming directly to villages to buy directly from the farms and some farmers are even transporting their harvest to town markets to fetch better prices.

Thanks to your continued support, communities in Nawalparasi are not only holding on to previous gains - they’re building on them. With your help, we’re making sure that adaptation is more than a short-term solution; it’s becoming a way of life

Dilim Hamal - From Foreign Worker to Multilayer Crops Farming Pioneer

I still remember the day I sat down with Dilim Hamal in his small but vibrant farm nestled in the hills of Dhodeni, Mandandeupur-08, Kavrepalanchok. As he spoke, his story unfolded like a journey I’d heard from so many Nepali youths—but with an ending that was different. And deeply inspiring.

Back in 2071 BS, Dilim was one of countless young men who left for Malaysia in search of work and a better life. But despite the years abroad, he told me, the pull of his homeland, his soil, his people, his mountains never let go. In 2018, he came back. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to build something real at home.

He didn’t return with a business plan or a ready-made path. He returned with hope, and a willingness to start from zero. One day, by what he calls sheer luck, he noticed a signboard: Mandandeupur Agriculture and Forest Resource Center. Curious, he stepped in. That moment changed everything.

There, he learned about bio-intensive fruit farming—something he’d never even imagined before. With support from Eco Himal Nepal, Dilim received training, guidance, and access to high-quality seedlings. He planted avocado, peaches, lemons, apples, walnuts, and even macadamia—high-value crops that suit the hilly terrain.

What struck me most was how he involved his whole family and poured love into every corner of his small plot. Slowly, it transformed. His trees now yield 15–20 kilograms of fruit each, and for the first time, he told me with a smile, he was earning not just surviving.

But he didn’t stop there. Dilim added organic vegetables, using a multilayer cropping technique. He intercropped seasonal produce, protected the soil, and kept his farm 100% organic. By using local inputs and selling directly to the market, he reduced costs and saw his profits rise. I was honestly amazed when he told me that in just the first quarter of 2025, from only 25% of his land, he earned a net profit of Rs. 87,000 (~£471).

Sitting across from him, I realized he was no longer just a farmer—he had become a symbol of what’s possible when knowledge, hard work, and heart come together. His journey is now inspiring others in his community and beyond. Young people are beginning to believe that success doesn’t have to be found abroad. It can be cultivated right here.

“I didn’t find success in another country,” he said, quietly but confidently. “I found it in my own field.”

Dilim’s story isn’t just his - it’s a lesson in resilience, innovation, and the promise of sustainable agriculture. It’s proof that even when you start with nothing, with the right support and the right mindset, you can grow everything you need. I heard his story firsthand, saw it with my own eyes, and that’s why I feel compelled to share

Uma Basnet

Agriculture Technician

Mandan Deupur Agroforestry Resource Centre

Crowdfunder Launch - Mandandeupur Landslides

On 26th to 28th September 2024, Mandandeupur received 391mm of rainfall in 24 unprecedented hours. This deluge triggered flash-flooding and devastating landslides that resulted in 78 deaths across the Kavrepalanchok region of Nepal.

In the wards at the heart of our project area in Mandandeupur the destruction has been reported as worse than that caused by the 2015 earthquake. Homes, roads, water supply systems, electricity lines, and community facilities—such as schools and temples—have been destroyed, isolating many residents from basic services and making travel between neighbourhoods impossible.

Eight people, including two children, lost their lives, and hundreds of families have been displaced. Water facilities have been severely impacted, and vital crops, including paddy, maize, and vegetables, have been destroyed, with over 550 animals lost. Six successful years of project work in the area was, for some, wiped out in two days.

On 3rd March 2025, The Glacier Trust will launch a Crowdfunder campaign to help get these impacted communities back on their feet. With emergency response covered by government bodies, our focus will be the restoration of basic services and facilities for the functioning of a community affected by a disaster, along with the replanting of damaged or destroyed crops and trees to previous levels. We will continue to develop our project work in line with initial plans, with extra focus on rehabilitation, replanting and resilience, ensuring recovery and rehabilitation is sustainable and has long-term impacts.

We will be building up to the launch over the coming weeks, so please do follow us on social media and keep an eye on your inbox!

Solukhumbu Coffee Roastery - Update

All the funds from the GFMe crowd funder have been transferred to the bank account in Nepal of the AgroForestry Resource Centre (AFRC) in Deusa, Solukhumbu, and much of the required equipment has now either been purchased (some of it already stored safely at the AFRC) or is on order from India.

Four quotations were received from different suppliers in line with Nepal Government procurement procedures, and the cheapest supplier was accepted.

Four pieces of the more major equipment – the coffee hulling machine, the grading machine, the roasting machine and the coffee grinder – are on order but are scheduled to be supplied by 16 August, 2024. EcoHimal and the AFRC will then receive specialist local assistance to install and test the equipment, establish the roastery and train the necessary staff in Mukli, where the Thulung Dudhkoshi Local Municipal Government has kindly provided us with spacious accommodation.

Many thanks indeed for your donations large and small – all very much appreciated. Once the roaster has been established and is up and running, we will then send some pics!

We are recruiting

A message from our UK Co-Director, Ruby Glasspool:

The Glacier Trust is recruiting. We are looking for a new Executive Director to lead the organisation and take forward our work enabling climate change adaptation in Nepal.

Full details are available on our jobs page. We encourage you to take a look and to help spread the word, we want a long list of talented candidates to interview.

Richard Allen, who is based in Kathmandu, is our Project Liaison (Nepal) and will continue the vital role he plays in nurturing our relationships with our NGO and University partners.

Richard will be on hand to support our new Executive Director throughout the year. We're confident this structure will help TGT to flourish and grow in the coming years.

As for me, I am moving on to new projects and will remain an avid supporter of The Glacier Trust. I will be on hand as much as required to support the new director in the transition.

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I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has supported our work. It has been a privilege to lead The Glacier Trust in that time and your support has made our achievements possible. Thank you.

If you would like to come and work for us, please take a look at our new Executive Director position and make your application. I can tell you from first hand experience that it is an incredible position. It will teach you so much, and take you to some of the world's wildest and most wonderful places.

The closing date is September 18th, we are interviewing on Wednesday 27th September 2023.

Handing over

It was a delight today to welcome The Glacier Trust's new Executive Director, Ruby Glasspool to the team. I spent the afternoon with her up in Bristol, going through the history of our work, our current projects, our special projects, and all the nuts and bolts that go on behind the scenes to keep everything ticking along.

Ruby is hugely impressive, she's going to take TGT to new heights I'm sure of it. She's got all the right experience, dedication, intelligence, and values that a job like this requires.

It’s a bittersweet day for me, one of the most incredible chapters of my life has come to an end. It's been an amazing six years, it has changed me in more ways than I could ever have predicted. I've been to beautiful places, met wonderful people, eaten food - straight off the branch - that you can't find anywhere else in the world, and seen what climate change is doing to the most innocent of victims, but also what can be done to enable communities to adapt.

I'm staying involved - half a day week - as our volunteer 'climate change adaptation adviser'; and I can't wait to watch and learn from Ruby.

Please continue to support TGT, the adaptation needs and possibilities are both growing and we're making the changes that need to happen, happen.

Big thanks to Wiper and True for hosting Ruby and I today, the new brewery and tap room is incredible, if you're in Bristol, get down there - they're doing great climate work there too!