Farmers benefit from SAF-BIN Project

Kathmandu / March 3: More than a thousand farmers have benefited from the Strengthening Adaptive Farming in Bangladesh, India and Nepal (SAFBIN) project to tackle problems emanating from global warming.

The project was run with the support of European Union and Caritas Austria from March of 2011 among 90 groups of 30 VDCs in Kaski, Nawalparasi, Bardiya and Surkhet districts. At least 1,335 farmers benefited directly from the project.

At a SAF-BIN Project closing ceremony held today, the organizers claimed that the project helped the farmers to achieve 31 per cent growth in paddy output, 45 per cent in maize, 20 per cent in wheat, 76 per cent in potatoes and a whopping 200 per cent in vegetable crops.

At the seminar, Project Chief Manindra Malla said the project would continue to seek an appropriate alternative for guaranteeing security of food and nutrition of South Asia’s small scale farmers dependent on monsoon season.

He added that Caritas Nepal has run 700 farmers’ workshop in 24 districts supporting around 17,000 farmers to emulate integrated and sustainable agro system. Malla pledged further to introduce more programmes in future which would support the livelihood of small scale farmers.

Project Programme Manager Tej Bahadur Basnet spoke of the significance of the influence of running the project in Nepal as the farmers of South Asia have to depend upon rain water during heightened risk of climate change.

Project Coordinator Chintan Manandhar shed light on the progress through the implementation of the project in five years’ time and claimed that those farmers who had struggled to gain food security for more than five months were now extending it up to nine months.

Nepal Agricultural Research Council scientist Krishna Kumar Mishra said the underground water has depleted by 50 per cent and stressed on need for focus on irrigation system to suit such conditions and on dry land. RSS