Project description / objective
Sahaj Phase I aimed to increase rural smallholder farmers’ income by facilitating their engagement in commercial agriculture markets which provides them with better opportunities to increase their income and improve their livelihood and competitiveness.
Phase 1 worked in three core sectors: vegetable, goat and maize, and two cross-cutting sectors: crop protection and post-harvest.
Market system focus
Goat
Over 43 per cent of Nepalese households are involved in goat rearing, producing 20 per cent of all meat consumed in Nepal. Meat consumption is rising with urbanisation and household incomes are increasing. Goat meat demand is increasing, but productivity remains low due to farmers’ limited access to input markets and information.
Maize
Maize is the second biggest staple food crop after rice in terms of area and production in Nepal. It has also become one of the most important industrial crops for poultry feed, where high unmet demand creates good potential for import substitution. A large number of smallholder farmers are involved, with high participation by women and disadvantaged groups. Economic returns can be raised by increasing production and linking farmers with mainstream commercial maize markets.
Vegetables
Vegetable farming is very common among poor rural smallholder farmers, providing a source of income and nutrition for over 3.2 million Nepalese families. Increasing demand (and access to roads, inputs and markets) is resulting in increased production. The growth in the input industry and service providers is leading to increased interest of some private companies (inputs) to invest in their marketing and distribution strategy
Post harvest
Opportunities exist in a diverse range of post-harvest functions, with a decent number of very capable and interested intervention-partners involved in cleaning, assembling, grading, sorting, storage, packaging, processing, transportation, distribution and work on commodity supply chain across value-chains. This has strong relevance for vegetable and maize sectors with high potential for reducing post-harvest losses and so increasing income. It is also relevant for the wider economy (other crops including spices, citrus).
Crop protection
In Nepal, 25-35 per cent yield loss is caused by insect, pests and diseases. The crop loss results mainly from misuse and sub-optimal or over-usage of pesticides. Lack of knowledge and information, and constraints around accessing quality crop protection solutions, lead to crop loss and sub-optimal income for farmers.
Programme interventions
Goat
- Vet service providers
Facilitation in strengthening capacity of local vet service providers by creating direct linkage with vet medicine companies. - Goat breeding
Supporting local level goat breeders to develop a business of breeding service for goats along with embedded products such as fodder and forage. - Fodder production
Support in increasing production of fodder and forage for goats and distribution of the fodder and forage to goat farmers through local nurseries.
Maize
- High-yield seeds
Increasing access to farmers of high yielding maize seeds. - Feed industry links
Linking smallholder maize farmers with feed industry.
Vegetables
- Improving vegetable, maize and goat farmers’ access to knowledge and quality inputs (micro-nutrients, bio/organic fertiliser, bio-pesticides and veterinary products) through field technicians, agro-vets and Kishan Call Center.
- Improving linkage between farmers and traders; providing production technology related knowledge to the farmers for demand-based season and offseason vegetable production and marketing.
- Improving smallholder vegetable farmers’ access to affordable quality seeds by facilitating production and promotion of quality vegetable seeds in Nepal.
Post harvest
- Improving farmers’ awareness regarding post-harvest management and access to post-harvest equipment and techniques, focusing on hermetic (PICS) bags, to reduce post-harvest losses in maize and other cereal crops.
- Linking smallholder farmers to structured procurement markets.
- Creating market opportunities for farmers cultivating indigenous crops through various pre-and post-harvest awareness and training activities
Crop protection
- Support access to knowledge and quality crop protection inputs through training, field staff services, information materials etc. through crop protection input importers.
- Support access to organic crop protection products to farmers by strengthening distribution system and providing embedded service to small farmers through crop protection input importers.
Notable results (systemic change, poverty impact)
2,072 new jobs were created due to project interventions and 51,867 farmers increased their income out of this. Around 21,820 households (42 per cent) were women-led production units and 20,902 (40 per cent) were from disadvantaged groups.
Goat
Goat sector interventions contributed 6 per cent of the total beneficiaries (3,193 farming households). The net attributable increase in income per household was NPR 7,889. The intervention strengthened the capacity of local vet service providers: 475 vet technicians (door-to-door service providers) were able to better deliver their services with improved diagnostic tools focusing on goats.
Breeding interventions helped small-scale goat farmers access an improved buck breeding services - either natural or artificial insemination (AI). The project partnered with Nepal Livestock Breeding Office (NLBO), the only government-owned livestock frozen semen production unit, to build their capacity with new technology for buck semen collection and processing. This resulted in the production of over 11,000 doses of frozen semen which was distributed to different Provinces. Both the natural breeding service providers and production of AI are continuing.
Farmers learnt about better goat nutrition through the establishment of fodder and forage nurseries which produced seeds and saplings for their goats. The goats had previously only been fed on maize and seasonal grass.
Goat sector interventions resulted in little on-farm job creation but created a small number of full time equivalent (FTE) jobs in the value chain. Interventions did, however, increase the business and client base of several self-employed para-vets and breeding farms.
Maize
Maize sector interventions contributed 61 per cent of the total beneficiaries (31,752 farming households). The net attributable increase in income per household was NPR 12,755. The intervention improved access to quality maize seed along with farmer cultivation techniques Product buyback also increased the trade volume significantly. The intervention partners (aggregators) were able to collect almost double the volume of maize after this intervention. Farmers’ income also increased as a result of using high yielding maize seeds.
The maize sector created 848 number of full time equivalent (FTE) on-farm and at the value chain level jobs.
Vegetables
Vegetable sector interventions contributed 20 per cent of the total beneficiaries (10,264 farming households). The net attributable increase in income per household was NPR 9,111. The input companies in Nepal are hugely dependent on their distributors to sell and market their seeds and fertilisers. The vegetable intervention enabled the input companies to, for the first time, hire technicians to reach farmers directly, promote their product and provide technical knowledge and cultivation practice information. The companies have adopted the new model and are continuing with the technicians since this has increased their sales.
The vegetable sector has created 584 number of full time equivalent (FTE) on-farm and at the value chain level jobs.
Crop protection & Post harvest
The cross-sectors, crop protection and post-harvest interventions contributed 12.84 per cent of the beneficiaries (6,658 farming households). The net attributable increase in income per household due to cross-sectors was NPR 21,324. Crop protection input suppliers are only involved in trading business through distributers and do not directly reach farmers or even agro-vets directly. The crop protection importers hired technicians to visit farmers directly and give them technical inputs, helping them increase their sales. This business model has continued after the completion of the intervention.
Farmers have been better trained in post-harvest vegetable management, reducing their losses. The introduction of cold storage also helped to minimise loss.
The cross-sectors, crop protection and post-harvest sectors have created 613 number of full time equivalent (FTE) on-farm and at the value chain level jobs.
[updated July 2021]