The tunnel farming in permanent plastic poly houses managed by the Belauri IPM farmers group in Belauri-4 of Kanchanpur has become an example in the area with the produce that has been growing there.  15 members including six females of the group are now involved in the new technology of tunnel farming with the support of the Enhanced Action of Inclusive CSOs for Participation in Climate Resilient Economic Growth (UTHAN) Project of DCA funded by the European Union and working to enhance the actions of inclusive CSOs for participation in Climate Resilient Economic Growth since 2020 in four municipals namely Dullu and Aathabis in Dailekh, and Belauri and Laljhadi in Kanchanpur districts. Khadak Chaudhary, President of the group shares that he has learnt a lot from this new technology and that they are still learning and improvising. “There is a big difference in how we did vegetable farming before and now. This is more organic and healthier, this is all contributing to minimizing threats and adverse impacts of climate change too,” he shares. He shares that this is the first time that vegetable farming has started collectively and that they are very happy with the results. After the group submitted a proposal and got selected, they rented four plots of land from one of the group members. Thereafter they started building the structure and started cultivating organic vegetables. Initially, an investment of NPR 1,162,500 was made by DCA from the UTHAN Project and NPR 3,00,000 by the group. The group members mobilized themselves on a rotation basis. By now, UTHAN Project has supported nine permanent plastic poly houses with drip irrigation sets, mulching and seeds of tomato, cucumber, capsicum and organized vegetable farming training for the group members.  The cucumber that was planted in the first lot grew very well as the group earned more than NPR 87,000 from it. Apart from it, they grew green vegetables like tomato, capsicum, cauliflower and cabbage and they also made money from selling the seedlings of the vegetables.

Malika Badayak, another member of the group shares that the new farming techniques have improved their lifestyle in many ways, “With the money we have made selling different vegetables, I have been able to take care of my house expenses, children’s education, and buy new clothes.” The farmers feel that they are now able to take care of the household expenses in a better way and that they have been able to manage with what they are making out from this alone.

“This tunnel farming has been very beneficial and effective as the insects cannot enter inside the poly house easily, or else it would be difficult for us to work, and many plants and vegetables were destroyed by them in the open, “explains Malika.  In addition, the farmers are being able to plant seasonal and off seasonal vegetables, they need not plough the field as often as they had to. The introduction of the drip irrigation system has made their life very easy and comfortable as they do not have to carry water from the tap to put in each plant every day, as a result, it saves their time and energy which ultimately helps to reduce the workload for them. Earlier, the members of the group used to cultivate vegetables only in their home gardens, but now, they do it collectively and individually as they have adopted the learnings from here to their household farming styles. “This has taught us a lot. We are now doing agriculture in a climate-friendly way, and we have applied this learning at home. We plan to grow the vegetables in the home gardens of all the members of this group in a climate-friendly way and then to spread public awareness about this technique to other farmers in the village. We want to promote this technology as it is very beneficial and help other farmers avail from it too. We can either do cross learning with different farmer groups or they can join our group,” opines Shiv Prasad Badayak, Secretary of the group. Likewise, Indira Chaudhary, Treasurer of the group explains that the group plans to do more and experiment with different products, “The first season was a success, and we hope that we will make more profit in the coming season. We plan to try growing beans, bitter gourd, capsicum and tomato this time and maybe other different vegetables in the next lot as the plants are much safer here.” The European Union funded UTHAN Project by DCA seeks to enhance the capacity, create an enabling environment and promote participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) technologies and practices in selected Palikas of Kanchanpur and Dailekh Districts of Nepal. And this tunnel farming is one exemplary activity to contribute significantly towards carbon emission reduction and generating incomes. The action promotes other climate adaptive and environmentally friendly farming activities while at the same time enhancing the resilience of agricultural systems and people. It involves the application of accessible, affordable, and sustainable technologies, practices, and approaches in managing resources and knowledge bases that support improved farm productivity and profitability.  There are three major result areas targeted by the European Union funded UTHAN Project which are: enhanced capacity of CSOs, promotion of CRA technologies and supporting the establishment of an enabling environment with local governments for the promotion of CRA. Approximately 8,000 farming communities and 80 CSOs are targeted by this three-year-old project.