Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture for Nutrition and Food Security (POSAN-FS) Project
Program Period : 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2017
Funding Agency : Practical Action
Target HH : 7851
No. of Beneficiaries : (100,000 people from small farmers, farmer cooperatives, traders, commercial business service providers, and financial institutes.)
Program Area : Achham district (Siddheswor, Devisthan, Nawathana, Ganjra and Janaikot VDCs) and Doti district (Pachnali, Latamandu, Barpata, Khatiwada and Banghkakani) VDC’s), Bajhang and Bajura Districts
Objective of Program
• To improve the food and nutritional security of vulnerable communities.
Program Output
• A total of 326 farmers groups covering 7,851 households were selected to implement the project activities.
• These groups were further aligned to form eight Cluster Level Networks (CLNs) and linked with cooperatives/resource centers/collection mechanisms for their business promotion.
• The farmer's groups were trained on improved production practices of goat, vegetable and spice crops and involved in the demonstration of improved practices of selected sub-sectors and water-efficient irrigation technologies.
• A total of 5,343 farmers of which 69.73% were women and 29% were Dalit and Janjati adopted either of one or more improved scientific practices on the goat, vegetable, and spice crops.
• A total of 215 technical pieces of training were delivered to strengthen the farmer’s knowledge of selected three subsectors.
• A total of 351 demonstration sites were established to introduce new technologies in the project areas.
• A total of 98.6% of target HHs of which 63.1% were women and 14.7% were Dalit and Janajati farmers who adopted Micro Irrigation Techniques.
• Five community-based climate resilient practices were developed and adopted by farmers which increased their adaptive capacity in a participatory way i) drought-resilient varieties in vegetables ii) water-efficient irrigation technology (drip and sprinkler) iii forcing culture in cucurbits iv) forage land management and v) establishment of the home garden including minimum six components: kitchen wastewater collection, year-round vegetable, fruits, NNCs, compost pit, poultry and biopesticides, Jhol mal (liquid organic fertilizer).
• The project used Participatory Market System Development (PMSD) tool to promote dialogue, foster relationships, and improve understanding between market actors.
• A total of 17 collection points/centers and four Multi Stakeholders Market Coordination Committees (MSMCC) were established/developed in the project area to provide business opportunities to the rural farmers.
•The action developed and strengthened business development service providers such as agro vets, Local Resource Persons (LRP), and input and output market actors.
• A total of 11,123 farmers (4,240 male and 6,883 female) benefitted from 930 mobile training and service contracts
• A total of 25 agro vets were established/strengthened who have been pivotal in contributing to improving farmers’ access to agro-vet inputs.
• A total of 43 LRPs and three Practical Answer’s knowledge nodes were developed which have been contributing to improving farmers’ technical know-how on agriculture commercialization.
• A total of 16 goat resource centers were established that provided multifaceted services such as dipping tank facility, breeding buck service, and marketing linkages to the goat farmers.
• In addition, the project focused on improving nutritional status through the promotion and conduction of home gardening- 309, School Led Nutritional (SLN)- 159 activities, and 26 awareness campaigns.
•The project also supported to identify of policy gaps related to food security issues of the region and four food security strategy papers (one for each project district) were developed owned by District Agriculture Development Offices (DADOs) to provide a basis for developing food and nutrition security related programs and projects in project districts.