NWPStaging

The climate-smart village concept was introduced to understand local and indigenous practices to enhance the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers while increasing access to market and women leadership at the local level. The farmers are introduced to a variety of techniques to improve their agricultural production and livelihoods. They learn to produce and use a biofertilizer and biopesticide - locally called jholmol, which not only provides nutrients but is also effective in disease and pest control and supports improved plant health. To address water scarcity, they built small plastic ponds that collect wastewater and rainwater; while the Village Development Committees (VDCs) also work on the conservation of water resources. They are testing different crops for variable rainfall patterns, climatic conditions, and locations. Villagers equip their households with biogas plants and crop residue trial plots. They provide one day month for community work and keep the village clean and collect the garbage on a regular basis. Finally, communities received information and support for risk mitigation through insurances and other measures, and accessed an SMS notification system that informs them on weather and market prices, as well as technical issues such as pest management, land preparation, irrigation, weeding, fertilizer and harvesting. Three local schools have also been equipped with meteorological stations, and CSV communities have direct access to government advisory services at district level.