Hello ECHO, first time caller here. I’m soon in Nepal to work with farmers who are interested in growing vegetables in the “off season” (in particular the rainy monsoon season, summer).
Looking for advice: managing heavy rainfall, soils to improve drainage, pest and disease issues, heat along with wet, post-harvest handling, useful tools…
Mostly subsistence farmers who would like to sell vegetables for local markets.
Thank you for your suggestions, resources, and responses!
Mike S
Hi Mike good resource here is from the Himalayan Permaculture Centre the Farmers’ Handbook - free downloads in English, and the Nepali printed version available from Sunrise Farm in Kathmandu. You can contact me at cevans(at)gn.apc.org for more details, best Chris
Another great place to go for resources is ICIMOD located in the south part of Kathmandu Valley. They have a Knowledge Park where you can see some technology for storage (above grout root cellar, etc) that can be easily made from village materials. The benefit of the storage strategies is to help market farmers store the unsold produce for a few days so that they can take it to daily market. They also have trees available for orchards, and other innovative stuff …as well as contacts for the companies that make solar dehydrators etc. Do you know where in Nepal you will be working? You can private message me or email me at melnykl(at)gmail(dot)com. I live in Kathmandu. Good luck and hope your journey to Nepal is great!
How is your time in Nepal Mike? Did u access the resources I pointed out? feel free to contact me at cevans(at)gn(dot)apc(dot)org