Namaste Nepal: Roadside noodles

Ezina and I traveled by car to Tansen (a.k.a. Palpa) on Sunday so we could be here for 3 days of interviews (we hope!). Today was a success. We made contact with someone from Heifer International (an old contact of my classmate Rajan’s) and he had sent me an excel spreadsheet of 10 names for 2 days worth of interviews. It was very exciting to be working with someone who was so organized!

Once an actor in India, this man is now
a leader in his community.

We met him briefly this morning to go over logistics of getting to this small town outside Tansen as well as hear about what made these farmers more commercialized. The list of names he gave us was a good group for various reasons, the first being that it was mostly men we would interview. Up until now I really have no idea why, but the men seem to be absent from the farming scene (*in the limited group of people we have talked to). Most men have jobs off farm, some women said their husbands ‘do nothing’ and some are abroad. We have only thus far interviewed 2 other farms where the man was as involved as the woman.

After waiting forever for a bus that would take us halfway, we were continually told that all seats were ‘reserved’ for those going to Pokhara, so we caved and spend 700 rupees to go about 40 minutes over to the next small town from which would could walk.

And walk we did. It was a Nepali 30 minutes, which according to some people we passed by was going to be either 2-3 hours or 40-50 minutes. Thankfully it was the latter.

These farmers were totally worth walking to talk to. They were proud, educated, engaged in farming, and really thoughtful people to spend some time with. And they were all really successful for different reasons. My favourite interview, while they were all great, was the 65 year old man who was adamant that his daughter in law was the head of the household, and was in charge of all the financial management and otherwise. It was a nice thing to hear not only from a gender perspective but also that the next generation was taking over.

Project funding from USAID has helped this farmer expand his crops
and make more money off the land.

The first man we talked to was insistent that the training he has had is good, but implementing is what made him successful. He was also one of the early adopters of growing vegetables in his area, and since, has become an expert and a leader in the community. He works with the local ag office to run trials and advise on what seeds are good for the area. He also grows his seedlings in trays, which is a relative novelty around these parts. Micro-irrigation has also really helped since they find lack of water is a limitation to expansion of crops and into new land.

The last guy’s farm was on the way back in the direction of the town where we could catch a bus back to Tansen, so we obliged a visit. That morning we had arrived in the village at about 10ish and were already hungry due to a stale breakfast of bakery goods, and sadly no one had us for lunch, so by 4pm when we were ready to leave, we were completely starving! And we were given about a kilo of oranges from different people so on top of my already heavy 2 cameras, paper, books, wallet, apples and whatever else was in my bag, I had that to lug around too.

Catching grey water and other run off for the micro irrigation

His farm was ‘just up there’ which again, is a Nepali ‘my farm is really close’ and I figure we hauled butt up about 1 km of narrow little footpaths to see where the magic happened. It is really sweet to be a complete stranger in a foreign land and be invited to see someone’s homestead. After we were done with his interview, we found the Nepali staple, dry noodles filled our bellies enough to get us home.

Anyhow tomorrow will see us heading a little farther afield into the Palpa countryside, so I will be sure to update you with the story tomorrow!

As always, thanks for reading.