Project Outputs
The project will have the following outputs:
1. Output 1: Institutional capacity for nursery and horticulture sector management improved. This output will ensure a sufficient supply of quality planting materials of fruit and nut crops in Nepal. At the national level, the project will (i) prepare nursery standards, regulations and an inspection system; (ii) upgrade horticulture station and/or center facilities for testing, cleaning and maintenance of planting materials, and nursery quality control; (iii) train horticulture station/center staff, and organize knowledge exchange programs and workshops to meet internationally accepted sanitary and phytosanitary standards; (iv) upgrade private nurseries to ensure healthy and quality material production, and transfer genetic technologies to private nurseries (scheme 6); (v) commission research on more climate resilient and adaptable varieties of fruits and nuts; (vi) develop a nursery certification scheme and roll it out with volunteer private nurseries; and (vii) train and certify cooperatives and private input suppliers which service project clusters. At the provincial level, the project will support: (i) development of interactive crop suitability maps at crop variety level through integration of climate, soil, and landscape information; and (ii) land classification and zoning for orchard development. Output 1 will be implemented by Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), National Center for Fruit Development (NCFD) and provincial Directorate of Agriculture Development (DOAD) in each of five provincial agricultural ministries
2. Output 2: Production and productivity of project farmers increased. This output will develop approximately 10,000 ha of new orchards for almond, apple, avocado, citrus (lime, mandarin and sweet orange), kiwi, macadamia, pecan and walnut production, and enhance productivity through (i) preparation of the packages of practice incorporating climate analysis, soil management, variety recommendation and crop husbandry, drip irrigation and management, and overall orchard management including Good Agricultural Practices, integrated pest management, harvest techniques and storage;[3] (ii) training all the beneficiary farmers in the packages of practice through (a) implementing agencies and farmer group facilitators, (b) private technical service and input providers, (c) farmer-to-farmer extension program, identifying lead farmers and training them to demonstrate climate change adaptation and best practices, and (d) digital technology based farm advisory system development and promotion.
The project will also provide financial support through (i) partial grants for the development of approximately 10,000 ha of new orchards and drip irrigation system (scheme 2);[4] (ii) providing grant incentives to farmers based on plant survival rate; (iii) assessing and verifying carbon sequestration benefits from orchards, and exploring carbon financing options; and (iv) supporting beneficiary farmers’ loan access by establishing and operationalizing a guarantee fund scheme (scheme 1) for smallholder horticulture farmers and rural agribusinesses, leveraging: (a) the full up-front investment loans, including working capital, from participating banks and financial institutions to farmers, farmer groups, cooperatives and agro-enterprises up to 1 year; and (b) the remaining loan of farmers, farmer groups and cooperatives up to 5 years.
Smallholders farmers with less than 4 ropani (0.2 ha) who are unable to invest in commercial fruit and nut orchard development under the project will be supported for irrigated off-season vegetables and wet season nutritious food crop production. Approximately 10,000 farm households will be eligible for this category. The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) approved grants to finance the following activities: (i) vegetable grower identification and their capacity building through farmer group formation; (ii) extension of drip irrigation and rural financing support for vegetable and other crop production in 1,000 ha (part of scheme 2); and (iii) partial grants for the establishment of vegetable value-addition equipment and infrastructure at three different levels – cooperative (scheme 3), agribusiness through public-private partnership (scheme 4) and local levels (scheme 5). The World Food Programme will provide parallel financing of grants from GAFSP for establishing and operating farmer nutrition schools to access and utilize food for improved dietary diversity. Output 2 will be implemented by NCFD and provincial DOAD in each of five provincial agricultural ministries.
3. Output 3. Value addition to hilly area horticulture produce enhanced. The output will (i) promote agriculture/horticulture cooperatives to aggregate fruits, nuts and other crop produce, better manage quality of horticultural products and improve profits of smallholder farmers; (ii) strengthen those associations and cooperatives that are willing to invest in value addition activities through developing training programs and conducting training of cooperatives in post-harvest management, food safety control system such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, financial management, business, marketing and entrepreneurship, while promoting female leadership; (iii) provide matching grants to support cooperatives’ investment in value addition equipment for crop washing, sorting, grading, cooling, processing, packaging, and quality control (scheme 3); (iv) incentivize agribusinesses and service providers that collaborate with project beneficiaries by providing matching grants for improving, inter alia, traceability systems, certification systems, internet-based marketing, organic production and cold chain linkage (scheme 4); and (v) develop value-addition infrastructure such as commodity storage, collection center and orchard fencing that provide public good benefits by co-financing investments from provincial governments and local-level (scheme 5).Output 3 will be implemented by NCFD and provincial DOAD in each of five provincial agricultural ministries.