By Liliana Usvat
Blog 222-365
Before Permaculture
Farmers from the hills began moving to Chitwan Valley in the 1950s when the government sprayed DDT to eliminate mosquitoes. The population as well as road, towns, houses grew rapidly. Except for Chitwan National Park and a few other reserves, the native forests and grasslands mostly disappeared. Small farms proliferated.
By 1993, agriculture in Chitwan as in much of the world, faced a crisis. Taking advantage of flat land and irrigation, farmers made Chitwan a breadbasket of Nepal. But like farmers participating in “green revolutions” throughout the world, they gained their high yields through chemical fertilizers, pesticides, mechanization, hybrid seeds, and borrowed money.
Over time, farmers fell into debt, grew only a narrow range of grain crops, and increasingly relied on income from wages and salaries. Ironically, many grew grain to sell but had insufficient food for their own families. And like the farmers, the soil lost its self-sufficiency and became more and more dependent on expensive fertilizers. Young people left in droves to work in low wage jobs in cities or overseas.
Observing these problems and and wanting to help find practical solutions, Dr. Pramod Parajuli and Dr. Elizabeth Enslin gained the support of the MacArthur Foundation in 1993-94 to carry out a research and action project on agroecology in Chitwan. Anil Bhattarai joined them as a research assistant.
Blog 222-365
Nepal
The Himalayan Permaculture Centre (HPC) is a grass roots non-government organisation (NGO) set up by trained and motivated farmers from Surkhet district (Mid-Western Nepal) in 2010 to implement sustainable rural development programs in Nepal.Before Permaculture
Farmers from the hills began moving to Chitwan Valley in the 1950s when the government sprayed DDT to eliminate mosquitoes. The population as well as road, towns, houses grew rapidly. Except for Chitwan National Park and a few other reserves, the native forests and grasslands mostly disappeared. Small farms proliferated.
By 1993, agriculture in Chitwan as in much of the world, faced a crisis. Taking advantage of flat land and irrigation, farmers made Chitwan a breadbasket of Nepal. But like farmers participating in “green revolutions” throughout the world, they gained their high yields through chemical fertilizers, pesticides, mechanization, hybrid seeds, and borrowed money.
Over time, farmers fell into debt, grew only a narrow range of grain crops, and increasingly relied on income from wages and salaries. Ironically, many grew grain to sell but had insufficient food for their own families. And like the farmers, the soil lost its self-sufficiency and became more and more dependent on expensive fertilizers. Young people left in droves to work in low wage jobs in cities or overseas.
Observing these problems and and wanting to help find practical solutions, Dr. Pramod Parajuli and Dr. Elizabeth Enslin gained the support of the MacArthur Foundation in 1993-94 to carry out a research and action project on agroecology in Chitwan. Anil Bhattarai joined them as a research assistant.
Goals:
- Meet the basic needs of a peasant family for food, fiber, fodder, firewood, health, happiness, and renewable energy.
- Nurture and regenerate ancient practices of dharma and hospitality.
- Model our experiment on fairly small scale, so that peasant families with similar landholdings of 2-5 acres could learn from it.
- Make our farm a place for teaching, sharing, and learning from others.
Methods
- Bio-intensive agriculture modeled by John Jeavons in Willits, California.
- Permaculture and whole systems design.
- The farming traditions of the Himalyan foothills still practiced by elders, such as Pramod and Udaya’s mother, Parvati Parajuli.
- The farming traditions of Tharus, Kumhals and Botes indigenous to Chitwan.
Results
They spent the first year double-digging beds, making compost and planting trees. Their garden flourished and inspired a new generation of farmers, gardeners and food and agricultural educators.
