Seed security, a Nepali student of agriculture realized years ago, is where all food security begins!

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USAID – a major donor in agriculture in Nepal – operates a programme on a wholly different level than the limited organic sector. 25 percent of the vegetables on the urban market in Nepal are imported from abroad, mainly from India, and to achieve greater self-sufficiency, USAID advocates, it is crucial to improve the “value chain”. Under the NEAT programme, USAID is distributing “improved seeds” to thousands of farmers; setting up collection centres to help with transportation; and improving the marketing and retail link. The video opposite sums it all up.

“Farmers [now] see a new future in commercial vegetable production, and now traders are purchasing quality vegetables from Nepali farmers.” Narrator on the success of the programme.

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It is estimated that nearly 1600 tons of hybrid seeds are imported to Nepal every year. That’s a sizeable dependency on foreign seed suppliers! So, USAID – in its support for the use of hybrid seeds in the country – has started to promote local hybrid seed production. Watch the video opposite to learn the details: USAID’s Nepal Economic Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) Activity supports SEAN Seed Service Centre (SSSC) who not only initiates local farmers into growing hybrid seeds but also collects the seeds, upgrade and package them. The hybrid seeds are then sold to seed vendors who sell on to farmers…

“Improved technologies, such as hybrid seeds, are crucial to improving productivity in [agriculture] in Nepal.” Narrator’s comment in the USAID video above.

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Once upon a time, all farming in Nepal was purely organic. But over the last one or two decades, a significant commercialization in the more productive farm areas has taken place. Population and income levels in Kathmandu and major towns have been rising; the number of consumers who are buying not least vegetables has increased; and to exploit this demand, farmers around the capital, such as in Panchkhal out in Kavre, and in several Terai districts, have shifted from traditional agriculture to commercial, chemical-based farming.

Many commercial farmers have benefited as their yields and incomes have increased. Indeed, more volumous harvests per hectare is also what USAID and other donors promoting commercial, chemical-based farming promise.

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The growing use of pesticides in Nepal is increasingly provoking a counter reaction. Time and again, toxic levels of pesticides show up in vegetables on the markets in Kathmandu and major district towns. As a result, consumers are growing steadily more worried and conscious of what they eat, and more farmers are also becoming sceptical of commercial, chemical-based farming. So, what’s their counter-reaction? Well, still more have started to talk about “going organic”.

We just received a call from a farmer down in Tanahun, Mahendra Shrestha, who is not only talking about it. He and his wife have now taken action.

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