While on the surface poverty is often defined as a lack of income or assets, in the day-to-day lives of the poor, poverty becomes a network of disadvantages, each one exacerbating the others.
Ensuring food security is one of the first steps for the poor to come out from the entanglements of poverty, thereby improving their living standard. There is a great need for households to have access to sufficient food for an active and healthy life. This depends on their supply and distribution of food, water, and livestock management, as well as on their income, local food supplies, and costs of other essential consumer items.
The situation becomes critical where household food consumption gaps are higher than normal, and households meet food needs by depleting livelihood assets (such as livestock) or taking loans. The latter is common in Nepal, making it difficult for the poor to uplift their living standard. In November 2015 District Food Security Network (DFSN) reported an outstanding debt load exceeding the average monthly income by a ratio of 24:1 in Nepal’s Central Hill and Mountain area.
PROJECT TITLE: Grow, Store and Earn – Reducing food insecurity gaps in post-earthquake Nepal
PROJECT GOAL: Improve food security for 1200 people (1000 women in 30 women groups, 100 men and 100 children) and their families through capacity building, improved food production and storage, and improved income-generating potential.
OBJECTIVE 1. Increase household farming knowledge and local food production.
Expected Result: 500 people will gain better farming knowledge and cultivation skills. In the next or following harvest, there will be an increase in food production of crops or small vegetable gardens.
OBJECTIVE 2. Improve water utilization through better water harvesting, water conservation, and irrigation. And provide water-deficient households with low-cost equipment to increase water availability.
Expected Result: Villagers will learn how to optimize water resources for irrigation and household applications.
OBJECTIVE 3. To increase the capacity of the women’s group participants to manage (reduce) debt and create income.
Expected Result 1: Enable members of the women’s groups to reduce personal debt and to increase group and personal income.
Expected Result 2: Support 200 women in gaining better knowledge about micro-enterprise, and selecting and marketing commercially viable products, including agricultural produce.
OBJECTIVE 4. Improve household grain storage by lengthening the preservation time of root crops, vegetables, and other perishable food items. As mentioned in the Problem Statement, up to 50% of a harvest can be lost due to poor or non-existent storage mechanisms. Hence, improved storage and preservation techniques will help households consume a more varied diet deeper into the dry season.
Expected Result: Increase food storage capacity to improve food availability in the off-season. This program includes underground storage for potatoes and other root crops with appropriate technology to lengthen storage time.
NOTE: Extract from project proposal no: 31203 written for the continuation of AMURT post-earthquake relief work in Nepal (7 December 2016)
