Home farming by women

On a visit to a homestead farm in 2010,  I saw how village women learnt to grow vegetables to feed their family and earn extra income.It is evident they are hard-working and determined to improve their lives.

Growing their own food may seem a natural skill for all rural folks. But it helped to know what kind of crops to plant in a certain area, the why's and how's of crop-rotation, the best and most productive spacing between plants, good use of scarce water, and how to enrich the soil through composting.  Covering the compost heap formed from collecting farm and household waste with a large black plastic sheet helped to speed the composting process in a cold country like Nepal.

The women sat patiently listening to their instructor, just next to a  home farm brimming with succulent juicy broccoli plants. Hope was in the air for that family, with food from this farm as well as extra income of a few hundred rupees per month.



With such home farms established, each woman is  able to bring food to the table for her children. How empowering that is for all of them!