Caritas Nepal organised an project inauguration Ceremony for the European Union supported project "Building Resilience to Climate Change through Strengthening Adaptive Small Scale Farming Systems in rainfed areas in Bangladesh, India and Nepal (SAF-BIN)’’ on 24th June, 2011 at Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur. The Ceremony was chaired by Fr. Bogati K B, Executive Director. The Chief Guest was Mr. Lluis Navarro, Charge d’ Affairs of European Mission to Nepal.
The main objectives of the project is to promote local food and nutritional security through the promotion of adaptive small scale farming in four rain-fed agro-eco systems in South Asia in context of climate change. The project will undertake participatory agriculture research, refine suitable practices and technologies, and undertaken extension of these practices and technologies (and models) so that small farms managed by small farmers are more resilient to climate change impacts. The introduction of the project was presented by Manindra Malla, Head of Program Desk, Caritas Nepal. The project is being implemented by Caritas Organizations in Nepal, Bangladesh, India. The lead agency is Caritas Australia and supporting organization is European Union.
In Nepal the project will be implemented in 3 districts – Kaski, Nawalparasi, and Bardiya. There will be 1000-1200 small farmer participants as direct beneficiaries. Thousands of other small farmers will be benefitted from practices and technologies and models refined to adapt to climate change by the project in its duration of five years.
Chief Guest for the inauguration ceremony Mr. Lluis Navarro, Charge d’ Affairs of European Mission to Nepal, said that European Union was glad to partner with Caritas Organizations to address the important food security concerns and highlighted the importance of agriculture research and dissemination of technologies to cope the challenge of climate change and food security.
Caritas Nepal’s Executive Director, provided special letter of thanks to special guest Mrs. Susan Grace, Ambassador of Government of Australia, for the support received from Australian Aid (through Caritas Australia) for the Caritas Nepal agriculture project (IPM Program). These past programs have provided Caritas Nepal experience to enable small farmers to improve food security, and building on this experience Caritas Nepal is now looking forward to implement the new EU supported project.
Dr. Yubak Dhoj G.C, Director of the Plant Protection Directorate, Agriculture Ministry of Nepal and Prof. Dr. Sundar Man Shrestha, Dean of IAAS, congratulated Caritas Nepal for the taking up this challenging project, and expected Caritas Nepal to undertake necessary coordination in implementing the activities in the future with relevant line agencies. Dr Shree Ram Neupane, Executive Director of LIBIRD, Associate Partner for implementing the program in Nepal, assured Caritas Nepal and European Union that it will provide necessary technical backstopping to Caritas Nepal for agriculture research and extension work.
Ms. Shova Acharya, representative of farmers and agriculture trainers, noted the increasing frequency of drought and low rainfall in middle mountain locations of Nepal. She said that the uplands faced landslides while low lands faced floods during Monsoon while other parts of the year there was less rain. She said there is need for farmers to adapt to the changing climate patterns and farmers have right to know and build capacity to wade off disasters.
Fr. K.B. Bogati, Executive Director and Chairperson of the Inauguration Session, thanked European Union for providing this opportunity to the Caritas Organizations, and said that Caritas Nepal was glad to undertake research and build capacity of farmers to adapt to the climate change. He said from the social justice point of view as well the small farmers who have fed us in the past need to be supported in this difficult scenario of climate change.
