Agriculture today is facing the challenges of Climate Change and Food Sovereignty. It has become more and more difficult to pursue farming as a livelihood option. More and more dependencies on agriculture input have created a vulnerable situation for the farmers and the farm. But there is a solution, which rooted back in the past. Caritas India is working in the FARM Northeast programme to revive the traditional socio-economic and health practices through People-Led Development (PLD) Approach.

The success of the programme has brought the programme staff from Caritas Nepal and her partners led by Shankar Paudyal, Regional Manager, Caritas Nepal to witness the change and empowerment process of the FARM Northeast Farmers. The fourteen-member team from Caritas Nepal visited FARM Northeast programme in Kamrup Metro District of Assam and West Jainia Hills District in Meghalaya in the month of September 2019. They also visited partners office in Shillong and were briefed on farm activities in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya.

One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of people’s participation in the decision making and FARM Northeast programme has addressed this issue by promoting and developing the community people as a resource person in every activity which reflects the PLD process applied amongst the community. The staff members from Nepal were very much impressed to see that Caritas India is promoting traditional agriculture practices, culture, traditional medicine and access to government entitlements through PLD process.

Sharing about the organic farming experience, FARM Northeast farmers shared that during the initial phase of organic farming, the production was low as compared to chemical farming but in the long run, the cost of chemical farming gets higher with low productivity. The farmers are quite encouraged with organic farming because of good taste, health and better price. 

Nepal team has appreciated the mobilization of the community leader for the facilitation to the community as the most effective way to transfer knowledge & skills revived from the FARM Northeast programme. This has helped to handover indigenous knowledge and skills to the next generation. The initiative of planting fruit tree sapling on any celebration has greatly inspired as it helps in increasing the source of nutritious food as well as helps to preserve the environment.

 The initiative of planting medicinal herbal plants and development of kitchen garden in the school premises through the students in the programme has helped to promote the traditional medicinal practices and culture of involvement in agriculture within the young generation.

The exposure visit has helped the Nepal team to gain knowledge and ideas regarding food sovereignty and PLD. FARM Northeast team has remarkably promoted environment-friendly articles like bamboo has prevented the use of plastic in the area. The concept of seed ball, millet festival, marketing, and traditional healers has greatly influenced the Nepal team.  

Nepal team has planned to replicate the concepts of the medicinal herbal plantation, the kitchen garden at schools, planting fruit saplings at celebrations, mobilizing community leaders as a resource person, using eco-friendly alternatives and promoting organic and local products for marketing. The team learned lots of new ideas related to food sovereignty and PLD which they will inculcate in the implementing areas of Caritas Nepal in the coming future.