Mr. Netra Lal BK, resident of Jagat of Narpani Village Development Committee(VDC), Arghakhanchi district is a member of Pratikchha vegetable farmers’ group. The group is registered with District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) Arghakhanchi consisting of 21 active farmer members. The members of this group were involved in different activities (such as varietal demonstrations on maize, wheat and rice, slope land management, tunnel farming of offseason vegetables, farmer field school, crop diversification etc) implemented under the climate change and disaster risk management project.

The impressions of Mr. BK on the impact of adaptation interventions made by the project are as follows. “I had started tunnel farming of off season vegetables and also was involved in slope land management demonstrations since 2009. These activities were supported by DADO/FAO. Tomato was grown under tunnel farming as the main crop.”

This practice gave me an opportunity to harvest tomato earlier than normal season crop. As a result, could sell my product at price higher than the normal (by Rs. 15 to 20/kg). I got a net profit of Rs 18,000 from one tunnel farming (60 sq.m.) of off-season vegetables which is around Rs. 10,000 higher than the normal harvest. I am quite satisfied with this intervention and profit obtained. I have been able to construct another plastic tunnel in 2010 from my earning of previous year. I will continue tunnel farming of off-season vegetables as an alternative income generating option.

Similarly, I have also been involved in hedge row contour planting to stabilize terrace and minimize soil erosion problems. I would like to thank DADO/FAO for their technical and financial support through these interventions. I will expand and continue these good practices in future for the livelihood of my family and also motivate other colleagues to adapt such technologies.