There are hints of ecological farming everywhere you look on Jit Bahadur Singar’s farm. Plastic bottles holding a few drops of imitation pheromones hang among bitter gourd plants to attract pests. A home brew of animal urine, leaves, and remnants of garlic, hot pepper and tobacco – a bio-pesticide – sits in blue plastic drums. An invisible colony of worms composts animal and plant waste to feed his fields, protected from invading ants by an ingenious water-filled groove Jit built into the sides of his composter.

They would create trouble for the worms, he explains.

For the past five years, Jit has been an ecological role model for farmers in surrounding villages. With SeedChange regional partner, Parivartan Nepal, he shows farmers what’s possible when you go organic.

“I show them how to improve their animal sheds so they can collect urine to fertilize their fields and demonstrate how to use compost and manure to enrich their fields,” he says. “Last month, I had a group of farmers from another village visit my fields. They were very impressed with how productive they are even without irrigation.”