Feed the Future Knowledge-Based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) II Project Year One Annual Report July 15, 2017 to July 14, 2018
FEED THE FUTURE KNOWLEDGE- BASED INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN NEPAL (KISAN) II PROJECT
YEAR 1 ANNUAL REPORT
JULY 15, 2017 – JULY 14, 2018
CONTRACT NUMBER AID-367-C-17-00001
DISCLAIMER This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Feed the Future initiative. The contents are the responsibility of Winrock International and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ...... 3 Acronyms ...... 4 Executive Summary ...... 5 Introduction ...... 10 Update On Activity Implementation ...... 11 Collaboration with Government of Nepal ...... 11 Component 2: Strengthen the Competitiveness, Resilience, and Inclusiveness of Selected Agriculture Market Systems ...... 14 Component 1: Improve the Productivity of Selected Agriculture Market Systems ...... 27 Component 3: Strengthen the Enabling Environment of Selected Agriculture Market Systems ...... 34 Component 4: Increase Vulnerable Communities Ability To Act On Business Opportunities Within Selected Market Systems ...... 38 Component 5: Apply Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation To Market Systems Development ...... 40 Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) ...... 42 Grants Under Contract ...... 46 Operational And Administrative Activities ...... 48 Implementation Challenges and Opportunities...... 53 Partnerships, Collaboration, and/or Knowledge Sharing ...... 55 Highlights and Any Future Implications of Any High-Level Meetings and Field Visits ...... 56 Annex 1: A Short Note on the Recurrent Monitoring Survey-2018 ...... 59 Annex 2: Barrier analysis: Key Findings and Recommendations ...... 61 Annex 3: A Summary of Approved Grants ...... 65 Annex 4: A summary of a signed MOUs ...... 68 Annex 5: Annual Program Statement (APS) No. 1 ...... 71 Annex 6: Success Story ...... 73 Annex 7. Cluster-wise KISAN II commodity production pockets ...... 74
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ACRONYMS ADS Agriculture Development Strategy AFSP Agriculture and Food Security Project CEAPRED Center for Environmental and Agricultural Policy, Research, Extension and Development CTEVT Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training DADO District Agriculture Development Office DCC District Coordination Committee DOA Department of Agriculture DEPROSC Development Project Service Center EMMP Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan GESI Gender Equity and Social Inclusion GON Government of Nepal JNSC Joint National Steering Committee MOAD Ministry of Agricultural Development MoALMC Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives MSMEs Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises NABIC Nepal Agribusiness Innovation Center NACCFL Nepal Agri Cooperative Central Federation Limited NARC National Agriculture Research Council NBA Nepal Bankers Association NEF Nepal Economic Forum PERSUAP Pesticide Evaluation Report and Safe Use Action Plan PIFAC Partnership Innovation Fund Advisory Committee PMAMP Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project SACCOs Saving and Credit Cooperatives SBCC Social and Behavior Change Communication SMEs Small Micro Enterprises USAID United States Agency for International Development USAID CDCS USAID Country Development Cooperation Strategy ZOI Zone of Influence
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY During the first and second trimester, KISAN II had numerous discussions with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) related to project funding. At the request of USAID, KISAN II slowed implementation, which delayed hiring staff, procurement of equipment, fielding subcontractor consultants, and partnership (grant) activities.
In October 2017, towards the end trimester one of KISAN II’s first year of project implementation, USAID notified Winrock’s Chief of Party (COP) that there would likely be a delay in future obligations and that the amounts of those obligations were uncertain. As a result of the uncertainty over the timing and amounts of future obligations, Winrock was advised to slow implementation. The hiring of more than 100 staff was postponed, including 44 Agricultural Marketing Technicians (AMTs), who train, mentor, and monitor private sector ag extension workers and without whom our work with private sector partners could not begin. As USAID is aware, KISAN II plans to reach households exclusively through private sector partners thus a delay in establishing partnerships also meant a delay in engaging farmers. Following the obligation of additional funds in February 2018, KISAN moved rapidly to commence or resume work on activities delayed and to hire staff necessary to move implementation forward as quickly as possible. The first grants were signed on June 21 and, as the KISAN II project-year ends on July 15, there was time for KISAN II to engage just 20 partners but insufficient time for partners to hire extension staff, for KISAN II to train partner extension staff and for partners to then enroll farmers prior to year-end. Even with the delay in engaging partners in Year One, KISAN II still plans to reach 200,000 households during the life of project (LOP), the targeted number of households included in Winrock’s KISAN II proposal. KISAN II will have 40,000 farmers engaged by the end of Year 2 Trimester 1, 100,000 farmers by the end of Year 2 Trimester 2 and 130,000 farmers by the end of Year 2.
Start-up Activities. All major deliverables were submitted to USAID as required in Year 1. Subcontracts were approved by USAID and signed with all the KISAN II consortium members, Center for Environmental and Agricultural Policy, Research, Extension and Development (CEAPRED), Development Project Service Center (DEPROSC), Digital Green Foundation, Siddhartha Connecting Inc. Pvt. Ltd. (Siddharthinc), and Overseas Strategic Consulting Ltd. (OSC). KISAN II also filled all managerial and field level positions with very high-quality professionals. KISAN II was able to maintain the majority of high performing staff from KISAN I and has added highly skilled new staff to the KISAN II roster. All five key personnel – the COP, DCOP/Agriculture, DCOP/Finance, MEL Director, and Business and Market System Director - were hired and began work on the project within the first trimester. In total, KISAN II employed 142 full time staff by the end of Year 1. In addition to hiring the staff needed to rapidly ramp up implementation, KISAN II put in place the operating and financial control systems and procedures required to ensure that USAID funding would be optimally used and fully accounted for.
Bootcamp. In order to ensure a “one team” approach and facilitate productive collaborations with private sector partners, sister development projects, and Government of Nepal (GON) officials at all levels of government, KISAN II conducted a “bootcamp” training workshop for project staff that explained/reinforced the USAID KISAN II private sector-led strategy and proven implementation
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approaches, including facilitation, market system development, “push-pull” approach, graduated capacity building, and adaptive management via Collaboration, Learning, and Adaption (CLA).
Opportunity Mapping. During Year 1, KISAN II mapped the majority of the private sector organizations working in the project’s targeted value chains in the project’s 25 focus districts. The objectives of KISAN II’s opportunity mapping are to: 1) Better understand the type, number, and size of private sector organizations working in KISAN II’s Zones of Influence (ZOI); 2) Conduct a very preliminary assessment of each private sector partner interviewed; and 3) Briefly explain KISAN II’s objectives and working modalities, including partnership opportunities. Through the end of the year, KISAN II had mapped and gathered information on 3,505 private sector actors. In addition to private sector actors, KISAN II mapped production products for KISAN II’s five commodities and Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP) superzones and zones. KISAN II’s opportunity mapping will continue in Year 2.
Engaging private sector partners. Perhaps most importantly for Year 1, KISAN II began establishing formal agreements with private sector partners. KISAN II published the project’s first Annual Program Statement (APS) seeking applications for grants from Nepali private sector organizations interested in increasing agriculture-related business activities in the project’s 25 focus districts. As described in the APS (see Annex 5), KISAN II is specifically interested in supporting activities that expand and/or strengthen direct or indirect linkages between businesses and smallholder farmers. KISAN II will support activities that lead to improved quality or increased availability of agriculture inputs, enhanced production or post-harvest practices and technologies, improved market access or information, and increased availability of financing.
By the end of the year, KISAN II received more than 330 concept notes from various types of private sector entities, of which 78 were requested to submit full proposals. Forty proposals reaching 62,600 farmers were selected for partnership by KISAN II. Sixteen grant requests totaling $343,436 and reaching 19,400 farmers have been approved to date by USAID. Engaging private sector partners is critical in that the majority of KISAN II’s work under other components is determined by who the private sector partner is, what they do, and where they work. For example, Maruti Nandan Agro Industries is a new par-boiled rice mill in Kapilvastu District. KISAN II will support their organizational capacity, particularly in processing and marketing (component 2), help them establish an outgrower management scheme to provide training to 3,400 farmers (component 1), coordinate with the municipality with respect to support for 40 small scale irrigation schemes (component 3), and provide business literacy to some of the targeted farmers (component 4). (see Figure 1)
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Figure 1: One example of KISAN II’s integrated approach to partnerships
In addition to grants under contract, KISAN II has signed eight MOUs: two with commercial banks, and six with private sector organizations working with 3,550 farmers. MOUs are used to support private sector organizations looking for technical and other support but not seeking direct financial support. For example, KISAN II signed an MOU with Good Produce (joint venture between Nanglo and N-Agro) to arrange linkages between the company and farmers and to upgrade their pack-house to better target the premium market with washed, graded, and packaged vegetables.
Agrovet Model. KISAN II refined a partnership model for working with single shop agrovets of various sizes, the first generation of which was developed and implemented under KISAN I. While this updated model will still be implemented, the opportunity mapping done by KISAN II revealed a promising opportunity to go to scale quickly by partnering with agrovet wholesalers. KISAN II has identified an initial group of seven agrovet wholesalers which, in addition to their retail business, have exclusive or very significant supply agreements with a large number of retail agrovets. As a result of discussions with these seven agrovet wholesalers, KISAN II has developed a conceptual model whereby wholesale agrovets channel products/technologies and services to their downstream agrovet partners and farmers to increase sales of retail agrovets, which in turn increases sales of the wholesale agrovets. Given the increased cash flow and sophistication of many wholesale agrovets, they are more able and willing to invest in and sustain new business activities that, while requiring some level of investment, generate a return well in excess of their investments. Working through the initial seven wholesale agrovets, KISAN II will reach 63 retail sales points (the seven wholesale agrovets themselves and 56 retailers working with them).
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Digital Green Training Videos. The initial channel for Digital Green videos is through KISAN’s wholesale agrovet partners (see above). KISAN’s 2016 study confirmed that when agrovets provide extension services, it leads to increased sales, expanded clientele, and repeat business. However, many agrovets are not trained agronomists. Strengthening and standardizing their agronomic extension skills is essential, including on the use of bio products, pesticides, and climate-smart technologies. Videos address this challenge by ensuring consistency and quality in the messaging going out to farmers. KISAN II’s seven wholesale agrovet partners are very enthusiastic about using training videos to train farmers, and as of the end of Year 1 had produced nine videos. In addition to working through private sector partners such as wholesale agrovets, KISAN II and Digital Green had initial discussions with a number of municipalities as well as with the PMAMP about using facilitated videos as an extension tool. The response was positive from both, and activities will be built into the Year 2 work plan to take advantage of public sector channels, through which many more farming households can be reached.
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). Currently, there are no approved GAP guidelines in Nepal (although some work has been done) and the vast majority of farmers are not using any GAP standards. As a result, there is little to no expertise on GAP presently available in Nepal, though good agricultural practices are the key to food safety and penetrating higher end domestic and export markets. In Year 1, KISAN II international expert Dr. Devon Zagory visited Nepal and conducted an initial assessment as a prelude to developing GAP training materials and delivering GAP training-of- trainers (ToT) for KISAN II private sector partners. During his assignment, Dr. Zagory reviewed past work on GAP and Safe Use of Pesticides in Nepal, conducted field visits and visited key stakeholders, assessed lab capacity in Nepal, developed written standards and presentation modules on good agricultural practices, and prepared a training plan, timelines and materials that will be required for training. Dr. Zagory is scheduled to return to Nepal in mid-November (after Tihar) to deliver at least three separate ToT courses to agriculture extension workers employed by KISAN private sector partners.
Policy Support Plan. In the second trimester, KISAN II hired Senior Policy Advisor Dr. Hari Krishna Upadhyaya to work with the KISAN II component team and the GON to develop KISAN II’s policy support plan. Dr. Upadhyaya and the KISAN II team had extensive consultations with government officials, private sector actors, cooperatives, the National Farmer’s Commission, USAID, and other development partner representatives. After submission of a draft to USAID and subsequent modification, the draft roadmap, including both long term focus areas and specific activities and tasks for Year 2, was sent to Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives (MoALMC). In the presence of the KISAN II enabling environment team, a round table discussion was held on this roadmap on July 9, 2018 under the leadership of Joint Secretary Mr. Tej Bahadur Subedi of PICCD, MoALMC. Eight other senior ministry officials also participated, including Dr. Rudra Bahadur Shrestha, MoALMC focal person for KISAN II. This discussion provided valuable suggestions on the draft roadmap, which were taken into account when developing KISAN II’s Year 2 Work Plan.
Working Hand in Hand with GON. In addition to numerous formal and informal meetings with GON officials from MoALMC, Department of Agriculture (DOA), and PMAMP, MoALMC officials addended structured gatherings to provide input into KISAN’s Year 1 and Year 2 draft work plans
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and to discuss the KISAN II policy support plan. In addition, KISAN met with officials in all four project provinces in KISAN II’s ZOI and had formal and informal discussions with 103 municipalities during which KISAN shared its private sector-led market systems approach. Feedback on KISAN II’s approach was overwhelmingly positive.
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INTRODUCTION Winrock International received a contract from USAID under the Feed the Future Initiative for the Knowledge-based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) II Project on July 12, 2017. The project’s overall goal is to increase the resilience, inclusiveness and sustainability of income growth through agriculture development. KISAN II contributes to the objectives of the Government of Nepal’s Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) and the US Government’s Feed the Future Initiative. The project is implemented in collaboration with three Nepali organizations as subcontractors: CEAPRED, DEPROSC, and Siddharthinc.; and two international subcontractors, Digital Green and Overseas Consulting Ltd (OSC). The KISAN II Project has five specific components implemented within 25 districts in the project ZOI (Figure 2):
Component 1: Improved productivity of selected agricultural market systems Component 2: Strengthened competitiveness, resilience, and inclusiveness, of selected agricultural market systems Component 3: Strengthened enabling environment of selected agricultural market systems Component 4: Increased ability of vulnerable communities to act on business opportunities within selected market systems Component 5: Collaboration, learning and adaptation (CLA) applied to market systems
Figure 2: KISAN II Zone of Influence (ZOI)
Selected Metropolitan, Sub-metropolitan areas, Nagar-Palikas and Gaun-Palikas in 4 provinces (25 districts in West, Midwest, Far West, and the earth quake affected zone) Province 3: Kavrepalanchok, Nuwakot, Makwanpur, Sindhupalchok Province 5: Kapilbastu, Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Gulmi, Pyuthan, Dang, Rolpa, Banke, Bardiya, Rukum East Province 6: Surkhet, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Salyan, Rukum West Province 7: Kailali, Kanchanpur, Doti, Accham, Dadeldhura, Baitadi
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UPDATE ON ACTIVITY IMPLEMENTATION
COLLABORATION WITH GOVERNMENT OF NEPAL Collaboration with the GON on KISAN II began from the official launch of the project on August 1, 2017. At this event, Secretary of MoALMC, Dr. Suroj Pokharel and Charge d’Affaires of the United States Embassy in Nepal, Mr. Michael C. Gonzales signed the Letter of Partnership to formally launch the KISAN II project.
Secretary of MoALMC and Charge d’Affaires of US Embassy signing the letter of partnership at launch of KISAN II project
Central level coordination While preparing the first year workplan, the KISAN II COP and work planning consultant Rick Ody met with MoALMC Secretary Dr. Suroj Pokharel to present an overview of and discuss key aspects of the KISAN II project. In addition, it was proposed to the Secretary that MoALMC assign 3-4 undersecretaries to provide feedback to KISAN II on the draft first year workplan. The Secretary assigned Dr. Rudra Kumar Shrestha, Under Secretary Policy and Foreign Aid Cooperation and Coordination Division, Mr. Shankar P. Sapkota, Undersecretary Program Budget Section, Planning Division and Mr. Indra Hari Paudel, ADS section, Under Secretary Policy and Foreign Aid Cooperation and Coordination Division. On August 20, the KISAN II team presented an overview of the KISAN II project as well as a draft of the first year workplan to these three undersecretaries and received feedback for inclusion in the workplan.
As with the first year workplan, towards the end of Year 1 KISAN II met with Government officials to present the draft KISAN II Year 2 Work Plan and obtain feedback. Mr. Tej Bahadur Subedi, Joint Secretary from PICCD of MoALMC led the Government team. Also participating was Program Director Mr. Mahesh Kharel from the National Planning Commission, and two Under Secretaries from MoALMC: Dr. Rudra Bahadur Shrestha and Dr. Ganga Dutta Acharya. Three USAID representatives attended including Ms. Carol Jenkins, Mr. Navin Hada, and Ms. Anita Mahat. In addition to KISAN II managers including COP Phil Broughton, Mr. Jaya M. Khanal, Executive Director of CEAPRED was also in attendance. Suggestions and recommendations from those attending this meeting were incorporated into the draft work plan submitted to USAID.
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To facilitate collaboration with GON, a Joint National Steering Committee (JNSC) of four USAID- funded projects (KISAN II, NSAF, SABAL, and PAHAL) was formed in 2017/18. This committee is chaired by the Secretary, MoALMC and represented by Joint Secretaries from different ministries and National Planning Commission (NPC), Director Generals from various departments, Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), National Farmers’ Commission, and Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).
Steering Committee Meeting held in Kathmandu To focus on experience sharing between the technical experts from the GON and KISAN II as well as to address operational issues observed in program implementation, KISAN II proposed convening a technical committee composed of a small number of technical experts from MoALMC and other agencies. MoALMC agreed, and the small group of GON leaders who participated in the preliminary reviews of the Year 1 and Year 2 Work Plans and also in the review of KISAN II’s Policy Roadmap will evolve in Year 2 into the project technical committee. The structure and TOR (Terms of Reference) for this committee has been drafted and will be finalized in the beginning of Year 2.
In the third trimester, KISAN II collaborated with Nepal Agricultural Economics Society to organize the International Agricultural Marketing Conference. The objective of the conference was to promote public-private partnerships for the future development of agriculture marketing. During the conference, KISAN II presented a paper on a market systems approach. Related to this, an abstract was developed on “Market systems approach for increasing rice production in Nepal” for a paper to be published in Year 2. The conference provided an opportunity to disseminate the concept of KISAN II’s market systems approach to a large audience dominated by policy makers, researchers and academia.
Provincial level coordination In Year 1 KISAN II held formal and informal discussions with the agriculture ministries in all four project provinces. The interactions were focused on improving coordination to better impact production technologies and market linkages. In December 2017, the KISAN II team attended first trimester review and planning workshops organized in Provinces 6 and 7. The workshops were attended by provincial officials, higher-level representatives from MoALMC, DOA, NGO/INGOs, projects, and others. At these provincial level gatherings KISAN II shared its market systems development approach and activities underway in the province. Also during Year 1, MoALMC of Province No. 5 invited KISAN II senior staff to take part in developing a provincial level agricultural
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policy roadmap for the province. KISAN II’s Senior Policy and Program Advisor, Regional Director, and Cluster Business Manager from Kapilvastu Cluster participated in the workshop. Provincial level government roles will be further clarified during the coming year and briefings for provincial level officials will continue in Year 2.
District level coordination The KISAN II team worked closely with District Agriculture Development Offices (DADOs) during the project’s mapping exercise, collecting information on organizations and production pockets. In addition, during the second trimester, KISAN II conducted coordination meetings with 20 DADO officials, three PMAMP Site Officers, District Coordination Committee (DCC) Chairpersons, Chambers of Commerce, and numerous other officials from NARC, Agriculture and Food Security Project (AFSP), and HVAP. The meetings were focused on identifying possible areas of collaboration. The district level officials were interested in collaborating in efforts to promote commercialization of agriculture and expressed support for leveraging resources, including financial resources, for the promotion of modern agricultural technologies and practices. There is some indication that MOALMC will establish 51 knowledge centers around Nepal that could assume some of the duties previously fulfilled by DADOs but this has not yet been confirmed. In any event, KISAN II will engage as possible and appropriate with MOALMC at the subnational levels.
Local government (Palika) level coordination During Year 1, KISAN II staff began engaging with municipality leadership to explain the project’s market systems approach and more rigorous private sector-led strategy. Preliminary results are extremely promising, with the majority of municipalities expressing support for KISAN II’s private sector approach and interest in the opportunity to collaborate and apply joint resources to promote sustainable, inclusive solutions to expand market access and development. The KISAN II teams met with a wide range of municipality level officials including: Mayors/Chairmen, Deputy Mayors/Vice Chairmen, Executive Officers and Agriculture Officers/Technicians. KISAN II teams targeted municipalities where the project has already started working and those in which it is very likely the project will work. In all, KISAN II teams had formal and informal discussions with 103 municipalities during Year 1. One opportunity that became clear to KISAN II teams meeting with municipalities is that they need assistance with planning. The only human resources at the municipality level with agriculture experience are Agriculture Officers/Technicians who previously worked with the DADOs, and the majority of these individuals only have experience implementing and not with planning. KISAN II field staff provided support to a limited number of municipalities in preparing their next year’s agriculture programs and budget; this will be a focus are for KISAN II in Year 2.
Joint Sector Reviews USAID, together with other development partners working in the agriculture sector and the GON, recently agreed to establish a platform that will facilitate close coordination between the GON and international donors on the implementation of Nepal’s strategic plan for the agriculture sector - the ADS. The Joint Sector Review (JSR) Committee, under the framework of the National ADS Implementation Committee (NADSIC), will provide a platform for sharing plans, progress and performance of both GON and development partners against ADS targets. It will regularly bring the MoALMC and donors together to discuss their activities and raise issues and concerns and thus
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contribute to the successful implementation of planned activities. Therefore, the JSR Committee will enhance mutual accountability and harmonization of resources in ADS implementation. The JSR Committee will be co-chaired by the Secretary MoALMC and a donor representative (on a rotating basis).
To ensure the establishment, relevance, and utility of the JSR Committee, as well as to maximize KISAN II alignment with the ADS, KISAN II will support a ADS-JSR Coordination Expert. The coordination expert will be embedded within the MoALMC and will serve as the principal technical expert responsible for effectively implementing the JSR Committee processes. In Year 1 KISAN II advertised for and short-listed candidates. The short-listed candidates were then interviewed by a panel including KISAN II, the World Bank, and MoALMC. The candidate selected was proposed to USAID and if approved will take up his position early in Year 2.
COMPONENT 2: STRENGTHEN THE COMPETITIVENESS, RESILIENCE, AND INCLUSIVENESS OF SELECTED AGRICULTURE MARKET SYSTEMS We have structured this report to begin with a description of work completed under Component 2. This is because it is the market and private sector demand that drives KISAN II’s implementation strategy.
At the core of the KISAN II private sector-led approach is promoting the business case for buyers, intermediaries, and service providers to improve their business outcomes through more substantial engagement with producers and other value chain actors. Through training, technical assistance, facilitated market linkages, and strategic grant partnerships, KISAN II will demonstrate how embedded services from processors, traders, cooperatives, service providers, and agrovets lead to increased sales, and more reliable, consistent supply – volumes and quality – of our target commodities, without continued donor or GON support. Building capacity of independent agricultural service providers, such as warehouse operators, mechanized equipment dealers, certified labs, and business consultancies further enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of our target value chains.
In Year 1, KISAN II began with an opportunity mapping exercise to identify and assess private sector organizations in KISAN II’s ZOI. Following the first APS and using the analysis from the opportunity mapping, KISAN II began establishing strategic, formal agreements with private sector partners. Forty proposals reaching 62,600 farmers were selected for partnership by KISAN II. Sixteen grant requests totaling $343,436 and reaching 19,400 farmers were approved by USAID as of year-end. In addition to grants under contract, KISAN II signed MOUs with seven private sector organizations working with 5,050 farmers. Although implementation was delayed due to uncertain funding in Year 1, KISAN is on track to reach 200,000 farming households through private sector partnerships.
Opportunity Mapping. This year, KISAN II mapped the major private sector organizations working in the project’s targeted value chain in 25 districts and this is an ongoing process. The objectives of KISAN II’s opportunity mapping are to: 1) better understand the types, numbers and size of private sector organizations working in KISAN II’s ZOI; 2) conduct a preliminary assessment of each private sector partners mapped; 3) explain KISAN II’s objective and working modalities, including partnership opportunities through grants and Memorandums of Understanding (MOU).
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In Year 1, KISAN II mapped 3,505 private sector organizations which comprised of 1,009 agrovets, 641 agriculture cooperatives, 440 multipurpose cooperatives, 303 mills, 296 vegetable wholesalers and 251 saving and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) among others. Figures 3 and 4 showcase the detailed information based on organization type and province.
Figure 3: Types of Organizations Mapped Opportunity Mapping based on Organization Type
Agrovet 1009 Agriculture Cooperative 641 Multipurpose Cooperative 440 Miller 303 Vegetable Wholesaler 296 Financial Institutions (SACCOs) 251 Collection Center 166 Financial Institutions (Banks) 115 Machinery Supplier 69 Insurance Company 46 Vegetable Retailer 44 Grain or Goat Aggregator 28 Farms (Livestock / Agriculture) 25 Feed Processor 22 Agri Market Center 18 Seed Company 15 Agri Input Manufacturer 5 Other Service Provider 5 Haat Bazaar 4 Extension Services Provider 3 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
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Figure 4. Number of Organizations mapped by Province1
Private Organizations Surveyed (by Province) 1600 1403 1400 1200 1000 874 800 626 602
Number 600 400 200 0 3 5 6 7 Province
All information collected including private sector organizations (including cooperatives), government organizations, productive pockets and the road network was used to develop comprehensive maps. The information was further segregated on a commodity basis so that cluster teams could visualize the market players and productive pockets, identify weak links and incentivize private sector to reach such potential pockets (see example of Makawanpur, Figure 5).
1 Province 3: Sindhupalchowk, Kavrepalakchowk, Makwanpur, Nuwakot Province 5: Palpa, Gulmi, Arghakhanchi, Kapilbastu, Dang, Pyuthan, Rolpa, Rukum – East, Salyan, Banke, Bardiya Province 6: Surkhet, Rukum West, Jajarkot, Dailekh Province 7: Kailali, Kanchanpur, Achham, Doti, Dadeldhura, Baitadi
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Figure 5. Map of Private Organizations and Vegetable Production Pockets of Makawanpur District
The maps will be updated regularly to include private sector organizations not previously mapped and geographical areas served by KISAN II partner organizations. Over time, the maps will serve to help identify vulnerable areas that could be incorporated into capture areas of specific private sector partners. KISAN II is in process of including mapped information from Suaahara and NSAF on village model farmers and soil pH respectively.
Mapping through the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) lens. The opportunity mapping data has been updated and analyzed from GESI perspective i.e. based on entity ownership, management and leadership by Sex and Caste/Ethnicity (see Table 1 below). This analysis has enabled KISAN II to better understand the profile of the private sector actors in KISAN II’s working areas. Out of 3,505 private sector actors mapped to date in 2018, 15.5% are either owned, led, or managed by females and 84.5% by males. In the future, this analysis will help guide concentrated efforts, where needed, from the GESI perspective. At the field level, conscious efforts have been made and will continue in future to map and target for support organizations owned, managed or otherwise led by women and marginalized individuals.
Table 1: Mapped Organizations by Ethnicity Caste/ ethnicity % Brahmin/ Chettri 67.8% Janajati 23.3% Madhesi 4.1% Dalit 3.1% Muslim 1.4%
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In addition to the mapping activities, in third trimester, KISAN II also conducted cluster level market assessments where private sector partners, production pockets, services and inputs received by the farmers, and organizations providing them were identified. The information was used to analyze the functionality of the markets including sector level constraints for KISAN II’s five commodities, as well as opportunities for KISAN II to intervene. These opportunities have helped guide KISAN II’s outreach efforts to develop strategic partnerships.
Streamline vertical linkages. The primary goal of KISAN II is to increase the resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability of income growth through agriculture development. KISAN II accomplishes this by enabling and incentivizing private sector partners to build the capacity of other market system actors – particularly farmers - to ensure sustainability. Thus, developing and/or strengthening the linkages/relationships between value chain actors is integral to the KISAN II approach. The cluster level market assessments mentioned in the previous section were a critical input into KISAN II’s work in Year 1 and will continue so in Year 2. As a result of these assessments, KISAN II was able to target weak value chain linkages and relationships. Through use of the Partnership and Innovation Fund (PIF) and by leveraging KISAN II’s own expertise, KISAN II worked on developing partnerships that would strengthen weak value chain linkages.
One of the major problems identified in the fresh vegetable market is the lack of coordination among farmers and traders, and the long supply chain which cuts into income at all levels, but particularly at the farmer level. The fundamental economic questions for farmers of what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom to produce it are not answered, leading to a highly inefficient market system. KISAN II is working with Good Produce Private Limited, for example, to address these issues. KISAN signed an MOU with Good Produce (joint venture between Nanglo and N-Agro) to arrange a linkage between the company and farmers and to upgrade the pack-house to better target the premium market with washed, graded, and packaged vegetables.
Good Produce’s business promotion basket
Another example is KISAN II partner Bihani Madhyaverti Multipurpose Cooperative (BMMC) in Geruwa Municipality, Bardiya. KISAN II worked with BMMC to identify the issues and develop activities that would result in the desired impact. KISAN II and BMMC found that weak linkages
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between stakeholders and lack of technical knowledge at the farmer level were the primary problems for BMMC’s 800+ members. The following interventions illustrated in Table 2 were designed to overcome those problems:
Table 2. BMMC problems, interventions and impact Problems KISAN Activities Impact Build agriculture extension Improved productivity after adoption Low productivity program for tomato and paddy of agriculture technology production Train BMCC in production High cost of Economies of scale leading to planning and group demand production lowering of cost of production collection Low bargaining Build BMCC capacity in Economies of scale leading to higher power collective marketing bargaining power and favorable terms Improved co-ordination and Weak market Linkage BMCC with potential communication leading to market led linkage with traders buyers production
One of the major problems faced by rice mills is the lack of availability of the desired type, quantity and quality of paddy. To overcome this, KISAN II forged partnerships with three rice mills in Year 1: Maruti Nandan Agro Industries Pvt. Ltd, Sahu Rice Mill and Nawa Durga Chiura Udhyog. KISAN II is supporting these rice mills to develop strong relationships with their farmers through provision of agriculture extension services and improving access to inputs. In return, the rice mills will be able to procure the desired type, quantity and quality of paddy to ensure the mills operate at optimum capacity and the farmers will have better access to technology, inputs, and the market.
DCOP/Agriculture with Sahu Rice Mill Owner
KISAN II works with its partners based on their individual needs and requirements. Sahu Rice Mill is working with 2,400 paddy farmers in Banke district to promote medium fine and fine varieties of rice. Due to the anticipated increased volume in business, Sahu Rice Mill is looking to secure a working capital loan. To this end, KISAN II has linked Sahu Rice Mill with Civil Bank (with which KISAN II
KISAN II PROJECT YEAR ONE ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 19 AID-367-C-17-00001 has an MOU) to obtain a working capital loan. Other examples of KISAN II’s proactive approach to working with partners to streamline vertical integration is demonstrated in Table 3.
Table 3. Private sector partners in KISAN II commodities Commodity Backward Linkage Partner’s Function Forward Linkage Partner’s Partnerships Partnerships Function Rice Modern Agro Farm Custom Hire Centre Nawa Durga Buyer (beaten for Agri-Machinery Chuira Udhyog rice mill) Vegetables Bhandari Agrovet Supply of quality Mr. Meghnath Buyer (vegetable inputs (agrovet) Poudyal trader) Maize Siddhartha Agri- Supply of quality Rapti Feeds Buyer (feed mill) center inputs (agrovet) KISAN I produced a directory of traders for farmers and cooperatives to facilitate market linkage of farmers. Due to the popularity of this simple but effective market linkage tool, KISAN II is in the process of updating the trader directory to include the information of traders identified during opportunity mapping.
Empower and link vulnerable and marginalized communities. KISAN II staff coordinated with team members of SABAL and Suaahara in all overlapping districts, meeting with farmer groups working with both projects to gather information on the profile of farmers, status of agriculture production and the constraints faced. KISAN II has further utilized the information provided by other projects (SABAL, PAHAL and Suaahara) to identify and map vulnerable communities in locations adjacent to or on the fringe of recognized productive pockets.
KISAN II’s opportunity mapping has helped KISAN II identify businesses that could be encouraged to cater to vulnerable groups and has made it easier for KISAN II to target the project’s business literacy activities to uplift their status and allow them to compete in the market.
KISAN II and Suaahara agreed on an MOU (to be signed early in Year 2) under which the two projects will collaborate. The MOU covers the following: • Create linkages between Suaahara II Village Model Farmers (VMF) and the private sector (agrovets, wholesalers and other traders, processors, aggregators) to provide additional income opportunities for VMFs, and improve commercial relationships between farmers and the private sector. Initially, the business relationships between private sector and VMFs are envisioned to focus on buy-back-guarantee farming (aka contract farming) and commission- based sales of agrovets’ products. • Provide relevant training to Suaahara II staff on new technologies and approaches being introduced and promoted by KISAN II with the goal of extending access to and adoption of these technologies by Suaahara II’s project participants. This will be achieved by extending an open invitation to Suaahara II to attend KISAN II’s training of trainers (ToT) events, field days, demonstration days, and other outreach activities, such as public screening of KISAN II-produced videos on topics of interest and relevance to Suaahara II. • Suaahara II will provide content and key messages on nutrition to KISAN II to its communication, outreach, and project participants engagement, including video.
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KISAN II seeks businesses for partnership that are run or managed by youth, women and disadvantaged groups and/or target youth, women and disadvantaged groups. Of KISAN’s 24 partners, two are women-owned entities (Janata Agrovet Centre and UDCU), one is owned by a Dalit (Kalsaini Krishak Agrovet, Baitadi), and a fourth, Phulwar Agriculture Cooperative Kailali, will reach out to the young freed Kamlaris from the Tharu community (see below), In addition, the majority of the remaining partners have targets for women and/or disadvantaged groups. For example, Janata Agrovet in Dang is targeting 70% and has incorporated small machinery and equipment for just that purpose.
In Year 1 KISAN II signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work with Phulbar Agriculture Cooperative (PAC), one of the fifteen cooperatives in Kailali that is operated by Freed Kamlaris— Tharu girls and young women who have worked as bonded labor for richer, higher-caste landlords due to poverty, illiteracy and traditional practice. PAC was established in 2011 by 27 freed Kamlaris and has increased to 356 shareholders with an annual turnover of around NPR 3 million. They currently provide loans to their members and sell fertilizers. Despite some achievements, PAC still lacks institutional capacity (financial, physical, human resources, product development and expansion, governance) and is not able to provide quality services to its members. To build its capacity and increase services for its members, KISAN II is supporting the cooperative to assess its capacity, provide needs-based trainings and develop a long-term action plan. Furthermore, KISAN II will link the cooperative with traders and agrovets, identify new technologies available in the market that could be useful to the cooperative, and assess market requirements. It is anticipated that KISAN II will support the cooperative to provide trainings to its members on vegetable production, agriculture loan technology, and collective marketing.
Build capacity of farmer groups and cooperatives. KISAN II made a concerted effort in Year 1 to seek out promising cooperatives, ideally multi-purpose cooperatives, as partners and managed to successfully engage six. The reason multi-purpose cooperatives are particularly attractive is that they have an existing cash flow from their loan portfolio, some of which is available to be used to invest in technical training of cooperative members. Cooperatives in general are attractive because a number of private sector buyers KISAN II has spoken to, including feed companies, rice millers and traders/wholesalers, have said they are not interested in providing training to farmers themselves but they would be very interested in entering agreements with cooperatives to purchase a certain quantity and quality of particular products. Of the 24 partnership deals signed in Year 1 and underway, 8 (36%) are with cooperatives.
The Component 2 team, along with the respective Cluster Business Managers, led a cooperative scoping visit to Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur. The purpose of the visit was to meet potential cooperatives, assess their status, understand their constraints and opportunities, and explore possible avenues for partnership (see Table 4). As an output of the trip, the cooperatives will be assessed and targeted for partnership or not.
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Table 4. Cooperative scoping visit S.N. Name of Cooperative Type of Cooperative District 1 Jaljala Krishi Sahakari Sanstha Agriculture Cooperative Bardiya 2 Sana Kisan Agriculture Cooperative Agriculture Cooperative Bardiya 3 Bihani Madhyabarti Multipurpose Multipurpose Cooperative Bardiya Cooperative 4 Unnati Krishi Sahakari Sanstha Agriculture Cooperative Kailali 5 Kisan Multipurpose Cooperative Multipurpose Cooperative Kailali 6 Bandevi Agriculture Co-operative Agriculture Cooperative Kailali 7 Navakiran Savings and Credit Cooperative Savings and Credit Cooperative Kanchanpur 8 Srijansil Saving & Credit Cooperative Savings and Credit Cooperative Kanchanpur
So far, 91 cooperatives have applied for grants funding, out of which 13 cooperative full proposals have been approved by the Partnership Innovation Fund Advisory Committee (PIFAC), four of which have been processed and approved by USAID. The remaining nine cooperatives approved by the PIFAC will be sent to USAID for approval early in Year 2. Under MOUs, KISAN II is working with 2 additional cooperatives.
KISAN II staff interacting with cooperatives
KISAN II is building the capacity of its eight cooperative partners to improve access of their members to inputs and provide production and post-harvest training to members. In some cases, KISAN II is working with cooperatives on collection center management and collective marketing arrangements, including linking cooperatives with specific buyers. In others KISAN II is working with cooperatives to expand their agricultural lending and access wholesale loans. Overall, KISAN II will support these cooperatives to become more business oriented and informed when it comes to agriculture, benefitting the cooperatives and their members.
KISAN II is currently identifying private sector actors that can help build the capacity of cooperatives. Potential organizations include management software companies that sell software packages to the cooperatives, such as Agriterra and Nepal Agri Cooperative Central Federation Limited (NACCFL).
Strengthen horizontal Linkages. KISAN II intends to take a deeper look at the rice sector, specifically the existing competitive strength of production, processing and marketing of fine and aromatic varieties of rice in Nepal, particularly in KISAN II ZOI. Rice imports from India are expected to reach USD 300 million this year and this study will analyze the rice sector and provide recommendations for potential programs that could be initiated by KISAN II for enhancing
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commercial production of fine and aromatic varieties of rice in its ZOI. In addition, the study is expected to make suggestions on corrective measures that will be required for making the existing USAID programs/projects more effective. The TOR has been prepared and KISAN II is in the process of identifying STTA to carry out the research.
Different types of rice varieties
Strengthen lead firms and other Small Micro Enterprises (SMEs) to support selected market systems. In November 2017, KISAN II published the project’s first Annual Program Statement (APS) in national and local newspapers. Through the APS, KISAN II is seeking applications for grants from Nepali private sector organizations – small to large businesses, cooperatives, and financial institutions (including banks, MFIs, and SACCOs) – interested in increasing agriculture-related business activities in the project’s 25 focus districts. As described in the APS, KISAN II is specifically interested in supporting activities that expand and/or strengthen direct or indirect linkages between businesses and smallholder farmers. KISAN II supports activities that lead to improved quality or increased availability of agriculture inputs, enhanced production or post-harvest practices and technologies, improved market access or information, and increased availability of financing.
During meetings with private companies and cooperatives, staff determined that many of these companies do not always require partnership funds but are instead seeking non-grant partnerships with development projects, to, for example, link them with buyers/end markets, inputs or new technologies, and/or farmers. KISAN II is identifying and securing these linkages through MOUs. MOU guidelines were developed to facilitate partnerships with private companies to conduct activities that require minimum support and that are beneficial to both KISAN II and private companies.
By the end of Year 1, KISAN II had received more than 326 concept notes from various types of private sector entities, 165 concept notes had been reviewed, and 48 partners had grant applications approved by the PIFAC or had signed MOUs with KISAN II. (Note: 40 grants were approved, and MOUs were signed with 8 organization not requesting direct cost reimbursement from KISAN II.) These 48 partners will reach a total of 66,150 farmers. A number of grantees who had proposals approved by the PIFAC are getting their documents in order thus as of the end of the year, 24 partners have had their proposals approved by USAID or have signed MOUs with KISAN II reaching a total of 22,950 farmers. Short descriptions of grants approved is included in Annex 3 and short descriptions of MOUs in Annex 4.
LOOP scoping visit. KISAN II had planned to pilot Digital Green’s LOOP model during Year 1. This is a model that was designed to help farmers aggregate vegetables while tracking which farmers contribute what, facilitate logistics services, and streamline payment processes. As a starting point, a
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scoping study was commissioned to explore the feasibility of LOOP given the market landscape in Nepal. The LOOP feasibility study included site visits to four different locations and organization types; Butwal Agriculture Wholesale Market, Madan Pokhara Cooperative in Palpa, Dhankauli collection center in Kapilvastu, and Devbhumi Balua Vegetable Co-operative Society in Dhullikhel and Banepa market. Interest in LOOP from the organizations visited was not particularly strong, the feasibility of some aspects of LOOP (digital payments) was questionable, the value added was not clear, and the potential for sustainability (without long term support from a project) was doubtful. As a result, KISAN II decided not to proceed with a pilot of the LOOP technology.
Expanding SME agribusiness lending and investment. KISAN II supported Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) to conduct a ‘Workshop on Agriculture Lending: - Challenges and Opportunities’. Commercial banks, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and other relevant stakeholders working in the financial sector were present in the workshop along with USAID, SAKCHYAM and Unnati. The workshop mainly focused on identifying the challenges and opportunities of ‘Agriculture Lending’ along with the achievements, risk mitigation and way forward. In the discussion, most of the commercial banks mentioned that they were finding it difficult to allocate 10% of their loan portfolio (as mandated by NRB) to the agriculture sector as most of the agriculture businesses were small-scale and the definition of “agriculture” was limited. As a result of the dialogue, recommendations were forwarded by USAID/Nepal to Nepal Rastra Bank in May 2018 for their possible inclusion in its new monetary policy, specifically: broaden the definitions of “agriculture”, reduce the difference in base rate when calculating the interest subsidy, revise loan loss provision requirements, and increase the refinancing fund.
KISAN II signed an MOU with Civil Bank to build a pipeline of agriculture deals for them and for Civil Bank to recommend their clients to KISAN II. KISAN II has recommended UNYC agrovet, Kapilvastu and Sahu Rice Mill, Banke to Civil Bank for working capital loans. They are currently working together to finalize loan details. Similarly, Civil Bank recommended agri-businesses to KISAN II for technical support and supply chain strengthening.
KISAN II signed an MOU with Laxmi Bank to establish branchless banking in agrovets in Kavre, Surkhet, and Daedeldhura. This will provide an opportunity for Laxmi Bank to better understand the agrovet model and to potentially develop a financial product targeted at agrovets. It will also provide Laxmi Bank a low-cost channel for providing financial services to rural households. KISAN II will support Laxmi Bank’s initiative to increase the likelihood of expansion to additional agrovets throughout KISAN II’s working area.
KISAN II has conducted meetings with Prudential Insurance and Shikar Insurance to identify the difficulties of implementing crop insurance, and to discuss how we can work towards an increased adoption of crop insurance at the farmer level. While there are issues related to crop insurance given the restructuring of MoALMC (DADOs previously managed the GON insurance subsidy), KISAN II anticipates that these discussions will evolve into MOUs with insurance companies to promote crop and livestock (goat) insurance in Year 2.
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KISAN II team assessing a Cooperative An assessment tool has been developed to assess the overall technical and financial capacity of cooperatives in ZOI. Till date,16 cooperatives who had submitted concept notes for Grants have been reviewed based on key indicators. Cooperatives will be further assessed, and capacity building plans will be developed as per their needs.
Expand access to safe and cost-effective storage and warehousing. KISAN II conducted multiple discussions with various MFIs and multipurpose cooperatives who have storage capacity to begin providing inventory credit to farmers. KISAN II conducted a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of this model in coordination with the interested MFIs which concluded that this model would profitable for both the cooperative and farmers. In Year 2, KISAN II will work with a couple of interested cooperatives to pilot inventory credit products. One of the interested cooperatives is located in the PMAMP Dang Maize Super Zone and is interested to collect maize produced in the zone, provide inventory credit to the farmers, and auction the products to various feed industries located nearby. This will reduce the need for farmers to sell at harvest when the price is low and increase farmer bargaining power.
Increase access to mechanized services. KISAN II completed a cost-benefit analysis for purchasing mini-tillers versus using oxen to prepare agriculture lands. The cost-benefit analysis included the assumption of 12 ropanis (0.6 ha) in land and analyzed three scenarios: a. hiring a mini-tiller; b. owning a mini-tiller; and c. renting out a mini-tiller. The results indicated that farmers could save approximately 65% of land preparation costs by using mini-tillers rather than oxen. By owning a mini-tiller, farmers could save NPR 27,925 in the first year and costs would decrease by 70% in the upcoming season. By renting out a mini-tiller, service providers could earn NPR 72,000 per year with a payback period of 1.6 years. With the use of mini-tillers, the cost of production of land preparation decreases and agriculture efficiency increases.
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Table 5. Summary Analysis of Mini Tiller Versus Oxen Mini Tiller (NPR) Oxen (NPR) Change (%) Farmer’s saving Hiring 9,600 27,072 65 Owning 26,575 54,500 51 Service provider’s income Gross Yearly Income 72,000 30,000 58 Pay Back Period (years) 1.6 4.4
To promote efficiency of agri-machineries among farming communities, KISAN II has partnered with Modern Agro Farm (MAF) in Bardiya to promote agri-mechanization. MAF has demonstrated laser land leveler and dry direct seeded rice to encourage mechanized paddy farming where labor is a major constraint. See Box 1 for GESI considerations related to agri-mechanization tools. Box 1. GESI-friendly Tools Under the guidance of KISAN II’s GESI Advisor, field staff mapped GESI friendly tools, its use status and reasons for not using them. A further in-depth analysis on ‘who is using it’ and their ‘willingness to purchase’ will guide KISAN II’s scale-up strategy.
KISAN II has also trained wholesale agrovets to develop and disseminate community-led videos to promote agri-machineries. In Year 1 Sashi agrovet of Banke developed and disseminated a community-based video on the benefits and usage of a corn sheller. In Year 2, KISAN II will identify national agri-machinery importers, train them to better market their products, and link them with KISAN II partner agrovets and cooperatives to expand the availability and use of agri-machinery.
Improve grading, testing, and standards adherence services. KISAN II staff conducted discussions with Balkhu wholesale market to understand the demand for premium products and strategies to create demand among consumers, processors, and traders. They were interested to incorporate a premium section in their market, as demand for quality products is increasing. Based on the interest, a study was begun in Year 1 to better understand demand for high quality vegetables. The study, to be completed early in Year 2, will identify premium commodities in demand, volume, safety parameters, certification in Nepal and private institutions interested to work in premium vegetables market. KISAN II consortium partner Sidhharth Inc. conducting the study. As a result of KISAN II’s discussions with buyers in Balkhu wholesale market, Good Produce, with technical advice from KISAN II Deputy COP Mike Kimes, upgraded their pack-house with cooling facilities and a modern packing line and began marketing premium branded produce.
Expand availability and use of business and training services. KISAN II held meetings with the Nepal Agribusiness Innovation Center (NABIC), Rockstart Impact, and Business Oxygen (BO2), which work as accelerators to support promising entrepreneurs develop business and expansion plans, strengthen their management and operating systems, and make them attractive candidates for debt and/or equity financing. NABIC is supporting applicants (Sunil Rice Mill, Ram Janaki Agro-farm, Safal Krishi Farm and National Bio Tech) to apply for the PIF. And at Rock Start Impact, KISAN II delivered a session on possible partnership opportunities to 18 agri-business companies and met with
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them individually to understand their requirements, needs, and partnership possibilities. A number of these companies are expected to apply for KISAN II support under the grants program.
KISAN II continues to discuss using these accelerators to mentor the project’s business partners. In addition, KISAN II is working with ‘One to Watch’ to identify and link potential private sector companies to ‘Enterprise’, their flagship business accelerator program.
Identify opportunities for import substitution. There is a growing market for vegetables in Nepal, but the increased demand is increasingly being met by imports of a variety of vegetables. While distressing from a macroeconomic perspective, there is an excellent opportunity for Nepalese farmers to increase their incomes by increasing their productivity and production of vegetables to replace some or all of vegetable imports. In addition, there is a lack of information for farmers on seasonal price fluctuations of vegetables. Information on price fluctuations (how prices rise and fall during any given year for any given vegetable), when coupled with the right growing practices and varieties, could help farmers maximize income earned from commercial vegetable production. To identify opportunities for Nepal’s farmers, in Year 1 KISAN II began analyzing sales at five major wholesale markets (Attariya, Kohalpur, Butwal, Kalimati and Balkhu). The study, being conducted by KISAN II consortium partner Siddharthinc will be completed early in Year 2.
COMPONENT 1: IMPROVE THE PRODUCTIVITY OF SELECTED AGRICULTURE MARKET SYSTEMS Working through private-sector market actors and community-based service providers, KISAN II focuses on capacity building of farming households. Our activities equip farmers with the skills to not only master agronomic productivity and post-harvest practices that increase yields and reduce losses, but our emphasis on fostering business development skills, as well, ensures farmer ability to assess the cost-effectiveness of new practices and technologies and understand the benefits of aggregation, crop diversity, and market responsive production planning. This enables them to better weather unforeseen economic and climatic shocks and be prepared to take advantage of future opportunities.
Under Component 1 and aligned with Nepal’s ADS, the KISAN II team is exploring multiple pathways to increase agricultural productivity, including: (1) the intensification of selected crops/varieties demanded by the market in suitable areas through the use of modern technologies and good agronomic practices, incentivized through improved linkages between production sites and markets through value chain actors; (2) diversification of crops/varieties and end products in the ZOI that respond to agronomic, productivity, and market potential; (3) value addition to obtain better prices and access in the markets; (4) sustainability of production and increased resilience to climate change; and (5) effective use of available resources and inputs.
KISAN’s work at the farmer level. The majority of smallholder farmers in Nepal are characterized by relatively low productivity and commodity quality in our target commodities compared to neighboring countries. The KISAN II private sector-led implementation strategy shifts the burden of productivity-enhancing activities to our partners to promote both sustainable business models and
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linkages that will ensure market responsive production techniques and inputs are continually updated and adopted.
Among the farmer groups commercially linked to our private sector partners, productivity related activities are conducted by our partners through their own staff or agents, with support from KISAN II in the form of training of trainers in production planning, agronomic skills, and post-harvest techniques; how to conduct demonstrations and field days; and how to scout the fields during key points of cultivation and early identification of pests and disease. KISAN II field staff continue to monitor, oversee quality control, and coach partners through the process with ad hoc follow-up trainings to ensure farmers benefit from the activities.
Among the farmers in the less commercially oriented areas, not consistently linked to buyers, KISAN II will identify areas within productive pockets that may be attractive to potential buyers on a consistent basis once commodity productivity and quality levels have increased. In these zones, project field staff will identify private sector partners -- smaller agrovets and nascent cooperatives, for example -- interested in improving their menu of services to client farmers. In these zones, even the private sector will likely have low capacity and a low asset base, so the project will need to invest in a more intensive capacity building package and increase the project’s cost share for any risk reduction grants. Other models will be explored, such as linking local service providers (LSPs - e.g. more productive lead farmers with market linkages) to serve as commissioned agents for agrovets. Productivity enhancing training will be delivered through these partners with oversight and capacity building from KISAN II field staff. These change agents will guide these target farmer groups to take incremental, “risk-able” steps (acceptable level of risk) that produce tangible improvements in yields and sales, commensurate with the market opportunities.
As the first grants were approved by USAID in June, and the first MOUs signed at about the same time, little training was done at the farmer level by year end. This is expected to increase early in Year 2. Additional details are mentioned in the Grants under Contract section below.
Agrovet Model. KISAN II refined a partnership model for working with single shop agrovets of various sizes, the first generation of which was developed and implemented under KISAN I. While this updated model will still be implemented, the opportunity mapping done by KISAN II revealed a promising opportunity to go to scale quickly by partnering with agrovet wholesalers. KISAN II has identified an initial group of seven agrovet wholesalers which, in addition to their retail business, have exclusive or very significant supply agreements with a large number of retail agrovets. As a result of discussions with these seven agrovet wholesalers, KISAN II has developed a conceptual model whereby wholesale agrovets channel products/technologies and services to their downstream agrovet partners and farmers to increase sales of retail agrovets, which in turn increases sales of the wholesale agrovets. Given the increased cash flow and sophistication of many wholesale agrovets, they are more able and willing to invest in and sustain new business activities that, while requiring some level of investment, generate a return far in excess of their investments. Working through the initial seven wholesale agrovets, KISAN II will reach 63 retail sales points (the seven wholesale agrovets themselves and 57 retailers working with them).
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Develop Digital Green Training Videos. Digital Green staff attended the KISAN II bootcamp in Kathmandu held in December 2017 and shared its model with the KISAN II team. Prior to the bootcamp, the Digital Green team held one-on-one discussions with the KISAN II team and thematic experts to gain a better understanding of the project and its approach. Based on these discussions, Digital Green developed a detailed workplan highlighting areas of collaboration and financial activities. The initial channel targeted in the workplan are KISAN’s wholesale agrovet partners (see above). KISAN’s 2016 study confirmed that when agrovets provide extension services, it leads to increased sales, expanded clientele, and repeat business. However, many agrovets are not trained agronomists. Strengthening and standardizing their agronomic extension skills is essential, including use of bio products, pesticides, and climate-smart technologies. The videos address this challenge by ensuring consistency and quality in the messaging reaching farmers. All seven wholesale agrovet partners are very enthusiastic about using videos to train farmers and began video production and dissemination in Year 1.
1. Video content development planning. In close collaboration with KISAN II, Digital Green reviewed and provided inputs on the list of priority technologies and practices identified through a barrier analysis study spearheaded by KISAN II. The topics were then discussed with the seven wholesale agrovets and a final list of priority practices was prepared.
2. Video production training. To build the capacity of the wholesale agrovets to produce short (5- 10 minute) community-led videos, Digital Green led a video production training workshop for the seven wholesale agrovets and KISAN II staff during the second week of April in Nepalgunj. During the 6-day training, trainees learned various aspects of pre-production (story boarding, actor selection, location scouting), production (camera handling), and post-production (editing) techniques. The 6-day training program was followed by a ToT so that all attendees could learn how to train others to produce videos.
3. Video dissemination training. Following completion of production training and the ToT, video dissemination training was organized for the same participants that received production training. The objective of the dissemination training was to instruct trainees how to facilitate training when showing the videos to farmers. How to disseminate videos and facilitate the sessions is incredibly important as use of Digital Green’s low-cost, participatory video approach in India increased adoption of agriculture practices seven-fold over a classic training and visit extension model, according to evaluation data.
Agrovet Wholesales and KISAN II staff in community-led video shooting training in Nepalgunj
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Nine videos were developed by the wholesale agrovets after completion of training. As video making is new to the participating agrovets, they faced a little difficulty developing video content and editing videos, but all seven wholesale agrovets remain very enthusiastic about using videos to train farmers and improve their businesses. They believe that videos are an innovative and cost-effective way to provide agriculture extension services to farmers.
In addition to working through private sector partners such as wholesale agrovets, KISAN II and Digital Green had initial discussions with a number of municipalities as well as with the PMAMP about using facilitated videos as an extension tool. The response was positive from both, and activities are built into the Year 2 work plan to take advantage of public sector channels, through which many more farming households can be reached.
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). Vegetable farmers currently lack the required knowledge on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), a collection of principles to apply for on-farm production and post-production processes, resulting in safe and healthy food. As a result, farmers are unaware of GAPs related to water quality and management, soil management, potential food safety hazards, and possible sources of contamination. Farmers also lack skills in basic record keeping of farming activities and personal hygiene practices required to verify that GAPs are followed. Currently, there are no approved GAP guidelines in Nepal (although some work has been done), and the vast majority of farmers are not applying ASEAN GAP, Euro Gap, or any other GAP standards; hence, adequate effort has not been given to develop a GAP program suited to Nepal. As a result, there is little to no expertise on GAP presently available in Nepal, though good agricultural practices are the key to food safety and penetrating higher-end domestic and export markets.
Handling practices in “supermarkets” provide opportunity for contamination risks
To ensure GAP are applied in Nepal, standard guidelines and an implementation plan need to be formulated and efforts made to increase understanding of its importance among agrovets, extension agents, development workers, exporters, policy makers, and other relevant stakeholders. In addition, a critical mass of GAP-trained trainers will be required to implement GAP at the farm level, so that farmers can adopt these good agricultural practices, which will benefit both farmers and the
KISAN II PROJECT YEAR ONE ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 30 AID-367-C-17-00001 population at large in Nepal. In Year 1, KISAN II engaged international expert Dr. Devon Zagory to conduct an initial GAP assessment and prepared for his future assignment to deliver GAP training. During his assignment, Dr. Zagory: • Reviewed past work on GAP and Safe Use of Pesticides in Nepal, • Conducted field visits to the main agriculture production and wholesale market sites of KISAN II and held interaction meetings with private sector stakeholders, local government officials, USAID-funded projects like SABAL, PAHAL, NSAF and other donor projects, laboratories, and agricultural organizations important for improving food safety standards in Nepal, • Assessed lab capacity in Nepal and outside of Nepal for analyzing and monitoring pesticide residuals to lead to a GAP certification program, • Developed written standards and presentation modules on good agricultural practices to control hazards during the production, harvesting, and postharvest handling of fresh vegetables, • Prepared a training plan, timelines, and materials that will be required for training.
Dr. Zagory is scheduled to return to Nepal in mid-November (after Tihar) to deliver at least three separate ToT courses to agriculture extension workers employed by KISAN II private sector partners.
Training Materials. Training materials used under KISAN I are in the process of being upgraded for use on KISAN II. KISAN II project teams met with a number of other projects related to coordination of activities and upgrading training materials, including: • CSISA/CIMMYT, NSAF, and KISAN II technical staff met and discussed nutrient management in cereal and vegetable crops. KISAN II staff participated in a ToT training on soil fertility management on rice and maize organized by NSAF and received the training materials on rice and maize nutrient management, which will be used as training aids for KISAN II. • KISAN II staff participated in a sharing meeting organized by CSISA/CIMMYT on Stemphyllium management practices in lentil. Research showed that wet and humid weather triggered Stemphyllium blight in lentil which can be controlled by early spray of Diathane-45. Information related to Stemphyllium management practices will be incorporated into KISAN II training materials for future dissemination to KISAN II lentil partners and growers. • KISAN II staff participated in a workshop on management of Tuta absoluta organized by iDE Nepal. Technical issues regarding the management of Tuta were discussed and learnings were shared. A control package was developed by NARC, Plant Protection Directorate and iDE, which will be incorporated into KISAN II training.
The importance of demonstrations. Given their importance, both in educating farmers of the benefits of certain technologies and practices as well as a training tool, demonstrations have been included in all private sector partnership agreements approved to date. As the first partnerships were finalized in mid-June, few demonstrations have been established to date.
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A good example of a demonstration and at the same time collaboration is taking place in Kapilvastu. KISAN II coordinated with NSAF project for varietal demonstration of medium fine rice varieties in Kapilvastu district. Lumbini Seed Company, partner of NSAF, established rice varietal demonstrations in the fields of four farmers working with KISAN II grantee Maruti Nandan Agro- Industries. Four varieties are being demonstrated to farmers including: Radha 4, Sona Masuli, Sava Masuli, and Hardinath Hybrid-1. Maruti Nandan Agro Industries would like to buy medium fine paddy and Lumbini Seed Company would like to sell more rice seed. These collaborative demonstrations should result in more farmers growing medium fine rice varieties thus both companies will benefit from these demonstrations.
At present, Urea, DAP, and Potash are the commonly available fertilizers in Nepal. Due to excessive use of urea by farmers, soils in Nepal are getting more acidic and acidic soil negatively affects vegetable yields and facilitates some soil borne diseases like club rot in cauliflower and cabbage. There are fertilizers which are more suitable for use on vegetables in terms of nutrient content and productivity. See Box 2 for more information on fertilizer principles. The KISAN II project is working with NSAF and private fertilizer companies to register (if necessary) and develop the supply chains for new fertilizers including potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate, and polymer-coated urea, among others. Demonstrations are key to uptake and the KISAN II project is coordinating with NSAF to organize demonstrations of these fertilizers in maize, rice, and vegetables in Kavre, Dang, and Surkhet. KISAN II is producing two video documentaries to demonstrate the effectiveness of Precision Nutrient Management (PNM) technology. The video documentaries will be used to educate farmers and KISAN II’s private sector network about integrated PNM packages that will help increase crop yields and increase incomes for both the private sector and farming households. Box 2. The 4 R’s of Fertilizer 4R nutrient stewardship provides a framework to achieve cropping system goals, such as increased production, increased farmer profitability, enhanced environmental protection, and improved sustainability. To achieve those goals, the 4R concept incorporates the: • Right fertilizer source at the • Right rate, at the • Right time, and in the • Right place Properly managed fertilizers support cropping systems that provide economic, social, and environmental benefits. On the other hand, poorly managed nutrient applications can decrease profitability and increase nutrient losses, potentially degrading water and air.
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Filming video documentary in collaboration with NSAF Expand access to irrigation. KISAN’s farmer surveys cited access to water as the top constraint— four times greater than any other. KISAN II is promoting proven technologies—shallow tube wells, lift irrigation, canal maintenance and rehabilitation, high-density polyethylene pipe irrigation, drip irrigation, sprinklers, solar pumps, plastic ponds, water harvest tanks, and multi-use water systems.
KISAN II’s Irrigation Specialist along with three Irrigation Technicians (ITs) were hired in the third trimester. One of the first things the irrigation team did was assess schemes implemented under KISAN, to inform KISAN II’s implementation and training strategy. Sixty-six schemes were assessed in Kapilbastu, Surkhet, Dailekh, Kailali, and Kanchanpur districts. The findings show that out of 66, 65 were functioning well and that there was an adequate repair and maintenance fund in all schemes. One of the shallow tube wells was functioning as expected during the dry season due to the inadequate depth of the well.
The irrigation team developed cost estimates and implementation guidelines for all types of irrigation schemes. In addition, the irrigation team has been advising private sector partners and municipalities on the benefits and options for including irrigation activities in their grant proposals. For example, KISAN II provided a grant to Maruti Nandan Agro Industries in Kapilvastu. Following discussions that included KISAN irrigation staff, the company, and the municipality, the municipality agreed to support 40 shallow tube wells for farmers supplying Maruti.
TOT for AMTs. In Year 1, KISAN II conducted a Training of Trainers (ToT) course for 32 Agriculture and Marketing Technicians (AMTs) in Ghorahi, Dang. The major objective of the training was to familiarize new staff with the KISAN II approach, particularly why KISAN II works through the private sector and what AMT’s roles and responsibilities are given the private sector approach.
Identifying Production Pockets. Opportunity mapping of the KISAN II ZOI was done to better understand the landscape of KISAN II’s working area, including all the agriculture related business
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and the ideal zones/municipalities of KISAN’s five commodities. Ideal municipalities for each of KISAN’s five value chains is presented in Annex 7.
COMPONENT 3: STRENGTHEN THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT OF SELECTED AGRICULTURE MARKET SYSTEMS Under Component 3, the KISAN II team works very closely with GON, particularly MoALMC, as well as with MoALMC initiatives and projects such as PMAMP. KISAN II’s enabling environment components team works on activities that: (1) address critical constraints that impede the development of well-functioning market systems, add undue costs to actors across a market system, and create disincentives for investment at all levels of selected market systems; (2) reinforce KISAN II interventions across other objective areas; (3) respond to market systems; (4) have the potential to accrue time and labor savings, cost reductions, and enhance reach and value of benefits to women, youth, and marginalized groups and (5) Integrate KISAN I’s best practices e.g. private sector models in rice, maize, and vegetables into the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MOAD) annual program for wider scale up.
During the third trimester, Dr. Mahendra Khanal joined the Component 3 team as the Senior Policy and Program Advisor, teaming up with the Component 3 Director Dr. Deva Bhakta Shakya. Increase understanding and adoption of market systems development strategies. During Year 1, KISAN II staff began engaging with municipality leadership to explain the project’s market systems approach and more rigorous private sector-led strategy. Preliminary results are extremely promising, with the majority of municipalities expressing support for KISAN II’s private sector approach and interest in the opportunity to collaborate and apply joint resources to promote sustainable, inclusive solutions to expand market access and development. The KISAN II teams met with a wide range of municipality level officials including: Mayors/Chairmen, Deputy Mayors/Vice Chairmen, Executive Officers and Agriculture Officers/Technicians. KISAN II teams targeted municipalities where the project has already started working and those in which it is very likely the project will work. In all, KISAN II teams had formal and informal discussions with 103 municipalities during Year 1.
Develop Policy Support Plan. In the second trimester, KISAN II engaged Senior Policy Advisor, Dr. Hari Krishna Upadhyaya, to work with the KISAN II component team and the GON to develop KISAN II’s policy support plan. Dr. Upadhyaya and the KISAN II team had extensive consultations with government officials, private sector actors, cooperatives, the National Farmer’s Commission, USAID, and other development partner representatives. After submission of a draft to USAID and subsequent modification, the draft roadmap, including both long term focus areas and specific activities and tasks for Year 2, was sent to MoALMC. In the presence of the KISAN II enabling environment team, a round table discussion was held on this roadmap on July 9, 2018 under the leadership of Joint Secretary Mr. Tej Bahadur Subedi of PICCD, MoALMC. There was participation of eight other senior ministry officials including Dr. Rudra Bahadur Shrestha, MoALMC focal person for KISAN II. This discussion provided valuable suggestions on the draft roadmap, which were taken into account when developing KISAN II’s Year 2 Work Plan.
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The policy support plan identified a number of focus areas, and policy activities within those focus areas, which KISAN II will support:
Table 7: Potential Policy Agenda Core Focus Area Life of Project Potential Policy Agenda Food Safety Policy, Food Act, technical regulations; GAP Standards Food safety formulation and adoption; capacity building for food safety risk assessment Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Act; Institutionalization of public, private, cooperative partnership in agri-mechanization; Access Agri-mechanization to agri-machinery finance; Facilitate custom hiring service and repair and maintenance training Market management Model Agricultural Market Management Act; management directives Agribusiness Promotion Act and Rules; Capacity building for Agribusiness promotion implementation; and awareness campaigns Agricultural Warehouse Policy & Directives, Development and Warehouse facilities implementation of regulatory and operating guidelines for warehouse receipt financing Strengthening policy Strengthen institutional policy analysis; Formation of Policy Focal analysis capacity Group; Review existing policies and facilitate consolidation work Harmonization of subsidy Harmonization of subsidy policies policies Linkages among the three Capacity building on various aspects of agricultural development, tiers of government planning and implementation On contextual policy issues: crop insurance, access to finance, market Dialogues/Interactions development and management, warehouse establishment & operation, agri-mechanization, among others
Current status: MoALMC officials reported that they had completed the final stakeholders meeting to discuss the draft National Food Safety Policy and the final draft has been forwarded to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MoLJPA) for further scrutiny and for approvals from the Council of Ministers. Similarly, the draft Agribusiness Promotion Bill has also been forwarded to the MoLJPA for initiating the process to register the bill in Parliament. Hence, KISAN II will support the implementation of the National Food Safety Policy and Agribusiness Promotion Act once they are passed.
Engage private sector advocacy groups in policy dialogue. While developing the policy roadmap, private sector organizations began reaching out to KISAN II, requesting support to organize public- private dialogue events as part of their advocacy programs with different levels of the federal governance structures. KISAN II will work with private sector stakeholders to organize evidence- based dialogue events with pertinent GON agencies, providing technical support as requested and appropriate, such as assessing the impact of existing or proposed policies, regulations, and administrative procedures.
Based on the recommendation of the Secretary of MoALMC, KISAN II, in collaboration with MoALMC, organized a dialogue meeting on ‘India’s Union Budget 2018-19 and its potential impact on Nepalese Agriculture’ on May 24, 2018. Nepal Economic Forum (NEF) provided technical assistance, presenting their findings on the issue and moderating a discussion among participants. The
KISAN II PROJECT YEAR ONE ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 35 AID-367-C-17-00001 draft report was completed in Year 1 and the final study report will be submitted to MoALMC in the first trimester in Year 2 and a policy brief will be released.
KISAN II assisted the Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) to host a meeting to discuss issues related to agricultural lending on May 4, 2018, inviting commercial bank executives, Nepal Rastra Bank and GON representatives, including those from MoALMC. As a result of the dialogue, recommendations were forwarded by USAID/Nepal to Nepal Rastra Bank in May 2018 for their possible inclusion in its new monetary policy, specifically: broaden the definitions of “agriculture”, reduce the difference in base rate when calculating the interest subsidy, revise loan loss provision requirements, and increase the refinancing fund.
Director of Banks and Financial Institution Regulation Department, Nepal Rasta Bank, at the Bankers Association meeting Infrastructure. With decentralization, local and provincial governments will control an increasing pool of development funds. To optimize the return on investments, KISAN II will develop a menu of recommended commodity-specific, post-harvest infrastructure investments. Collaboration with DADO, Post-harvest Management Directorate, and Agri-Engineering Directorate of Department of Agriculture is crucial in developing a menu of proven post-harvest technologies. However, there is uncertainty whether these departmental structures will remain as-is.
At the community level, KISAN II conducted multiple discussions with various MFIs and multipurpose cooperatives who have storage capacity to begin providing inventory credit to farmers. KISAN II conducted a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of this model in coordination with the interested MFIs which concluded that this model would be profitable for both the cooperatives and farmers. In Year 2, KISAN II will work with a couple of interested cooperatives to pilot inventory credit products. One of the interested cooperatives is located in the PMAMP Dang Maize Super Zone and is interested to collect maize produced in the zone, provide inventory credit to the farmers, and auction the products to various feed industries located nearby. This will reduce the need for farmers to sell at harvest when the price is low and increase farmer bargaining power. While there is potential for community level storage to be financed 100% by the private sector (cooperatives), there is also an opportunity for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with cooperatives and municipalities.
At the national level, KISAN II has developed a TOR for a national level warehouse situational analysis that will focus on the current policies, issues, constraints, and other requirements for creating an environment that will result in increased investment by both the government and private sector
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(including the feasibility of community level grain storage and small scale cold storage). This study is expected to begin in the first trimester in Year 2.
As mentioned above under Component 2, KISAN II intends to take a deeper look at the rice sector, specifically the existing competitive strength of production, processing and marketing of fine and aromatic varieties of rice to enhance commercial production of fine and aromatic varieties of rice in its ZOI.
Support for Provinces and Municipalities in Agriculture Planning. The process of establishing new Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives sections/units and recruitment of officials to take up the responsibilities on agriculture development work in newly formed municipalities is still on-going. The delay in recruitment affected the activities planned previously by KISAN II. While KISAN II did provide planning assistance to five municipalities informally in the third trimester, a more formal program of planning assistance for municipalities will be rolled out in Year 2, targeting 4-5 municipalities in each province within KISAN II’s ZOI. In preparation for the rollout, in Year 1 KISAN II developed and released an RFP to select a private sector service provider to develop training materials and deliver planning assistance at the municipality level. A service provider was selected and material preparation will begin early in Year 2. Officials from MoALMC at the national level agreed to work closely with KISAN II’s service provider to develop the materials and deliver the training.
Norms and standards. Voluntary standards will be developed based on the results of the Premium Market Study, currently underway, and the GAP training materials to be developed by KISAN II’s international consultant Dr. Devon Zagory. Promote safe food practices. KISAN II inspected labs and met with the Director General of the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) to discuss the current status of the labs and the possibility of collaboration in a testing regime for private sector agribusinesses. Currently, DFTQC’s Central Food Laboratory and Zist Laboratories (private sector) are the only two laboratories accredited for testing of chemical and microbiological parameters. The DFTQC is in the final stage of getting laboratory accreditation for pesticide residue analysis. Implementation of a pilot testing program will begin in Year 2, once standards are agreed upon and KISAN II has sufficient private sector partners interested in accessing the facilities.
Launch internship program. KISAN II met with the Kathmandu University School of Management, the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), the Central Campus of Technology, and other educational institutions to better understand their interest in collaborating with KISAN II and the requirements associated with an internship program. During Year 1, KISAN II developed internship guidelines and designed a strategy to incorporate intern services in the private sector (lead firms) staff. Recruitment of interns will be initiated in Year 2, aligning with academic schedules of colleges/and universities.
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COMPONENT 4: INCREASE VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES ABILITY TO ACT ON BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN SELECTED MARKET SYSTEMS With a holistic program focused on literacy, numeracy, nutrition, life skills, entrepreneurialism, access to finance, and follow up business support, KISAN II seeks to empower and build the capacity of some of the most marginalized Nepalese in our project operating zone, equipping them with knowledge, skills, and confidence to sustainably pull their families out of poverty through integration into the market system. Under Component 4, KISAN II will integrate vulnerable groups through literacy, life skills, and entrepreneurial training so that women, youth, disadvantaged castes, and ethnic minorities are better able to access agricultural and nutrition interventions. A percentage of KISAN II beneficiaries reached under this component will receive more targeted business literacy training focused on farming-as-a-business.
KISAN II’s overall implementation strategy, under which engagement with private sector partners determines which farmers are targeted, means that business literacy activities cannot begin until private sector partners are selected and farmer selection begins. As the first private sector partners were selected in mid-June, the first farmers were identified only at the end of Year 1. As a result, KISAN II’s business literacy team, including Director, Krishna Neupane, and Curriculum Development Manager, Sawanta Magar, spent Year 1 modifying the business literacy modules.
Revision of Business Literacy Modules. The Component 4 team reviewed all five modules developed by USAID’s BLP project and studied DEPROSC’s lessons learned from previous BLP implementation. The team also met relevant stakeholders including GON representatives (such as the Department of Health and AFSP), private sector companies and stakeholders (KISAN I partners and AEC), and other projects (such as Suaahara II and Hamro Saman) to gather information and learnings that can be used to improve the quality of the modules. In addition, the team collected a wide range of reference materials from government, development agencies, and media. The current status of KISAN II’s business literacy modules is detailed in Table 8.
Table 8. Status on Module Development Modules Status Remarks Will be shared with USAID for comments One: Literacy and Numeracy Draft finalized and tested before going to press. Initial draft completed Includes input and comments from Two: Nutrition Suaahara II Three: Life Skills Outline completed Four: Entrepreneurship Outline completed Outline and partial Five: Financial Literacy draft completed. Will be reviewed with KISAN II teams Six: Business Development Draft completed and others before sending to USAID for comments and pre-testing
KISAN II will deliver Modules 1 – 5 (13-month program) to approximately 30,000 illiterate and vulnerable participants and will deliver module 6 (2-month program) targeting approximately 40,000 already literate, but not yet commercial farmers. Additional information on KISAN II’s business literacy modules is below.
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Module 1 (M1): Literacy and Numeracy. In Year 1, the Component 4 team drafted Module 1 (M1) for illiterate participants, which lays the foundation for learning. The module will be four months long, and the learning approach will remain the same as in BLP. The module has been modified to include key words and phrases related to KISAN II commodities and approach.
The module includes the following features: • Devanagari alphabets (36 in number) • Key punctuation and symbols in Nepali • Familiar words in Nepali representing themes in subsequent modules with focus on agriculture examples, mathematics, health, enterprising • Numbers in Nepali and English (1-100) • Simple mathematics: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division • English alphabet including capital and small letters
Module 2 (M2): Nutrition. As suggested by USAID, this module has been extended and is now two months in duration. The Table of Contents has 16 chapters including food diversity, golden thousand days, breastfeeding, sanitation, nutrition for adolescents, nutrition for women, and family planning, among others. KISAN II coordinated with Suaahara II so the module incorporates Suaahara II’s key messages on nutrition sensitive agriculture and behavior. Suaahara II’s experience is that even the families which possess knowledge on nutrition are not adopting it, so they recommend adding chapters that focus on behavior change, which we have done. KISAN II’s business literacy team has and will continue to coordinate with KISAN II’s communications team and behavior change subcontractor, OSC, to integrate a behavior change communications approach in module 2.
Module 3 (M3): Life Skills. M3 will last for two months. The types of life skills included (communication, empathy, self-management, interpersonal skills, coping capacity, decision making) will be revisited to ensure the empowerment of women and marginalized communities. The module will be somewhat simplified based on feedback from BLP participants. Discussion on the social cost of migration will also be incorporated.
Module 4 (M4): Entrepreneurism. M4 will be divided into two parts: M4A will be a course on general entrepreneurship skills including opportunity mapping exercises, identifying potential enterprise opportunities, how to conduct a feasibility analysis for potential opportunities, decision making, business plan development, processes involved in starting up a business, business management skills, etc.; M4B will concentrate on production technology of KISAN II commodities and farming-as-a-business principles. M4 will last for four months: two months for entrepreneurship skills and two months focused on production technologies and farming-as-a-business.
Module 5 (M5): Access to Finance. M5 will focus on savings, credit, microfinance, banking, and remittances. M5 will last for one month.
Module 6 (M6): Farming as a Business. M6 is a standalone module for already literate, but not quite commercial farmers. It will last two months and will focus on analysis of opportunities, business
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planning, savings and credit, record keeping, crop and livestock insurance, profit and loss, marketing, and the use of internet and apps, among others.
The Component 4 team has completed the first revision of the Master Trainer of Training (MTOT) and Community Trainer of Training (CTOT) manuals, which will be further revised after the modules are finalized and approved. In addition, the Component 4 team has developed class management guidelines, pre-test and post-test assessments and copy correction guidelines, information on how to monitor a business literacy class, and beneficiary selection criteria. During the opportunity mapping exercise, some potential sites were identified for training.
The Component 4 team, in collaboration with the M&E team, has also drafted Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRS) for five indicators under Component 4. Component 4 staff at the regional and cluster levels have been selected and will be deployed once private sector partners are identified.
COMPONENT 5: APPLY COLLABORATION, LEARNING AND ADAPTATION TO MARKET SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT Collaboration, Learning and Adaption (CLA) is integral to KISAN II’s program management approach. Monitoring and Evaluation fulfills USAID/Nepal and Bureau for Food Security’s performance data requirements, to enable assessment of project progress and outcomes. In accordance with ADS 201.3.4.10, Collaboration, Learning and Adaption has been integrated into the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Plan. Component 5 will i) Ensure common understanding of CLA definitions and intentions among USAID, private organizations, and other development partners; and ii) Apply CLA to support competitive, inclusive, and resilient agriculture market systems development. KISAN II will also apply CLA in Policy Development and Monitoring and Evaluation. The CLA approach recognizes the importance of collaboration and learning, which requires not only private and public-sector engagement in market systems development, but also active participation of USAID, Feed the Future implementing partners, academia, and other stakeholders. Real time information and data analysis in CLA can potentially draw from a range of sources from performance monitoring data to action research, studies, and on-the-ground observations. USAID and KISAN II will test the logic underpinning the KISAN II theory of change, challenge our assumptions, generate reflective learning questions, investigate how and why the results were achieved, and how we should we our approaches to maximize project outcomes.
KISAN II will use USAID’s CLA framework throughout its components and subcomponents for intentional and structured learning. The CLA approach to market systems development includes collaborating intentionally with stakeholders to share knowledge and reduce duplication of effort, learning systematically by drawing on evidence from a variety of sources and taking time to reflect on implementation, and applying learning by adapting intentionally. Strategic collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management connects all components of the program cycle. CLA can help KISAN II in a way that is coordinated, grounded in evidence, and adjusted as necessary.
Workshop on Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation. USAID and KISAN II organized a CLA workshop on January 17, 2018. The overall goal of the workshop was to ensure common
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understanding of CLA definitions and interventions among USAID and the KISAN II team enabling them to initiate or lead CLA activities within their own organization, project, or network. Twenty-two staff from USAID and KISAN II attended the workshop. At the end of the workshop, the participants better understood the key principles and strategies in applying the CLA approach in market systems development. Following the workshop, an action plan was prepared to apply CLA to advance competitiveness, inclusiveness, resilience, and policy development. The workshop learning also informed revisions to the KISAN II MEL plan.
Training on Human Centered Design (HCD). To build capacity within the KISAN II team to support human centered design approaches, several MEL and training staff took +Acumen’s online HCD courses, developed by IDEO. These included “Design Kit: The Course for HCD” and “HCD 201: Prototyping”. Courses require participants to apply what they have learned on-the-job. Coursework completed will help in developing “work aids” for project staff and/or private sector partners.
Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) Assessment. A GESI Assessment will identify opportunities and constraints for the private sector to be inclusive as well as for women, youth, and marginalized groups to benefit from KISAN II’s market systems strengthening. This assessment will recommend specific market-based solutions for both private sector actors, and women, youth, and marginalized groups. The Term of Reference was developed in consultation with component leads. The potential service providers were identified through an EOI publication and LI-BIRD was selected through an RFP process. The assessment is underway.
GESI Coordination and Learning Activities. KISAN II has regularly engaged with USAID’s GESI Working Group as well as the AIN GESI Working Group for better knowledge and information sharing. KISAN II shared the GESI experience using a market-led approach in both platforms. At the central level, coordination meetings with PAHAL and Plan International identified possible areas of coordination and collaboration to reach, build the capacity of, and link women, youth, and marginalized groups with market systems. A joint visit with PAHAL to an extremely marginalized community resulted in a concept note from Tedi Agrovet to target this community with modern inputs.
CLA is integrated throughout KISAN II’s Year 1 workplan and the MEL team leads or is involved in many of the activities undertaken and described in more detail under components 1-4. For example:
• Opportunity mapping. The MEL team led the opportunity mapping process that was carried out by KISAN II field staff. As for the actual mapping itself, an ArcBase expert provided support on ArcGIS. KISAN II’s GIS expert developed the maps showing land use, rivers, roads, municipalities and wards, private sector organizations, PMAMP superzones and zones, and production pockets for KISAN II’s five commodities. • Increase understanding and adoption of market systems development strategies. This learning activity aims to engage and educate provincial and municipal level officials on market systems development. KISAN II teams had formal and informal discussions with 103 municipalities during Year 1.
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• Technical forums or network meetings. Related to the item above, KISAN II co-organized International Agricultural Marketing Conference organized in Kathmandu on June 4-5, 2018. Four KISAN II staff participated in the Conference, and Ms. Kanchan Gurung, Business and Market Systems Director, presented a paper on the Market Systems Approach and Dr. Mahendra Khanal, Senior Policy and Program Advisor’s abstract on “Market Systems Approach for increasing rice production in Nepal” was published in the conference publication. • Evidence based case studies and/or assessments. KISAN II has a number of case studies and/or assessments in process, as mentioned elsewhere in this report, including: 1) Premium Market Study, 2) Wholesale Market Study, 3) GESI Study, 4) Rice Sector Study; 5) Warehouse Study. • Roadmap for KISAN II’s policy work. In the second trimester KISAN II engaged Senior Policy Advisor Dr. Hari Krishna Upadhyaya to work with the KISAN II component team and the GON to develop KISAN II’s policy support plan. • Policy dialogue on the effect of Indian union budget in Nepalese agriculture sector. KISAN II, in collaboration with MoALMC, organized a dialogue meeting on ‘India’s Union Budget 2018-19 and its potential impact on Nepalese Agriculture’.
MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING (MEL) Revised MEL Plan. The KISAN II Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan was conditionally approved by USAID on October 25, 2017. During the second trimester, Feed the Future/GFSS revised its indicator definitions, GFSS code numbers, and disaggregates of 12 performance indicators related to KISAN II outcomes. As suggested by USAID, KISAN II revised its MEL plan and adapted the results framework, indicator names, definitions, and disaggregates to align with the Feed the Future/GFSS M&E changes. The revised MEL plan, which included changes to select activities to better incorporate CLA to advance competitiveness, inclusiveness, resilience, and policies, was approved by USAID on March 20, 2018.
Coordinate with USAID’s third-party contractor for the baseline survey. In Year 1, USAID contracted the PMEL Project to conduct KISAN II’s baseline survey. The MEL team coordinated with the PMEL Project to prepare tools and methodology, including a HH level questionnaire covering all 20 farm-level output and outcome level indicators. In addition, the MEL team shared the list of potential “market shed” areas as well as indicators that require a baseline benchmark, offered logistical support to the PMEL Project as needed, and provided relevant project documents. Per the agreed upon baseline survey schedule, the data will be available to KISAN II by the third week of September 2018, which will enable the KISAN II project to submit annual data to USAID/DIS and upload it to FTFMS by October 15, 2018. Upon request, the KISAN II MEL team will also review the survey design and findings and provide feedback on the baseline survey report in consultation with the KISAN II Technical Leads and COP.
Development and operationalization of WIKISAN 2.0. In Year 1, through a competitive bidding process, KISAN II contracted a Nepali firm (Pathway Technologies) to develop an online database to support the collection and storage of performance indicators, with the main data analysis,
KISAN II PROJECT YEAR ONE ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 42 AID-367-C-17-00001 visualization, and reporting functions being carried out by DevResults (see below). The primary objectives in developing the database are to obtain data from households/farms, individuals, and firms/organizations along the targeted value chains, develop a quality data management system, and reduce data errors for the selected 22 individual and organizational level indicators. KISAN II expects the system to be a user-friendly, web-based interface that is compatible with low-bandwidth internet facilities, even in remote areas of the country. The software will also include a mobile version with separate features based on target users. KISAN II has conducted seven consultation meetings with Pathway Technologies to relay information on the 43 indicators, variables, workflows, use cases, and actors to design the data structure and develop the software application. The baseline study and sample data/forms were shared, and questionnaires were collectively discussed during the meetings and through email correspondence. During this phase, key components of the software tools and technologies were identified and prioritized accordingly. The platform will be built using a modular approach, so that it can be adjusted as new requirements arise. Nine data input forms including i) Project Attendance Form (PAS); ii) Activity and Training Form (ATF); iii) Project Enrollment Form (PEF); iv) Organization Survey Form (OF); v) Evidence-based local investment recording form; vi) Priority policy area and process step recording form; vii) Organizational performance measurement form; viii) Access to market in municipalities form; and ix) Business literacy recording form were developed in consultation with technical team and shared with Pathway Technologies.
DevResults is a best-in-class software application for data management. DevResults is hosted on Microsoft’s Azure Infrastructure as a Service Cloud (IaaS). Database administration, maintenance, backups, operating system upgrades, and server deployments will be carried out by a DevResults’ team of software engineers, who understand USAID’s data security requirements (security and privacy statements are available upon request). WIKISAN 2.0 will export indicator-based data to DevResults for analysis, visualization, and reporting. DevResults is customized to consolidate and manage results data.
In Year 1, KISAN II’s MEL team completed the template required to establish the KISAN II DevResults site. It includes project activities, results framework, indicators, disaggregation, locations, users, activity indicator linkages, activity administration and users, reporting cycles, and reporting periods. Winrock’s M&E Learning Officer provided DevResults training to the MEL and technical teams in the third trimester. Following the training, Winrock’s M&E Learning Officer, KISAN II staff, and Pathway Technologies consulted on how best to integrate WIKISAN 2.0 and DevResults.
Training on theory of change (TOC) and performance indicators. In Year 1, the MEL team shared KISAN II’s Theory of Change, development hypothesis, and the KISAN II results framework during the bootcamp. Staff and partners discussed how activities related to performance indicators and how data will be tracked in the online data collection system (WIKISAN 2.0) and data management and reporting system (DevResults), FTFMS, and DIS. The MEL team emphasized importance of collecting geo-referenced data and how it relates to mapping. Geo referenced data allows location specific activities to be identified by latitude and longitude coordinates and mapped and to identify opportunities for partnerships and activity targeting. These maps are overlaid with land use rivers, roads, and communication networks, so that the project can identify infrastructure gaps across the ZOI.
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Annual Household Survey. In Year 1, KISAN II supported the USAID/PMEL Project to develop the sampling frame and sample design based on the market shed or catchment approach2 and worked to draft and finalize the HH Farm Level Baseline survey questionnaire. PMEL will also develop data entry software (STG) and will conduct surveys using tablets.
Panel Survey for Resilience Monitoring. Resilience is an important part of USAID Nepal’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). It is also elevated globally as a development objective within USAID’s Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS). KISAN II participated in a resilience meeting, organized by USAID, on May 29, 2018. KISAN II and USAID conducted preliminary discussions to draft contextualized methodology and survey instruments for resilience monitoring.
In Year 1, KISAN II, in discussion with USAID, agreed to develop methodology and tools for a Recurrent Monitoring Survey (RMS)3. The survey will be used to monitor changes in resilience by tracking sources of resilience including: HH adoptive, absorptive and transformative capacities, level of disturbance (exposure), measurable reaction to disturbances (sensitivity) and outcomes. The shocks, capacities, and outcomes can be measured retrospectively. The RMS embedded in KISAN II’s baseline and annual surveys have three key features: 1) real time data collection following a predetermined shock trigger, 2) biannual panel data collection, 3) small sample size. Through quick and panel data collection and analysis, RMS informs project management which interventions are building resilience and which ones need prompt actions, crisis modifiers, and other shock responsive actions. RMS is not a substitute for the baseline or annual surveys, but it is complementary and will be used to tell a story of how/why certain household escape from poverty, others churn around, and some others fall into the poverty trap again. The RMS questionnaire will be integrated into the baseline survey questionnaire as a “resilience module” and conducted annually and simultaneously with the baseline survey. Resilience capacity of the households and communities will also be monitored six months after the annual survey during the dry season (March- April). This will also include an assessment of lessons learned from resilience measurement efforts of PAHAL, SABAL, and other USAID-funded projects. The RMS will be improved in its design and methodology in close consultation with the Mission resilience specialist and USAID’s Center for Resilience. More information on resilience monitoring is detailed in Annex 1.
GESI MEL Input. Gender-specific indicators were added to the KISAN II’s revised MEL Plan to ensure GESI integration at all levels. Similarly, GESI-specific questions were developed for the baseline survey, annual household survey, and recurrent resilience monitoring survey. Data input forms for KISAN II also include GESI-specific data requirements. GESI actions were integrated into the CLA section of the MEL Plan to improve learning, help develop a common understanding of GESI, and facilitate GESI integration in KISAN II implementation. GESI specific inputs were also
2 If collecting the data from assisted firms required for some indicators is not possible, IPs should consider the concept of a "market shed" or "catchment area" to identify the geographic area that defines the population to be reached by the market being strengthened, and then conduct a survey among that population of producers who are participating in the market, and thus would be considered project participants. FTF indicator handbook page 19, March 2018 3 http://www.fsnnetwork.org/sites/default/files/an_overview_of_the_recurrent_monitoring_survey_rms.pdf
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provided for the Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) strategy development process (led by OSC) and video content development (led by Digital Green). In addition, a targeted approach for the Business Literacy Program was reviewed and inputs were provided. The approach will assist the Business Literacy Program team in identifying and engaging women, youth, and marginalized groups within the targeted areas of KISAN II’s selected agriculture crops and/or private sector partner catchment area.
KISAN II Communications Strategy. Experts from Overseas Strategic Consulting, Ltd (OSC), in close coordination with the KISAN II Communications team, drafted KISAN II’s Communication and Engagement Strategy. The strategy is rooted in SBCC principles and approaches. Delivery of SBCC involves tailored communications with target audiences to positively influence behaviors and promote inclusive social change by increasing knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The strategy follows and directly supports KISAN II’s graduation model of moving market actors from vulnerable to competitive and thereby addressing the market as a whole, with the private sector and change agents playing a catalytical role to stimulate market growth. In addition to trainings and use of change agents, KISAN II will utilize mass media and ICT platforms to increase reach of target audiences and reinforce messaging. KISAN II will explore opportunities to collaborate with other donor-funded projects and ongoing initiatives, such Suaahara II’s “Mother Knows Best” radio program and Equal Access’s Viamo SMS and IVR platform. The development of the strategy was informed by research conducted in May and June of 2018. The research included a desk literature review, outcome mapping and barrier analysis exercises, and extensive field interviews with project staff and participants, including agrovets, processing enterprises, traders and wholesalers, farmers’ groups and cooperatives, rice millers, district- and national- level GON counterparts, and other donor-funded projects. The outcome mapping exercise conducted with KISAN II staff was a participatory program planning and evaluation approach that highlighted the key features of the KISAN II program, built consensus among and staff, and directly guided the strategy. The barrier analysis exercise examined the barriers and motivators driving farmers’ safe handling and application of pesticides and farmers’ growing and selling of green leafy and/or seasonal vegetables. The drivers behind agrovet investment in business promotion were similarly studied. This fed into the development of specific messages and focus areas prioritized by project participants. Refer to Annex 2 for the key findings of the barrier analysis.
Barrier Analysis interview with female farmer
Based on the aforementioned research, the Communication and Engagement Strategy focuses on the following mutually reinforcing key areas: total market growth and promotion, effective agribusiness
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technology transfer and adoption, and establishment of linkages and nurturing relationships between market actors. One of the key elements of the strategy is the “Buy Local/Nepal Fresh” (working title) campaign. The goal of this umbrella campaign is to promote cultivation and consumption of locally grown produce by clearly differentiating its local origin. The Communication and Engagement Strategy will be finalized in first trimester in Year 2.
Initial Environmental Examination (IEE). An IEE was approved by the Asia Bureau Environmental Officer on October 17, 2011 for the USAID Feed the Future Program funding KISAN II. The IEE covers KISAN II’s expected activities. As part of each Work Plan, the Project is required to review all ongoing and planned activities to determine if they are within the scope of the approved IEE or an update is needed, in consultation with the Mission Environmental Officer or Asia Bureau Environmental Officer. Winrock has completed this review and found that all planned activities are within the scope of the approved IEE.
Pesticide Evaluation Report and Safe Use Action Plan (PERSUAP). At the end of the third trimester in Year 1, KISAN II submitted draft PERSUAP to USAID for review and approval. This PERSUAP will be applicable to two FTF implementers in Nepal – KISAN II and NSAF projects. In collaboration with NSAF, KISAN II prepared the Scope of Work for the PERSUAP consultant. In June 2018, KISAN II and NSAF project staff accompanied the international crop protection specialist and PERSUAP consultant, Dr. Alan Curtis Schroeder, for field visits to villages and interviews with potential farmer beneficiaries, private sector input providers, government officials, and other agriculture experts. The PERSUAP describes recommended agrochemicals along with safe handling and application procedures for both projects’ targeted commodities and is currently under review by USAID.
GRANTS UNDER CONTRACT KISAN II established a Partnership and Innovation Fund, which encompasses all activities related to grants under contract (GUC). The grants program is designed to ease bottlenecks within the market system through the cost-sharing of innovative activities that lead to improved quality or increased availability of agriculture inputs, enhanced production or post-harvest practices and technologies, improved market access or information, and increased availability of financing. KISAN II is specifically interested in supporting activities that expand and/or strengthen direct or indirect linkages between businesses and smallholder farmers. The grants program is pivotal to KISAN II’s efforts to encourage service delivery to its targeted beneficiaries through private sector partners, and to ensure long-lasting sustainability of these partner-farmer relationships. Further, the grants program, by design, ensures a market-led approach, as it encourages private sector partner involvement in all project activities with farmers, through either backward or forward linkages. The private sector reaches out to farmers for inputs supply and links them with the market for selling their surplus produce. It is expected that the grants program will help to promote innovative business models and technology solutions and unlock the transformational potential of selected market systems in the ZOI.
In Year 1, KISAN II submitted 17 grant requests of private sector partners to USAID for approval after thorough evaluation of project concept notes and full applications by the PIFAC. KISAN II
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obtained approvals for 16 grant requests by the end of Year 1 (with one pending). The approvals are conditional, prohibiting procurement and/or training related to pesticides until the PERSUAP is approved. The approved grantees include agrovets, cooperatives, and rice millers, which, through backward and forward linkages, reach 18,600 farmers. KISAN II required that partners’ proposals evidence their commitment to continue their services after the completion of activities covered under the grant program. In FY 2017/18, 16 sub-awards were approved for a total amount of $342,436. A summary of the approved grantees is presented below. Short descriptions of each grant are included in Annex 3.
Table 9: Grants Under Contracts (GUCs) Name of Grantee Type of No. of Grant Value Company Farmers (US $) Laxmi Agrovet, Dadeldhura Agrovet 800 13,621.46 Madhya Paschim Agrovet Center, Surkhet Agrovet 1,200 18,893.36 Saud Agrovet, Dadeldhura Agrovet 800 14,488.81 Kalsani Krisak Agrovet, Baitadi Agrovet 400 6,492.18 Jaljala Seed Company Udhyog, Rolpa Agrovet 1,200 18,853.00 New Kisan Agrovet, Dang Agrovet 800 14,210.00 Kalika Agri Center, Pyuthan Agrovet 1200 19,992.32 Jalpadevi Agrovet and Order Suppliers, Achham Agrovet 800 13,681.00 Dadeldhura Farmers’ Cooperative Society, Dadeldhura Cooperative 1,200 18,493.31 Janakalayan Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Ltd., Cooperative 800 12,664.46 Doti Udaydev Multipurpose Cooperative Limited, Cooperative 1,600 24,574.84 Kanchanpur Kasturi Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Jajarkot Cooperative 800 13,941.12 Aatmanirvar Bahuudeshiya Sahakari Sanstha Ltd., Cooperative 1000 22,072.75 Kavre Nawa Durga Chiura Uddhyog, Bardia Miller 1,000 18,543.88 Maruti Nandan Agro Industries (P) Ltd., Kapilvastu Miller 3,400 64,699.86 Sahu Rice Mill, Banke Miller 2,400 47,214.18 19,400 342,436.53
In addition to grants, KISAN II engages private sector partners through Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs). MOUs are used to engage private sector partners to undertake activities that are mutually beneficial to us and the MOU partner and when they require no direct cost-reimbursement from KISAN II. Short descriptions of each MOU are included in Annex 4. As of the end of the year, eight partners had signed MOUs with KISAN II and 16 grantees had been approved by USAID, thus 24 partners have had their proposals approved by USAID or have signed MOUs with KISAN II reaching a total of 22,950 farmers. These partners include nine agrovets, seven cooperatives, three millers, two financial institutions, one input supply company, one agri-machinery hiring company, and one trader.
By the end of Year 1, KISAN II had received more than 330 concept notes from various types of private sector entities, 176 concept notes were reviewed, and 52 partners had grant applications approved by the PIFAC or had signed MOUs with KISAN II. (Note: 40 grants were approved by PIFAC and MOUs were signed with eight organizations not requesting direct cost reimbursement from KISAN II). These 48 partners will reach a total of 62,600 farmers. A number of grantees who
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had proposals approved by the PIFAC are preparing their remaining documents and thus their grant proposals have not yet been presented to USAID.
MOU Guidelines. MOU guidelines were developed to facilitate partnerships with private sector organizations that require no direct financial reimbursement to the partner and that are beneficial to both KISAN II and the partner.
Grants Under Contract Manual. The GUC Manual was completed in Year 1 and submitted to USAID for review. It was further updated in June 2018 and resubmitted to USAID for review. This manual is a live document thus, it will be updated as needed to ensure GUCs are executed efficiently and effectively.
Annual Program Statement. KISAN II published the project’s first Annual Program Statement (APS) in November 2017 through national and local newspapers. Through the APS, KISAN II is seeking applications for grants from Nepali private sector organizations – small to large businesses, cooperatives, and financial institutions (including banks, MFIs, and SACCOs) – interested in increasing agriculture-related business activities in the project’s 25 working districts. KISAN II has received a total of 330 concepts and has prioritized them for evaluation in a timely manner. Annex 5 includes a copy of the Year 1 APS.
Coach and Monitor Recipients. KISAN II cluster and area level staff were oriented on the grants process and templates during a one-day workshop organized in the Kathmandu office. This was followed up by a field level meeting in each cluster office to further guide KISAN II staff on the entire grants process including the concept note, full application, and compliance requirements. These mid to senior level staff are now able to respond to queries from potential private sector partners regarding completing concept notes and mentor shortlisted organizations to complete the full application template and submit all required information. The KISAN II cluster team has also conducted brief orientations to the approved grantees, at the time of sub-award signing. The PIFAC team conducted orientation sessions for the millers on record keeping and reporting requirements as per the sub-award.
OPERATIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIVITIES In July 2017, Winrock’s home office and KISAN II staff prepared and submitted requests for approval for staff, travel, and sub-contractors. KISAN II activities speed up in mid-August, after closing KISAN I.
Submission of key deliverables to USAID. KISAN II submitted and received approval for the following deliverables:
Table 10: Key Deliverables submitted to USAID Deliverables Status 8/30: Submitted first draft; 9/12: Received comments from USAID; KISAN II AWP Year 1 9/27: Submitted revised version; 10/25: Received approval
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Deliverables Status 8/30: Submitted first draft; 9/12: Received comments from USAID; Plan for GON Coordination 9/27: Submitted latest version; 12/26: Received approval 9/12: Submitted first draft; 9/20: Received comments from USAID; 10/5: Submitted revised version; 10/25: Received conditional MEL Plan approval; 3/20/2018: Submitted revised version; 4/11/2018: Received approval EMMP 8/30 Submitted first draft; 12/26: Received approval EPRP 8/30 Submitted first draft; 12/26: Received approval 8/30: Submitted first draft; 9/12: Received comments from USAID; GESI Action Plan 9/27: Submitted latest version, 1/26/28: Received approval 10/10/17: GUC Manual along with PIF Description submitted; GUC Manual Revised version submitted 06/13/2018 PERSUAP 7/9/18: submitted first draft 12/5/2017: Submitted Trimester 1 report; 2/21/2018: Received Trimester Progress Report – Approval; 4/6/18: Submitted Trimester 2 Report; 4/26/18: Trimester 1 & 2 Received Approval
More recently KISAN II submitted the Year 2 AWP and revised versions of the GESI Action Plan, the Plan for GON Coordination, and the Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (EMMP).
Agreements with Subcontractors. Upon receiving approval from USAID, Winrock executed five cost-reimbursable subcontracts with its consortium partners: CEAPRED, DEPROSC, Digital Green, OSC, and Siddharthinc.
Winrock also awarded fixed-price subcontracts to three firms: • Nepal Economic Forum (NEF). In May 2018, NEF was awarded a sub-contract to conduct a dialogue event that includes GON and private sector representatives, in which the subcontractor presented an analysis of India’s Union Budget 2018/19 and an assessment of its potential impact on the Nepal agricultural sector. • Pathway Technologies. In April 2018, Pathways Technologies was selected to develop WIKISAN 2.0, an online database to support the collection, storage, processing, and reporting of KISAN II performance indicators. • LI-BIRD. LI-BIRD was awarded a subcontract in early July 2018 to analyze the opportunities and constraints for women, youth, and marginalized groups to participate in KISAN II’s selected agriculture market systems.
KISAN II Branding and Marking. KISAN II is following the branding implementation and marking plan approved in KISAN II’s contract, in alignment with the branding and marking policies established for acquisition awards under 22C.F.R.226.91, ADS 320 (January 2015), the USAID Graphic Standards Manual and Partner Co-Branding Guide (February 2016), and the Feed the Future Graphic and Naming Standards Manual.
However, to mitigate potential security threats, USAID waived certain branding and marking requirements for six months from the date of the notification (June 26, 2018). USAID has directed KISAN II Project to remove branding and marking from the following items, until December 25, 2018:
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• event materials and invitations; • flyers, brochures, and booklets for hand distribution; • surveys; • vehicles; and • banners, signs, and office space identification.
As directed, KISAN II project has removed branding and marking from the above items.
Staff Recruitment. As of July 15, 2018, KISAN II staffing stands at 142 staff, of which 51 are Winrock employees, 87 are CEAPRED employees, and 4 are DEPROSC employees. Additional details are shown in Table 11.
Table 11: KISAN II Staff List as of July 15, 2018 Staff by category Org Ktm Reg Clus Dist Total Professional (Full Time) WI 27 4 7 38 Professional (Part Time) WI Staff below Professional Level (Full WI 1 1 2 Time) Support staff (Full Time) WI 4 2 5 11 Sub-total Winrock Staff 32 7 12 51 Professional (Full Time) CEA 4 4 11 22 41 Professional (Part Time) CEA 2 2 Staff below Professional Level (Full CEA 8 24 32 time) Support staff (Full Time) CEA 2 10 12 Sub-total CEAPRED Staff 6 6 29 46 87 Professional (Full Time) DEP 2 1 3 Professional (Part time) DEP 1 1 Staff below Professional Level (Full DEP time) Support staff (Full Time) DEP Sub-total DEPROSC Staff 3 1 4 Total Junior and Professional Staff 41 14 41 46 142 *Note: Ktm - Kathmandu, Reg - Regional, Clus - Cluster, Dist - District
Work Force Diversity (WFD). KISAN II analyzed the profile of hires twice (in the first and third trimesters) to better inform hiring decisions going forward. The WFD analysis also included provisions for improving the WFD and enabling environment. Discussions were held with subcontractors to improve the inclusiveness of the KISAN II workforce. Currently, KISAN II staff is comprised of 21% female and 79% male employees.
Consultants and Short Term Technical Assistance. During the first trimester:
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• Jean-Pierre Rousseau, Angela Kraszewski, and Jeff Apigian from the Winrock home office supported KISAN II start-up activities including staffing, sub-contracts, deliverables, and system set-up. • Consultant Rick Ody designed and facilitated a workshop to guide project staff in preparing a realistic and achievable operational plan for Year 1 and facilitated a workshop with MOAD undersecretaries to get their input on KISAN II’s draft Year 1 workplan. • Lorene Flaming provided short term technical assistance to prepare a draft Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Plan in collaboration with the COP and KISAN II staff. During the second trimester: • Mr. Rick Ody, Short-Term Project Operations Specialist, assisted KISAN II from November 25 to December 15, 2017 to design and facilitate the capacity building bootcamp, which was held from December 9 to 12, 2017 in Kathmandu. The bootcamp set the stage for the project to effectively and efficiently achieve KISAN II’s goals while deepening the team’s understanding of the project’s market systems development approach. The bootcamp also included coordination and collaboration with GON, private sector actors, and other development projects and organizations and incorporated Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation concepts. • KISAN II engaged Enabling Environment Advisor, Dr. Hari Krishna Upadhyaya, starting in mid-February 2018 to assist with developing a policy support agenda in collaboration with GON priorities and developing a roadmap for KISAN II’s policy-related activities, including a Year 1 work plan and life of project workplan. • Avinash Upadhyay and Vinay Kumar from Digital Green attended the KISAN II bootcamp to develop a good understanding of KISAN II’s workplan and approach and brainstorm about how to best incorporate Digital Green’s activities. Neeta Vinay met with KISAN II’s finance team to better understand the project’s financial reporting procedures. During the third trimester: • In March 2018, Jeff Apigian from Winrock’s home office supported KISAN II with the second trimester reporting and provided oversight and orientation for new staff and subcontractors. • Dr. Devon Zagory, Food Safety, Good Agriculture Practice Consultant, started his consulting assignment towards the end of March 2018. During his assignment, Dr. Zagory reviewed past work on GAP and Safe Use of Pesticides in Nepal, conducted field visits and visited key stakeholders, assessed lab capacity in Nepal, developed written standards and presentation modules on good agricultural practices, and prepared a training plan, timelines and materials that will be required for training. • Avinash Upadhayay, Purnima Damade, and Akbar Gulzar from Digital Green provided ToTs to seven wholesale agrovets and KISAN II staff on video production to strengthen markets and market led extension using digital solutions in April 2018. In May/June 2018 Avinash Upadhayay, Pawan Kumar Ojha, Manish Sharma, and Akbar Gulzar of Digital Green conducted dissemination workshops and ToT on video production and LOOP assessment visits in Palpa and Kavre. • Angela Kraszewski and Samuel Sesay, MEL Specialist from the Winrock’s home office supported KISAN II with the set-up of DevResults and training in May/June 2018.
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• Dr. Alan Schroeder, PERSUAP Consultant provided STTA to complete the draft KISAN II and NSAF PERSUAP in May/June 2018. • Communication Specialists from OSC provided STTA to KISAN II. Mr. Ryan Crow conducted barrier analysis research for the development of the project communication and engagement strategy in April/May 2018, Mr. Andrei Sinioukov developed the private sector component of KISAN II’s communication strategy, Ms. Kathleen Head, conducted consultations and research to formulate the communication strategy to reach marginalized groups. • Anil Chitrakar, Susan Karmacharya, and Saurav Dhakal from Siddharthinc are conducting premium market assessment and analysis, which started in May 2018. Suman Joshi, Susan Karmacharya, and Nabaraj Lama also from Siddharthinc are working on a Wholesale Market Analysis Assignment, which also started in May 2018. Both studies will be complete in the first trimester of Year 2. • Rick Ody, Project Operations Specialist led development of the Year 2 Annual Work Plan in June/July 2018.
Establish and Equip the Central Office in Kathmandu, the Regional Office in Nepalgunj and the Five Cluster Offices. In January 2018, KISAN II moved its central office to a larger building in Sanepa, Lalitpur. KISAN II’s offices in Nepalgunj, Dadeldhura, Surkhet, Kailali, Banke, and Kapilavastu are all operational.
Procurement Plan. KISAN II revised its procurement plan and sent it to USAID for approval in March 2018 and was approved on March 30, 2018. KISAN II plans to dispose of old equipment (value of less than $500/unit) received from KISAN I that were in poor condition or not functional per USAID guidelines. Most of the equipment and goods stated in the Year 1 Procurement Plan have been procured; delivery of 6 vehicles and 45 motorcycles are expected to be delivered by October 2018 and August 2018 respectively.
Emergency Management, Preparedness and Training. The Project Security Management Handbook was updated. Training on Emergency Management and Preparedness was carried out during the bootcamp. KISAN II’s phone tree was developed for quick communication between staff members based in the Kathmandu, Regional, Cluster, and District offices in case of emergency; it was updated in early July 2018. Satellite phones have been procured and issued.
KISAN II Bootcamp. As mentioned above, the bootcamp oriented KISAN II staff to the following concepts to align activities to the project’s goals and strategy, including: • Principles of KISAN II’s market systems approach • How to effectively collaborate with the private sector to accomplish and enhance project results • How to integrate resiliency as well as incorporate women, youth, and disadvantaged groups into project activities and outcomes • Process and development of tools for opportunity mapping • Project’s approach to collaboration, learning and adaptation (CLA)
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• Roles and responsibilities of subcontractors and GON • Staff relationships, lines of authority, and communications, and integration of new hires • Code of ethics and sexual harassment orientation • Training on Emergency Management and Preparedness
KISAN II team during Bootcamp at Hotel Annapurna, Durbar Marg
Capacity building of KISAN II staff on GESI issues. The understanding of KISAN II staff on GESI issues and key GESI approaches is key to ensure GESI integration in implementation. Staff and consortium partners were oriented on GESI approaches in market system development during the bootcamp, work planning, team meetings, cluster meetings, and AMT staff training.
IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Challenges In response to USAID’s request to Winrock to slow implementation, KISAN II delayed many activities and the hiring of numerous staff. The hiring of more than 100 staff was postponed, including 44 Agricultural Marketing Technicians (AMTs), who train, mentor, and monitor private sector ag extension workers and without whom our work with private sector partners could not begin. As USAID is aware, KISAN II plans to reach households exclusively through private sector partners thus a delay in establishing partnerships also meant a delay in engaging farmers.
Even with the slowdown, KISAN was able to complete a number of key activities on schedule including opportunity mapping, the interviewing and mapping of all organizations working in KISAN II’s value chains in all 25 zone of influence districts. More than 3,600 organizations including financial institutions, agrovets, processors, traders and wholesalers, and cooperatives, among others, were interviewed and basic information on the organizations gathered. This provided KISAN II with an opportunity to better understand the landscape of organizations working in the zone of influence and to gather enough preliminary information to begin identifying potential partners. In addition to opportunity mapping, KISAN finalized the grants manual, published the Annual Program Statement (to solicit grant proposals), and began evaluating concept papers all as per the schedule in the Year One Annual Work Plan
Following the obligation of additional funds in February 2018, KISAN moved rapidly to commence or resume work on activities delayed and to hire staff necessary to move implementation forward as
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quickly as possible. The following are key dates related to grant approvals and signing, which drives all of KISAN II’s work with partners, and therefore with farmers:
Table 12: Grants Timeline- Key Dates Grants First Grant Concept Paper Review Committee January 30 2018 First Full Grant Proposals Approved by Committee March 2 2018 First Grants packages sent to USAID May 2 2018 First grants approved by USAID June 7 2018 First grants signed June 21 2018
The first grants were signed on June 21 and, as the KISAN II project-year ends on July 15, there was time for KISAN II to engage just 20 partners but insufficient time for partners to hire extension staff, for KISAN II to train partner extension staff and for partners to then enroll farmers prior to year-end.
Even with the delay in engaging partners in Year One, KISAN II still plans to reach 200,000 households during the life of project (LOP), the targeted number of households included in Winrock’s KISAN II proposal. KISAN II will have 40,000 farmers engaged by the end of Year 2 Trimester 1, 100,000 farmers by the end of Year 2 Trimester 2 and 130,000 farmers by the end of Year 2.
Delay in Subcontract Approvals. Winrock experienced delays obtaining approval of subcontractors, Siddharthinc and OSC. This together with on-going delays in the approval of Siddharthinc personnel contributed to delays a number of assessments and activities.
Coordination with Government. While not a challenge this year during project start-up, coordination and collaboration with authorities at the national, provincial, and municipal levels will be a challenge going forward. It is not yet clear how the GON will ensure the timely implementation of nation-wide strategies such as the ADS and the Prime Minister’s Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture given the planned devolution of much of MOAD’s staff and authority to provincial and municipal levels. KISAN II will work closely with MoALMC on these issues in Year 1.
KISAN II submitted a revised Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Plan in the second trimester. Rather than revise outcome targets due to spending constraints and obligation uncertainty, KISAN II management left outcome targets as they were when the initial draft of the MEL Plan was submitted. However, toward the beginning of July 2018, KISAN II was informed by USAID that there will not be any funding level reduction. Key activities were implemented and KISAN II is back on track to reach 200,000 households during the life of project; however, the delay in the first and second trimesters caused by funding uncertainty may impact other indicators such as incremental sales. Outcome targets will be revised during the first trimester of Year 2 as needed.
Opportunities
Excellent Staff. Staff hired to date under KISAN II are very strong. Winrock’s KISAN II consortium has managed to keep the majority of the high-quality staff from KISAN I that we wanted to keep and
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has been able to add a number of very strong new staff members such as the Business and Market Systems Director and three Senior Business Opportunities Managers, among others.
Opportunity Mapping. The opportunity mapping exercise has mapped over 3,505 organizations/firms such as agribusinesses, cooperatives, MFIs etc. This has been useful for the grantee selection process and will continue to inform KISAN II implementation over the course of the program. This database may also be useful for GON personnel at the Provincial and Municipality level.
Keen interest from private sector. There is a high level of interest by potential private sector organizations in working with KISAN II.
Interest from municipalities in partnering with KISAN II. Working with newly elected members of municipalities has opportunities as well as challenges. Many municipalities have expressed an interest in working with KISAN II to co-fund activities in their areas.
PARTNERSHIPS, COLLABORATION, AND/OR KNOWLEDGE SHARING KISAN II meets regularly with a wide range of organizations including USAID partners, private sector representatives, associations, GON agencies and projects, other development partners, and civil society representatives and organizations on a daily basis. This informs KISAN II project implementation strategy. In addition to the meetings and site visits mentioned below, KISAN II also met with other USAID partners, including SABAL, PAHAL, and PANI.
Suaahara II. KISAN II and Suaahara agreed on an MOU (to be signed early in Year 2) under which the two projects will collaborate. The MOU covers the following:
• Create linkages between Suaahara II Village Model Farmers (VMF) and the private sector (agrovets, wholesalers and other traders, processors, aggregators) to provide additional income opportunities for VMFs, and improve commercial relationships between farmers and the private sector. Initially, the business relationships between private sector and VMFs are envisioned to focus on buy-back-guarantee farming (aka contract farming) and commission- based sales of agrovets’ products. • Provide relevant training to Suaahara II staff on new technologies and approaches being introduced and promoted by KISAN II with the goal of extending access to and adoption of these technologies by Suaahara II’s project participants. This will be achieved by extending an open invitation to Suaahara II to attend KISAN II’s training of trainers (ToT) events, field days, demonstration days, and other outreach activities, such as a public screening of KISAN II-produced videos on topics of interest and relevance to Suaahara II. • Suaahara II will provide content and key messages on nutrition to KISAN II for use in business literacy materials, and for communications, outreach, and project participant engagement, including video.
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NSAF. KISAN II’s grantee, Maruti Nandan Agro Industries, worked with NSAF Project partner, Lumbini Seed Company to establish rice varietal demonstrations in four farmers’ fields. Maruti Nandan Agro Industries is interested in buying medium fine paddy and Lumbini Seed Company would like to sell more rice seed. These collaborative demonstrations should result in more farmers growing medium fine rice varieties, which will benefit both private sector actors.
KISAN II is also working with NSAF and private fertilizer companies to develop the supply chains for new fertilizers. The KISAN II project is coordinating with NSAF to organize demonstrations and video documentaries of the Precision Nutrient Management (PNM) technology. Additional details on these partnerships are mentioned above under Component 1.
CSISA/CIMMYT. A sharing meeting organized by CSISA/CIMMYT on Stemphyllium management practice in lentils was attended by KISAN II program staff. Research showed that wet and humid weather triggered Stemphyllium blight in lentil, which can be controlled by early spray of Diathane- 45. Information related to Stemphyllium management practices will be incorporated into KISAN II training materials for future dissemination (once the PERSUAP is approved) to KISAN II lentil partners and growers.
iDE. KISAN II staff participated in workshop on management of Tuta absoluta organized by iDE Nepal. Technical issues regarding the management of Tuta were discussed and learnings were shared. A control package was developed by NARC, Plant Protection Directorate and iDE, which will be incorporated in KISAN II training.
HAMRO SAMMAN. KISAN II received a briefing on HAMRO SAMMAN implementation experience on anti-trafficking and entrepreneurship. KISAN II will use their expertise in developing learning materials for Module 3- Life Skills. HAMRO SAMMAN shared resources on anti-trafficking and are also willing reach out to KISAN II beneficiaries and help sensitize them on trafficking issues.
USAID/PMEL. The KISAN II MEL team participated in numerous meetings with the PMEL Project in Year 1 to discuss the household survey, resilience monitoring, data management, and learning, among other topics.
HIGHLIGHTS AND ANY FUTURE IMPLICATIONS OF ANY HIGH-LEVEL MEETINGS AND FIELD VISITS • Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Bureau of Food Security Mr. Gary Linden together with Mr. Belay Mengistu and Mr. Navin Hada from the USAID SEED Office visited KISAN project sites in November. The team interacted with KISAN beneficiaries and partners and developed a good understanding of how the agriculture sector is structured and functions in Nepal. • A USDA team visited KISAN sites in Kapilbastu district. The team observed a farmer group’s vegetable plots and discussed the challenges and opportunities with farmers and vegetable traders.
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• Bread for the World team- Jordan Teague, Zachary Schmidt and Kesi Marcano-Collier- observed USAID-funded Suaahara II, KISAN, and PAHAL activities. The team visited KISAN private sector partners and farmers group in Bardiya. The team interacted and observed the private sector business model and their linkages with farmers. The team also observed the different financial services that the private sector is delivering at the farmers level to support agriculture activities, including mechanization. A success story was published online in the Bread for the world web page; (http://www.bread.org/blog/strengthening- agricultural-marketplace-nepal) • KISAN II’s COP and senior team members participated in a joint monitoring visit of USAID- supported projects in Banke, Bardiya and Surkhet. The visit was organized by USAID’s SEED team. The team visited Dev Bhar Rice Mill, Shital Thopa Udyog (STU) at Banke, established previously by KISAN. The team also visited Babu and Shahi Vegetable and Fruits Wholesale Mandi (shop) and Bikashsil Vegetable Producer Group in Surkhet. The visitors also interacted with KISAN I grantees and their farmers groups, were able to observe the technical and credit services that the farmers received and their ongoing association with the rice mill since KISAN I.
USAID joint visit team- interaction with farmers of Bikashsil group at Gurvakot-4, Surkhet • On June 28, 2018, the USAID team visited Dadeldhura to observe activities for USAID- funded projects- PAHAL, NSAF, Paani, Hariyo Ban, and NHDP. The field visit was followed by a half day meeting among all parties on integrating watershed management activities in the Rangoon river catchment area of Dadeldhura district. This visit provided an opportunity for greater integration among USAID-funded projects in this area, possible collaboration, resource sharing, and partnerships.
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President and CEO of Winrock International observing vegetable plots at Kapilvastu district
• Winrock International Board of Directors visit in Nepal. Members of Winrock International’s Board of Directors traveled to Nepal from March 21 to 24, 2018 to observe project activities and meet with the stakeholders contributing to Winrock’s mission. As part of their visit to Nepal, Winrock’s Board explored how Winrock can effectively leverage new partnerships, technologies, and diverse funding streams to solve complex problems in agriculture, the environment, and civil society and government capacity strengthening. The link for the story is published on Winrock’s web page: https://www.winrock.org/winrock-on-the-road/
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ANNEX 1: A SHORT NOTE ON THE RECURRENT MONITORING SURVEY-2018
1. What is resilience? Resilience is the ability to respond to adverse conditions and changes without compromising future wellbeing. USAID defines resilience as “the ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.” As this definition suggests, the concept (and measurement) of resilience is complex and multidimensional4.
2. Resilience measurement conceptual framework A resilience assessment provides a means for development practitioners to better understand the complex factors that influence resilience to shocks and stresses in a given context. This process is critical to developing and improving a theory for effecting change, upon which resilience-building strategies can be based. The identification of metrics and standards for measuring resilience remains a significant challenge. There have been several frameworks proposed for measuring resilience at national, subnational and household/individual levels. UNDP has mapped twenty frameworks, capturing various aspects of resilience at the community level, used by various organizations5.
KISAN II has based its resilience measurement methodology on USAID’s Recurrent Monitoring Survey (RMS)6. The survey will be used to monitor changes in resilience by tracking sources of resilience including: HH adoptive, absorptive and transformative capacities, level of disturbance (exposure), measurable reaction to disturbances (sensitivity) and outcomes. Thus, the shocks, capacities and outcomes can be measured retrospectively or in real time. Real time monitoring of resilience is optimal, are less susceptible to recall biases, and allow for adaptive management of resilience activities, however, embedding the RMS in the baseline and annual surveys is practical from a learning perspective. KISAN II’s baseline and annual surveys have three key features: 1) real time data collection following a predetermined shock trigger, 2) biannual panel data collection, 3) small sample size. Through quick and panel data collection and analysis, RMS informs project management which interventions are building resilience and which ones need prompt actions, crisis modifiers, and other shock responsive actions. RMS is not a substitute for the baseline or annual surveys, but it is complementary and will be used to tell a story of how/why certain household escape from poverty, others churn around, and some others fall into the poverty trap again.
3. Resilience monitoring process Desk studies and literature reviews are used to ensure adequate understanding and incorporation of existing knowledge. Sources include livestock market assessments, analyses, and national and regional reviews of governance initiatives and policies. The HH questionnaire will collect information on sources of shocks, stressors, and coping strategies at the household and community level. Other tools such as Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews
4 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/Technical%20Note_Measuring%20Resilience%20in%20USAID_June%202013.pdf 5 UNDP (2014). Disaster Resilience Measurement, https://www.preventionweb.net/files/37916_disasterresiliencemeasurementsundpt.pdf 6 http://www.fsnnetwork.org/sites/default/files/an_overview_of_the_recurrent_monitoring_survey_rms.pdf
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will also be used for collecting specific information to justify quantitative findings. The following process is used to collect, analyze, and provide feedback on resilience monitoring.
Step 1: Design data collection and research questionnaire. Research design for the RMS employs mixed methods, using quantitative and qualitative surveys. For the quantitative survey, a panel subsample is drawn from the baseline samples to monitor a small number of households. We are proposing 500 sub-samples. The sub-sample number will be based on a stratified random sample design with strata, reflecting the geographical breakdown of the baseline strata. Sampling weights will reflect the population of baseline households. Questions for the RMS include information related directly to the shocks and stressors. In addition, we will measure HH resilience capacities using GFSS indicators and studies.
Step 2: Collect the panel data with structured questionnaire. The RMS panel data will be collected every six months. Selected households for RMS should ideally be the same as in the baseline survey and experiencing different transitory and sustained poverty escapes. RMS data will include subjective and objective metrics.
Step 3: Analyze the quantitative data. Basic descriptive analysis of trends in the survey data will include changes in shock exposure, the use of coping strategies, well-being outcomes, and resilience capacities. In the case of climate shock exposure, household GPS coordinates can be used to download and employ satellite data to measure variables such as rainfall, soil moisture, and vegetation coverage deviations from the norm. Descriptive statistics, such as means and percentages, will be reported by geographical area and socio-economic subgroups. Households with a positive deviance will be identified; and successful resilience capacities and coping strategies will be shared with other households. Other advanced quantitative analyses will be conducted based on the data quality and pertinent requirements of the project.
Step 4: Collect life histories. Life histories are in depth interviews with individuals to understand poverty dynamics over the life course. It investigates key events, shocks, stressors, as well as positive efforts, and the ways it influenced their poverty status. Life histories will be documented for special learning cases.
Step 5: Feedback findings. Share preliminary findings with engaged stakeholders to gain additional perspectives in interpreting results and raise awareness on resilience building.
5. Adaptive management and use of RMS findings. The resilience monitoring survey is conducted every six months and when an identified shock or stressor is triggered. This will provide timely information to adjust project interventions to improve project outcomes.
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ANNEX 2: BARRIER ANALYSIS: KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Barrier Analysis is a proven, widely used approach for studying key behaviors to be addressed through SBCC messaging and activities. Though particularly popular in the global health field, barrier analysis has been extensively used to study farmer and market actor behavior throughout the developing world. In contrast to a knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey or a series of focus groups, the standard barrier analysis methodology is an interview-based, qualitative research exercise designed to uncover the differences between “doers”, in this case, farmers and agrovets performing key behaviors, “non-doers”, in this case farmers and agrovets not performing key behaviors. The methodology allows researchers to hone in on the most important “behavioral determinants” for very specific barriers to adoption, of which KISAN II seeks to increase. The differences in awareness, self- efficacy, prevailing social norms, access, and other factors are the behavioral and/or structural barriers that KISAN II’s SBCC strategy will address through messaging, capacity building, and the provision of technical assistance.
The barrier analysis exercise was conducted in May 2018. Given the large area encompassed by KISAN II’s ZOI and the significant, multi-dimensional diversity (ethnic, agro-climatic, etc.) within it, interviews needed to be collected at multiple sites throughout the ZOI. Through discussion with the KISAN II MEL team, the team determined that sampling in eight of the districts within KISAN II’s ZOI would offer the best balance between methodological fidelity and operational/logistical practicality.
The eight districts selected – Dadeldhura, Kailali, Surkhet, Banke, Rukum, Kapilvastu, Kavre, and Makwanpur - offered a mix of mid-hill and terai terrain while also covering the Far West, Mid-West, and Kathmandu portions of the KISAN II ZOI. With sampling spread across eight districts, 36 interviews, 12 for each questionnaire, were conducted in each sample district.
The barrier analysis focused on three key areas: safe pesticide application, and promotion of growing and selling green leafy and seasonal vegetables, and promotion of agrovet marketing.
Safe pesticide application Access to pesticides and the safety equipment needed to apply them effectively appears to be a significant issue for both farmers who are already applying pesticides appropriately (doers) and those who are not (non-doers). While not strictly a barrier in itself, as it doesn’t differentiate doers from non-doers, this difficulty is worthy of KISAN II’s attention given the prevalence of the complaint— difficulty acquiring equipment was mentioned by doers and non-doers in response to self-efficacy and access questions—and observational confirmation by data collectors. Communications activities can only do so much to mitigate access issues, but efforts to highlight the availability of financial support for agricultural inputs and/or proximity of agrovets might be productive when combined with KISAN II’s efforts to improve access directly through other program activities. Improved agrovet marketing practices (discussed in more detail below) may also reduce the perceived difficulty and costs associated with purchasing pesticides and protective equipment.
Non-doers appear to lack knowledge regarding how and when to safely handle and apply pesticides. Lack of awareness is the most commonly cited barrier to proper pesticide use among non-doers and
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non-doers are four times more likely than doers to highlight lack of knowledge as a barrier. To address this, KISAN II will develop simple, pictorial instructions demonstrating the proper handling and application of pesticides. Crucially, these instructions will be developed in a format that farmers can take home with them and refer to when applying the pesticide. Posters at agrovets or at collection points are of some use, but farmers need clear instructions at hand when applying pesticides, as the process is multi-step, variable (from pesticide to pesticide), and not easily remembered. Such customized pictorial instructions will be developed for a wide range of pesticides and designed to be handed to the customer at the time of purchase, and also used as “leave-behinds” by visiting agrovets, KISAN II staff, and other project participants providing technical assistance directly to farmers. The materials will not only feature correct and safe application of pesticides but will highlight the health benefits (both to the individual and the community at large) of correct application of pesticides and safe disposal and cleaning of containers and protective gear.
Promotion of selling and growing of leafy green and season vegetables Growing and selling green leafy and/or seasonal vegetables is a complex behavior with numerous barriers that confound both doers and non-doers. Farmers not currently selling vegetables present similar access issues to those described in the safe pesticide use section, limited market access, and unavailable or expensive inputs (especially. land). For example, doer farmers are nearly five times more likely than non-doers to describe good market access as something that makes it easy for them to grow and sell vegetables. Here again, there is only so much communications can do to overcome these barriers, but promotion of networking and cooperation between farmers may create opportunities to overcome some of these barriers through pooling of resources or collective action. Neighboring farms may be able to create adequate space for a small vegetable operation that would not be practicable for either of them to undertake on their own, for example. Similarly, smaller communities may be able to attract a collector or aggregator if they proactively seek one out and offer evidence of their collective output.
KISAN II will promote inter-farmer cooperation and formation of cooperatives that will also help to overcome some of the issues related to having insufficient products to attract a collector or a good price, a barrier that non-doers are nearly four times more likely to mention than doers. Efforts to promote farmer cooperation through communications activities will be aligned with other KISAN II, GON, or development organization efforts to improve market access in a given locality, since improved cooperation alone may not be effective.
Farmers currently growing and selling vegetables are nearly three times more likely to be aware of seed, irrigation, and other subsidies that can support a vegetable growing operation. SBCC activities designed to raise farmer awareness of the services and programs available to help them get started with growing and selling vegetables will be a valuable addition to efforts to improve access for non- doers and would benefit doers as well.
Doers are three times more likely than non-doers to believe that growing and selling vegetables will allow them to devote more money to other household priorities. Advantages of growing and selling vegetables will be highlighted to encourage non-doers to adopt the practice. Specifically, messages
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highlighting the increased ability to cover non-farming related household expenses such as education, food purchases at the market, and basic household fixtures will be delivered by persuasive, locally relevant spokespeople or through radio, video, or Inter-personal communication (IPC)-based edutainment presentations. Combining story-telling with information on the positive economic impacts of growing and selling vegetables is more likely to be effective than delivering messages using either element in isolation.
Promotion of agrovet marketing Agrovet decision-making surrounding investment in marketing appears to be driven by three broad considerations. First, agrovets not yet investing in marketing seem uncertain of the return they are likely to make on their investment. Agrovets already investing in marketing are nearly three times as likely to believe that marketing is “very likely” to increase their income. Non-doer agrovets are not only worried that they won’t make their money back in terms of increased sales, they are also concerned that marketing could backfire on them by raising customer expectations for products they don’t always have available or hurting their reputation and client base if promoted products turn out not to work as advertised. Non-doer agrovets are more than four times as likely to cite this latter reputational risk than agrovets already engaged in marketing. Agrovets already investing in marketing seem not to share these concerns—at least not to the same degree— so group training that includes successful agrovets, peer mentoring, and other activities designed to increase agrovet confidence in marketing approaches may prove effective in encouraging more agrovets to devote resources to deliberately engaging new customers.
Approaches that help agrovets, which are often geographically clustered, such as pooling resources to engage in demonstrations, community visits, fairs or similar activities may also help nudge agrovets into the marketing arena by reducing the perceived financial and reputational risks associated with making the initial effort. Clustering retail agrovets under the wholesale agrovet(s) serving a given area may be an efficient way to do this as wholesale agrovets have a strong incentive to help improve the sales of their retail customers and some may already be working along these lines.
Importantly, agrovets already engaged in marketing are more interested in receiving additional information on how to market more effectively than their non-doer counterparts, almost regardless of the channel. Doer agrovets are between 2.5 and 4.7 times more likely to want to receive printed materials, demonstrations, and/or mobile messaging on how to improve marketing than their non-doer counterparts. This is a clear hurdle for the communications team to overcome at the outset of any effort to get more agrovets interested in marketing. Agrovets convinced of the benefits of marketing seem open to receiving additional marketing information and support in a variety of formats including print, IPC, and ICT.
KISAN II communications activities can by themselves promote the use of agrovets by farmers as a general practice for getting good advice, selecting the right inputs, and improving production. These messages can be disseminated to broad audiences using paid media, but an earned media approach may also be effective and would avoid “crowding out” nascent agrovet marketing efforts. KISAN II can support journalist visits to agrovets and the farmers they serve to encourage stories about the help agrovets provide, both as a means of increasing agrovet business and as a means of recognizing and
KISAN II PROJECT YEAR ONE ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 63 AID-367-C-17-00001 encouraging agrovets to be more proactive in their marketing efforts. Increased print and radio journalist coverage of agrovet fairs and demonstrations, which KISAN II could support simply by providing notice and (perhaps) transportation to journalists would have a similar dual effect.
Finally, while suppliers offer branded products that KISAN II cannot endorse specifically, KISAN II may be able to build stronger connections between suppliers, wholesale agrovets, and their retail outlets so that more retailers receive larger stocks and a wider variety of marketing materials. Having quality marketing materials arrive with the product they are intended to promote—i.e. including posters and handouts with every case of a product—would remove a significant barrier for many agrovets by reducing costs and some of the perceived risks associated with engaging in marketing, since agrovets would only be promoting products that are actually available. KISAN II may be able to assist wholesale agrovets and/or suppliers in determining which type of marketing materials would be most effective with customers or offer advice on creating materials for illiterate audiences, without supporting specific products, or by offering seminars or workshops on these topics to a wide range of potential market participants.
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ANNEX 3: A SUMMARY OF APPROVED GRANTS
1. Laxmi Agrovet: The main objective of this award is to promote agrovet sales through good agriculture practices among vegetable farmers of Dadeldhura district, and to increase production and enhance market competitiveness of 800 farmer households. In order to achieve this objective, a total of 192 trainings, 64 demonstrations, 12 field days, and additional promotional and market linkage activities will be conducted. This agrovet expects to double their sales by 2021 by increasing their number of customers to 3,000 (from 1,400 in 2017). The agrovet will target 50% women, 40% disadvantaged individuals, and 10% lead farmers. 2. Madhya Paschim Agrovet Center: Madhya Paschim Agrovet has signed a fixed amount award to build the capacity of 1,200 farmer HHs in Surkhet district to increase input sales as well as farmer’s income. They plan to conduct a total of 288 trainings, 40 demonstrations, and 16 field days. The agrovet will also conduct promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders, cooperatives, and local government staff. The agrovet has proposed to improve credit access to farmers by linking them with cooperatives and expects to increase their sales by 100% in 4 years and double their existing customer base in same period. 3. Saud Agrovet: Saud Agrovet will receive technical and grant assistance to increase sales of agrovet and farmers’ income through promotion of improved technologies and input supply for vegetable and maize production in Dadeldhura district. Saud agrovet expects to build the capacity of 800 farmer HHs by conducting a total of 208 trainings, 80 demonstrations, 14 field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and municipality officials. Out of 800 HH targeted HHs, they plan to reach 50% women and at least 40% disadvantaged, yet progressive farmers. 4. Kalsani Krisak Agrovet: The main objective of this grant activity is to increase sales of agrovet and farmers’ income through marketing of quality inputs and improved technologies and practices in Patan, Baitadi district. Kalsaini Krishak Agrovet will build the capacity of 400 farmer HHs through 77 trainings, 24 demonstrations, 6 field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and local government staff. Out of 400 targeted HHs, they plan to reach150 women and 250 disadvantaged, yet progressive farmers. 5. Jaljala Seed Company Udhyog: Jaljala Seed Company Udhyog is an agrovet and has been granted a fixed amount award to improve the capacity of farmers through trainings, demonstrations, and knowledge transfer on improved technologies and practices. This will help to increase sales of agrovets and enhance production. This agrovet will build the capacity of 1,200 HHs through 288 trainings, 44 demonstrations, 15 field days, and other market promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and (rural) municipality officials. Out of the 1,200 targeted HHs, they plan to impact more than 50% women. 6. New Kisan Agrovet: New Kisan Agrovet’s award will be used to increase agrovet business through promotion of quality inputs and improved agriculture technologies and practices to increase the income of farmers in selected wards in Dang district. The agrovet will build the capacity of 800 farmer HHs through 134 trainings, 70 demonstrations, 6 field days, and 2 linkage activities with other stakeholders and local government staff. Out of 800 targeted HHs, they aim to have 75% women and 25% youth farmer customers. 7. Kalika Agri Center: Kalika Agri Center intends to increase agrovet business and farmers’ income through extension and adaptation of climate risk sensitive technology in selected wards of Pyuthan district. They plan to link farmer’s groups with insurance companies to buy down the risk of adopting the new technology. The Agri Center (agrovet) will develop the capacity of 1,200
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farmers through trainings, demonstrations, and field days. It has aims to include 60% women and 15% disadvantaged, yet progressive farmers in this grant activity. 8. Jalpadevi Agrovet and Order Suppliers: KISAN II selected Jalapadevi Agrovet and Order Suppliers to support 800 farmers in Achham district. The grant agreement is pending. 9. Dadeldhura Farmers’ Cooperative Society (DAFACOS): KISAN II has awarded a grant to DAFACOS to expand their cooperative business to offer improved agriculture and non-financial services to farmers to increase their incomes. DAFACOS is expecting to build the capacity of 1,200 farmers through trainings, demonstrations, field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and municipalities. Out of 1,200 targeted beneficiaries, they plan to reach 60% women, 20% disadvantaged groups, and 20 % other farmers. 10. Janakalayan Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited: Janakalyan Bahuudehisya Sahakari Sanstha Limited’s award is for 11 months and are responsible to build the capacity of farmers to use improved maize and vegetable farming practices/technologies. They were a grantee under KISAN I, and this new proposed support will help to increase the cooperative’s existing customer/membership base by 80 percent and it held build the capacity of the additional 640 members (out of 800 HHs). The new members are mostly women (60%) and disadvantage groups (20%). Through this grant, the cooperative will conduct a total of 168 trainings, 64 demonstrations, 24 field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and municipalities. 11. Udaydev Multipurpose Cooperative Limited: KISAN II has awarded a grant to Udaydev Bahuudeshiya Sahakari Sanstha (Multipurpose Cooperative) Limited to increase their customer base by providing non-financial services such as promotion of quality inputs and improved agriculture technologies. This cooperative will build the capacity of 1,600 HHs through trainings, demonstrations, and farmer field days to increase farmers incomes in Kanchanpur district. 12. Kasturi Multipurpose Cooperative Society: The main objective of this grant is to support livelihoods development through agri-business in Jajarkot district. Kasturi Bahuudeshiya Sahakari Sanstha (Multipurpose Cooperative) Limited will build the capacity of 800 farmer HHs through 186 trainings, 48 demonstrations, 12 field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and municipalities. Out of 800 targeted HHs (32 groups), they plan to reach 77% female farmers. 13. Aatmanirvar Bahuudeshiya Sahakari Sanstha Limited: Aatmanirvar supports vegetable and maize production, collection, refining, and marketing in Kavre district. This cooperative plans to support 1,000 farmers and intends to expand its business by delivering quality services and technologies to new and recurring members in order to increase income levels through established, proper marketing and processing of maize and fresh vegetables. 14. Nawa Durga Chiura Uddhyog (NDCU): NDCU will install beaten rice processing equipment and machineries to improve the quality of beaten rice and to enhance its production capacity. NDCU is expecting to build the capacity of 1,000 HHs through 120 trainings, 20 demonstrations, 4 field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and local government staff. Out of 1,000 targeted HHs, at least 20% will be women. 15. Maruti Nandan Agro Industries (P) Ltd. Maruti Nandan Agro Industries (P) Ltd. (MNAIPL) will provide support to install shallow tube wells in farmer’s fields, so that they can produce fine rice varieties. Thirty-two irrigation facilities will be established in first two years and eight irrigation facilities will be established in year 3. One silky machine and one pouching machine will be installed in year one to improve quality, branding, and packaging of rice and enhance its own production capacity. MNAIPL is expecting to build the capacity of 3,400 HHs through 620 trainings, 121 demonstrations, 60 field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and municipality staff.
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16. Sahu Rice Mill: Sahu Rice Mill plans to install rice processing equipment and machinery to improve the quality of rice and enhance its own production capacity. Sahu Rice Mill is expecting to build the capacity of 2,400 HHs through 512 trainings, 96 demonstrations, six field days, and other promotional and linkage activities with other stakeholders and municipality staff. Sahu Rice Mill will also conduct business promotional activities to increase its annual turnover and plan to brand their product to make it more competitive.
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ANNEX 4: A SUMMARY OF A SIGNED MOUS
The Good Produce Co. This partnership focuses on developing demand-led quality production of vegetables through The Good Produce—a company that is focused on collecting, sorting, packaging, and marketing vegetables. Their major customers are from the hospitality industry and demand a consistent supply of high-quality vegetables throughout the year. KISAN II is supporting The Good Produce to develop a demand schedule and link them with productive farming pockets with the capacity to produce the quality and quantity of vegetables per the demand schedule. Furthermore, KISAN II will provide a ToT to ‘The Good Produce’ on Good Agriculture Practices and post-harvest management, which will be further disseminated to the farmer groups. Through these activities, KISAN II expects to strengthen the relationship between the trader and farmers and pilot a model for demand-based quality production. This MoU will cater to 300 households in Kavrepalanchowk and Sindhupalchowk.
Modern Agriculture Farm In Nepal, where the majority of the work force has migrated, and the amount of fallow land is increasing, agriculture mechanization can play a major role in increasing the production and productivity of farming, while reducing the cost of production. Despite these benefits, the adoption of agriculture machinery is low in Nepal. To increase its adoption, KISAN II is supporting Modern Agriculture Farm (MAF) to demonstrate various agri-machinery and provide custom hiring services where farmers are aware of new technologies, its benefit, and have the option to rent the services. This MoU will cater to 500 households in Bardiya.
Bihani Madhyavarti Multipurpose Cooperative Located in Geruwa Rural Municipality of Bardiya, Bihani Madhyavarti Multipurpose Cooperative (BMCC), has been the main source of financial and technical support to vulnerable communities in the area for the past 12 years. Despite their services, farmers have not been able to grow substantially as they are not able to keep up with new agricultural technologies, have inadequate and weak market linkages, and the cooperative does not have adequate or competent human resources to provide these services to their members. KISAN II is working with BMCC to build its capacity by improving their knowledge to provide better services and technical advice to its members, link them with wholesale lenders, insurance companies, and traders to increase the loan products and services it provides to its members, and develop a strategy for the cooperative and support its implementation for the first year. Through these activities, KISAN II envisions to strengthen the capacity of BMCC and benefit its members. This MoU will cater to 600 households in Bardiya.
Laxmi Bank Limited Access to finance is a major barrier to farmers for the adoption of new technologies and commercialization of agriculture. Farmers bear the upfront cost when procuring inputs, and agrovets are their main source. To ensure that farmers are able to procure inputs and new technologies with minimum financial burden, KISAN II is supporting Laxmi Bank to pilot a model where agrovets have the capacity to provide branchless banking services to farmers. Through this model, farmers will be able to buy inputs through loan products and repay after harvesting and selling their products. This
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model is being tested among three agrovets from Dadeldhura, Dang, and Kavre and based on the results will be expanded to other districts.
Civil Bank Limited Farmers face a dilemma after they have harvested their products: either to sell their products at a low rate and receive full payment or sell their products at credit for a better rate. The major reason for this is that agri-businesses and traders do not have the working capital to procure all of the products at once, process, and sell them throughout the year. To ease this, KISAN II is working with Civil Bank to provide agriculture value chain financing to such agri-businesses and traders so that farmers will be able to receive up to 70% of the amount as a loan from the bank, given the agri-business provides a guarantee to buy the products. This will ensure that the farmers get a better rate for their products and will lessen burden the agri-businesses as well. Civil Bank Limited will provide agriculture value chain financing to businesses in Kailali, Kapilbastu, Dang, and Banke and the number of households reached will depend on the businesses that receive financing.
R. H. Agrovet Agrovets are the major source of advice, agriculture inputs, and technologies for farmers. Agrovets have their own mechanism for obtaining access to such technologies and inputs- manufacturers usually supply their products to wholesale agrovets who then supply them to retail agrovets and finally to farmers. Strengthening this relationship between the three major actors will ensure that the farmers get access to the right information, inputs, and are updated on new technologies available. KISAN II is working with R. H. agrovet to strengthen the capacity of eight retail agrovets to provide trainings and demonstrations at the farmer level to market new products and ensure that farmers adopt them. KISAN II will link R. H. agrovet with Sunrise Agriculture Research Private Limited, a hybrid seed supplier for rice, maize, and vegetables, so that farmers will have access to better quality seed, increasing their productivity. Furthermore, to ensure that the farmers have a secure market to sell their produce, R. H agrovet will link the productive pockets with traders, rice mills, and feed industries. This MoU will target 500 households in Kailali.
NAF Seed Agricultural technologies are regularly updated, and it is difficult for farmers to keep up with new technologies. There are importers in Kathmandu who have access to new technologies, but are finding it difficult to identify dealers to distribute their products and increase the uptake of these technologies at the farmer level. Farmers are hesitant to adopt new technologies as they do not want to take the risk and are satisfied with the traditional form of farming, which leads to low productivity. To tackle this issue, KISAN II has partnered with NAF Seed, an importer of seed, fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation systems, normal and hi-tech green houses, solar dryers, PICS bags, and other technologies which help improve the production and productivity of farmers and reduce post-harvest loss. Through this partnership, KISAN II envisions an increase in the uptake of technology at the farmer level by establishing dealers and building their capacity to provide training and demonstration to farmers, so that farmers can see the benefit of the technologies first hand. This MoU will reach 1,350 households in Salyan, Makwanpur, Dang, Salyan, Banke, and Bardiya.
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Phulbar Agriculture Cooperative Phulbar Agriculture Cooperative (PAC) is one of fifteen cooperatives in Kailali that is operated by freed Kamlaris—Tharu girls and young women who have worked as bonded labor for richer, higher- caste landlords due to poverty, illiteracy, and traditional practice. PAC was established in 2011 by 27 freed Kamlaris and has increased to 356 shareholders with an annual turnover of around NRS 3 million. They currently provide loans to their members and sell fertilizers. Despite these achievements, PAC still lacks the institutional capacity (financial, physical, human resources, product development and expansion, and governance) to provide quality services to its members. To build its capacity and increase the services received but its members, KISAN II is supporting the cooperative to assess itself, provide need-based trainings, and develop a long-term action plan. Furthermore, we will link the cooperative with traders and agrovets to identify new technologies available in the market and assess the market demand. Based on the availability and market assessment, we will support the cooperative to provide trainings to its members on demand-based vegetable production, agriculture loans to adopt new technologies, and collectively sell the products. This MoU will cater to 300 households in Kailali.
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ANNEX 5: ANNUAL PROGRAM STATEMENT (APS) NO. 1 The Knowledge-based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) II Project is seeking applications from Nepali private sector organizations– small to large businesses, cooperatives, and financial institutions (including banks, MFIs, and SACCOs) – interested in increasing agriculture related business activities in the 25 districts of Central, Western, Mid-western, and Far-western regions of Nepal (Province No: 3, 5, 6, and 7): Makawanpur, Kavrepalanchok, Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Kapilbastu, Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Gulmi, Banke, Bardiya, Baitadi, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Doti, Achham Dadeldhura, Surkhet, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Dang, Salyan, Rukum West, Rukum East, Rolpa, and Pyuthan. Applications from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and international organizations will also be accepted, however, proposals from private sector organizations with a strong business focus will be prioritized.
KISAN II aims to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger in Nepal by achieving inclusive growth in the agriculture sector and increasing the income of farm families. To achieve this broad objective KISAN II works with a wide range of stakeholders to improve the quality and availability of agro- inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and credit for farmers; improve the capacity of agriculture extension workers, service providers, processors, and farmers to deliver services more efficiently; facilitate improved and sustainable agriculture production practices and technologies, including post-harvest technologies and practices; and improve market efficiency and farmers’ access to markets.
KISAN II is specifically interested in supporting activities that expand and/or strengthen direct or indirect linkages between businesses and smallholder farmers. KISAN II will support activities that lead to improved quality or increased availability of agriculture inputs, enhanced production or post- harvest practices and technologies, improved market access or information, and increased availability of financing. Activities should be applicable to rice, maize, lentil, or vegetable value chains.
Illustrative activities include: • Access to agro-inputs and services. Enhance agro-input distribution systems through the establishment and/or training of private sector input suppliers (such as agrovets, agents, or distributors) and other local service providers. • Commercialization/Dissemination of new technologies. Increase sales and utilization of new technologies that result in the uptake of best agricultural practices (in areas such as irrigation, fertigation, mechanization, post-harvest, processing, ICT) through the development of marketing or training plans or materials, conducting demonstrations, improving supply chain reach and/or efficiency. • Improve quality and volume of commodities. Support agriculture cooperatives, including MPCs, to increase the quantity and quality of goods available for sale by providing assistance to increase membership, improve member access to quality inputs, improve post-harvest handling and quality control, and improve market linkage. • Embedded services. Support buyers/aggregators (processors/millers, traders, wholesalers) to increase the quantity and quality of supply by strengthening backward linkages with farmers and forward linkages with the market.
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• Access to financial services. Support commercial banks and MFIs (including SACCOs and FINGOs) or others working in this space to increase the availability of financial services to rural and agricultural households; micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) such as traders and processors; and cooperatives. Activities supported might include (but are not limited to): market research; mobile money or digital payments systems; capacity building, including staff training; introduction or expansion of non-financial services to support agriculture; and new product development. • Other activities that promote KISAN II objectives and the sustainability of project activities.
The Project aims to fund multiple grants over the next 12 months. Cost-sharing is required from grantees; profitable commercial businesses are advised to include 50% cost-share or more in their proposals whereas small, remote, or otherwise disadvantaged organizations can propose cost-share of less than 50%. Grant applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Full eligibility requirements are included in KISAN II’s Grant Application Guidelines, however, it should be noted here that all applicants/organizations must be legally registered under the laws of the government of Nepal and be in compliance with all applicable civil and fiscal regulations. For additional information including the Grant Application Guidelines please contact the KISAN II grants team at [email protected].
Please be informed that Winrock International is not liable to pay any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of applications and other documents. Further, Winrock International reserves the right to cancel this request if such action in considered to be in the best interest of KISAN II Project.
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ANNEX 6: SUCCESS STORY
Bagchaur Muncipality Going Digital Green
Mr. Binod Oli interviewing a farmer in Salyan for his video Mr. Binod Oli was an agricultural extension worker with KISAN I partner, Shree Swargadwari, where he was trained by Digital Green on the use of community-led videos for extension training. Mr. Oli is now a junior technical assistant at Bagchaur Munipality in Salyan. When he proposed videos as an extension tool to municipality officials they were skeptical at first, so using his own funding Mr. Oli produced six videos on different agricultural topics, which he used to train farmers. When municipality officials saw the videos they enthusiastically endorsed this concept, providing him with a budget of NPR 200,000 to expand the production and use of videos to train farmers. Mr. Oli now has 14 videos which he uses to train farmers and he is convinced that videos are key to reaching a large number of farmers with a consistent message in his municipality and beyond.
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ANNEX 7. CLUSTER-WISE KISAN II COMMODITY PRODUCTION POCKETS Name of Rice Lentil Maize Vegetables Goat S. N. Districts Clusters (Palikas) (Palikas) (Palikas) (Palikas) (Palikas) Rapti Sonari, Bankati, Betahani, Puraina, Naubasta, Banke Fattepur, Vawaniapur Hirminiya Baijnath, Janaki, Bankatwa, Sitapur Hirminiya, Bageshowari 1 Banke Khajura Mohamadpur, Motipur, Mainapokhar, Bardiya Rajapur Sanoshree, Padnaha Gulariya Kalika Sanfebagar, Achham Sanfebagar - - Kamalbazaar Siddhapur, Patan, Baitadi Patan - - Bhumeshowari 2 Dadeldhura Alital, Alital, Jogbudha, Dadeldhura Jogbudha, Alital - Asigram Asigram Dipayl Silgadhi, Joryal, Doti Sikhar, Joryal - - Purbi Chowki Chailahi, Sishani, Sonpur, Satbariya, Fulbari, Sisahaniya, Rampur, Dang Satbariya, Rajpur, Dagdhwa Gangaparaspur Urharai Gadhwa, Damar, Fulbari Bela, Fulbari Bijuwar, Dharmawati, Bhingri, Jhimrukh, Gaumukhi, Pyuthan Bangesaal Tikuri, Sarumarani Maranthan Bijuwar Naryanthan 3 Dang Swargadwari, Holeri, Nuwagawan, Rolpa Madichaur - Khungri Gairi gawan Budhagawan Musikot, Sano Veri, Rukum Chaurjahari, Musikot Chaujahari, Tribeni Simly, Takshera Garala, Simli Rim, Salyan Shreenagar - Kapurkot, Bagchaur Shreenagar Joshipur, Bhajani, Tikapur, Dhangadi, Kailali Mansuriya Sahajpur Bauniya, Pahalmanpur Patharaiya, Durgauli Raikarbichuwa, 4 Kailali Sunderpur, Belauri, Tribhuvanbasti, Baluwaphanta Kanchanpur Belauri Kalika, Piplari Parasan Baisebichuwa, Jhalari, Krishnapur
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Name of Rice Lentil Maize Vegetables Goat S. N. Districts Clusters (Palikas) (Palikas) (Palikas) (Palikas) (Palikas) Dharapani, Thulopokhara, Sandhikharka, Arghakhanchi Khelji, Sitganga Dhikura, Arghatosh, Durgaphant, Sitganga Thulopokhara Sandhikharka, Khidim Madane, Musikot, Tamghas, Gulmi Arbeni, Harmichaur - Resunga, 5 Kapilbastu Harmichaur Mallika Pakadi, Maharajgunj, Banganga, Dhankauli, Kapilbastu Bahadurgunj Ganjhera Chandrauta Pakadi, Maharajgunj Rampur, Somadhi, Madanpokhara, Palpa - Jalpa Pokharathok Masyankot, Rampur Guranshe, Ghodabas, Dailekh - - Narayan, Raniban Naumule Bheri Municipality, 6 Surkhet Jajarkot Bheri - Bheri Sakla Kalimati, Thala Bazaar Gutu, Chhinchu, Mehalkuna, Surkhet Uttarganga, Latikoili Tato Pani, Ganga Chinchu, Sahare Mehalkuna Harre
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