We have some great news from our ScaleSchool team in Nepal!
After being in Nepal, we realized that even just building relationships with local municipalities can go a long way! We have been getting to know the President of Aginsair Krishna Sarwan Rural Municipality, Parshuram Chaudhary. He is the head of the municipality, Agnisair Krishnasabaran, which is a part of the Saptari district of Nepal, and home to the Spiral Farm House. He has been very enthusiastic about our mission – he sees organic agriculture as an opportunity to develop the municipality’s social, economic, and environmental status.
And now, he’s also taking the first steps to support us not just emotionally, but also financially! As of last week, we have been approved for funding for our local market research study in the Agnisair Krishnasabaran Rural Municipality. This is a small but momentous step for us as it is the first time we have official support from official Nepal authorities to switch Nepalese farmers to organic.
Our study will be surveying the local communities about their knowledge of organic food and its production. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the local interest and awareness of organic foods and organic farming methods. We aim to find out if there is a market for organic products, so the farmers will be able to make better decisions to invest in organic farming practices and hopefully follow the organic farming switch training that we are developing, at the ScaleSchool.
To enable our research, we are partnering with Rural Development Effort Nepal (RDEN) organization’s youth team, who will be going door to door to survey the locals. RDEN is a local non-profit organization that engages the local youth in opportunities to participate in developmental and sustainability projects in Nepal. They will be sending 18 volunteers to work with us to survey the region! This grant will directly fund the mobilization of the RDEN volunteers. You can learn more about the RDEN organization here.
We are looking forward to learning more about the larger, local community in Nepal and to have insights into local interest in organic, with the help of the President of the local municipality and the volunteers from RDEN. All big changes start with small first steps, with the help of some amazing community members!
Now- time to get out and start this research. Check back in on the Open Team News Portal to see the results of our survey. Stay tuned!
[…] Simultaneously, we had to prepare the documents for the municipality so the research would be funded. The documents we prepared included a project concept note, a detailed research proposal and budget, and a cover letter. As we had the document ready and printed, it was time to meet the President of the rural municipality in person and introduce the research. Well, that became the next challenge as it was still a piece of work to catch him – 3 days, to be exact! Luckily, in the end he was eager to help out as he is in the favor of the project and the good deeds it will bring in. We got the funding to mobilize the team with transportation and lunch compensation. You can read more from the funding announcement here. […]