The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently completed another phase of their Nepal Economic, Agriculture, and Trade Activity (NEAT) project by creating a packet containing important agricultural information that is to be distributed to disadvantaged farmers in Nepal. USAID is working with Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture Development in a joint effort to improve food security in the region while also helping farmers sell their crops in markets more easily.

The information packets were made to be durable and they contain information on 13 types of crops. The information was prepared for illiterate and semi-literate farmers so charts and photos are used throughout the information packet. Another focus of the NEAT effort is to make it easier for farmers to take their goods to market to sell while also making seeds and fertilizers more easily available to the nearly 70,000 farmers that the program helps.

Overall, the farmers have experienced a gain of $85 million since the program began and nearly all of the program participants have increased market access for their goods. While the NEAT initiative will end this August the resources that USAID has compiled will continue to be helpful for farmers and the aid centers that they have established will continue to be staffed and will offer help to the Nepalese farmers. This is just one more great program that USAID has undertaken to fight poverty worldwide and promote food security.

– Kevin Sullivan

Photo: The Borgen Project