The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is strengthening its partnership with the government of Nepal to support the country in building an integrated and well-coordinated programme on agroforestry. The ultimate aim of the collaboration is to help the Himalayan country tackle persistent problems such as malnutrition, poverty, and low overall farm productivity.
“Agroforestry in itself is not new in Nepal; it’s a practice that has been followed by farmers for centuries,” says Javed Rizvi, the director of ICRAF’s South Asia Office. “Our aim is to learn from that traditional knowledge and see how our science knowledge might improve the situation.”
“Almost a million farmers are already practising agroforestry in Nepal,” headds. “What we’re trying to do is refine the systems they’re using.”
For instance, farmers may be interested in using trees but do not know which species would be most beneficial. Training in the latest agroforestry techniques could help them learn to use multi-purpose trees for fruit and fodder and to improve soil conditions. Roughly 70% of the Nepali population works in the agriculture sector, which accounts for more than a third of the country’s GDP.
Javed stresses that ICRAF isn’t going in to the partnership with its own agenda, and that it will follow the government’s lead in developing its new programme of work. Indeed, Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture, under the direction of Minister Hari Parajuli, will be guiding ICRAF’s work in the country.
“Because of the low productivity of the land, there is huge internal and external migration in Nepal. This is a really big challenge for the government, and agroforestry is just one of the initiatives that might help,” Javed noted.
The programme of work will flow out of an initial consultation, scheduled to take place in Kathmandu on 27-28 March 2015. All relevant stakeholders will be invited to the meeting to review ongoing agroforestry work and discuss whether any technologies may be ready for up-scaling, or whether any "low-hanging fruit" can quickly be deployed to farms across the country. The same workshop will also launch a dialogue as a first step toward the development of a national agroforestry policy.
ICRAF aims to have an impact on the ground in Nepal in the short-term to prove that the new collaboration can produce real results. On that front, Rizvi is very optimistic. “A very good partnership is in the offing,” he concludes.
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