In Agriculture and Rural Development in Nepal
 In recent years, the political situation in Nepal has been troubled. Nevertheless, Uniterra's partners are active in three program sectors: rural micro-finance, non-timber forest products, and dairy production. |
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 AGRICULTURE AND RURALDEVELOPMENT IN NEPAL Area: 147,000 km2 Population: 25.7 million (CIDA, 2004) Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: $240 US The principal agricultural export products are lentils, mustard seeds and hydrogenated oils (FAO) Agriculture accounts for 40% of GDP (CIDA, 2003) Life expectancy at birth is 60 years
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ON THE GROUNDWe support producers associations in the development of practices that protect natural resource. For each of the sub-sector, we work with a national level community based organization that we call local partners. Currently we are working with Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions Ltd. (NEFSCUN) for RMF, Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) for NTFP and Central Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union (CMPCU) for dairy.
UNITERRA PARTNERS IN NEPALFECOFUNEstablished in 1995, FECOFUN is an autonomous, non-partisan, socially inclusive, non-profit national federation of forest users which advocates for rights of community forestry user groups. FECOFUN’s membership stands at about 5 million people from almost all of Nepal’s 75 district. Major activities of FECOFUN include support to forestry user groups in the preparation and revision of constitution and operation plans, NTFP development and income generation, empowerment of women and disadvantaged groups and advocacy on community forestry related issues. It is also managing radio program and resources centre on community forestry. For more information, see www.fecofun.orgNEFSCUNNEFSCUN, established in 1988, is the central apex body of community based savings and credit co-operatives in Nepal. The mission of NEFSCUN is to promote, strengthen and provide a forum for Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) to become viable community based financial institutions by providing value added services such as education, training and financial services on a sustainable basis. NEFSCUN is controlled and owned by its members and guided by the International Credit Unions principles and values. 432 SACCOS with more than 70,000 members from 51 districts are affiliated to NEFSCUN. For more information, see www.nefscun.org.npCMPCUEstablished in 1993, Central Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Ltd. (CMPCU), is a national level tertiary organization of all the milk producers’ cooperatives at primary and secondary levels. CMPCU aims to bring increased economic benefits to milk producers and to contribute to make the country self-reliant in clean and quality milk and milk products. It provides support to members in the areas of quality milk production, animal caring, animal insurance, breed improvement, milk production, distribution and processing. It also implements policy advocacy activities at the central level to represent the interest of member organizations. Currently, 35 district milk producers’ cooperatives unions (DMPCU) and 1329 milk producers’ cooperative societies (MPCS) are affiliated to CMPCU. |
ENSURE A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTIn many countries, environmental degradation has a very negative impact on the expansion of agriculture and the sustainable development of rural populations.We support the protection of natural resources in Nepal. |
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