Pax Earth has been executing Fruit Garden project in three villages – Kot Timal, Kalimati, and Poudelthok situated in ward no. 5 of Namobuddha Municipality, Kavrepalanchok, Nepal. We have aimed to create sustainable fruit gardens at household level in these villages. Main objective of these fruit gardens is to contribute to create sustainable fruit gardens and thereby to improve the incomes of the farmers once the trees start to yield fruits in sellable quantity in future. In order to empowering underprivileged farmers in sustaining their fruit farming, Pax Earth has been conducting training and workshop on fruit trees management once every year since 2021.
On January 25 and 26, 2024, a Pax Earth team led by president Sujan Koirala along with secretary Manohar Sapkota and resource person horticulturist Ramhari Prasad Upadhyay travelled to Kalimati, Kot Timal, and Poudelthok, and conducted the workshops at three different fruit gardens. Main objective of the fruit plants management training is to prepare and facilitate the farmers for fruit farming in a systematic way. The workshop was mainly focused on empowering the farmers with the relevant skills and knowledge on several aspects of fruit farming on an interactive and collaborative learning environment following the learning by doing method. Altogether 65 farmers benefitted from the training conducted at these three villages.
In the workshops, horticulturist Upadhyay shared about the theoretical aspects of pruning, training, grafting, topworking, manuring, watering, mulching, pest and disease management, weeding, and their importance in fruit trees and plants management. Pruning is a practice of removing certain portions of a tree or shrub such as branches, buds or roots that are damaged, dead, and dying due to pests, disease and lack of sunlight or trimming for developing healthy plant and aesthetic purposes. It helps to treat disease, remove hazardous branches, improves air circulation, encourage new growth, and facilitate quality fruit production. Training helps to shape the tree for better sunlight exposure, air circulation and direct its growth. It is important for a healthy and strong tree. Grafting is a horticultural technique to join parts from two or more plants so that they appear to grow as a single plant. A grafted plant inserts a piece of one plant (scion or bud) to the roots and the bottom portion of another plant (rootstock). Topworking is a method to graft a new variety (or varieties) onto the trunks or branches of a mature tree. It can make an orchard more efficient by replacing poor quality or unproductive varieties with better ones. Manuring (fertilising) provides essentials nutrients for the growth of the tree and fruit production. There are organic (compost manure) and inorganic fertilisers. Watering provides adequate moisture for growth of the trees and fruits. Mulching helps to conserve soil moisture, supress weeds, and improve soil structure. Pest and disease management is an important aspect of the fruit tree management. It protects trees from harmful insects, bacteria, viruses and fungi. Weeding is the process of removing unwanted plants from plants and grasses around the base of the trees to reduce competition for essential resources including nutrients, water, and sunlight, reducing the risk of pests and diseases as well as to ensure their healthier growth. These activities when done timely and correctly can contribute to the health and productivity of fruit trees leading to a successful and sustainable fruit farming. Horticulturist Upadhyay demonstrated how to prune, train, manure, graft and topwork on some of the fruit plants and trees at first using proper tools and equipment – secateur, pruning saw, and grafting knife.
On January 25, we conducted a workshop at the kiwi fruit garden of Dev Bahadur Sorali Magar in Kalimati. More than 20 farmers attended and benefitted from the workshop. The beneficiary farmers included Kusum Maya Tamang, Chet Maya Tamang, Kanchhi Sorali Magar, Jagat Tamang, Chiti Maya Sorali Magar, Purna Bahadur Sorali Magar, Krishna Tamang, Lal Kumari Tamang, Marsang Tamang, Padam Bahadur Tamang, Hira Kaji Tamang, Lal Maya Tamang, Mendo Tamang, Iman Singh Tamang, Tirtha Tamang, Ambar Ale, Dev Bahadur Sorali Magar, Tuk Bahadur Magar, Gopal Bahadur Sorali Magar, Tersang Tamang, Pasang Tamang, Kumar Ale, Bhim Bahadur Tamang, and Sarki Man Tamang.
On January 26 morning, we conducted a workshop at the kiwi fruit garden of farmer Ramhari Khakurel. Nearly 30 farmers attended and benefitted from the workshop. The beneficiary farmers included Bhairab Bahadur Koirala, Basudev Koirala, Baburam Koirala, Ramhari Koirala, Narayan Prasad Pandey, Kabin Koirala, Bhim Bahadur Tamang, Lal Dhwoj Tamang, Gyanja Man Tamang, Guna Raj Tamang, Ramhari Khakurel, Marich Man Lama, Keshav Raj Koirala, Ganesh Bhurtel, Binod Bahadur Koirala, Uttam Bahadur Badal, Pramod Koirala, Rammani Koirala, Bishnu Raj Bhandari, Pabitra Koirala, Pasang Tamang, Sancha Maya Tamang, Ram Sharan Koirala, Hari Sharan Koirala, Ramesh Khakurel, Dev Raj Khakurel, Ningmar Tamang, Indra Raj Bhandari, Uddhav Prasad Koirala, and Shiva Prasad Pandey.
In the afternoon, we conducted workshop at the fruit garden of Seti Devi Primary School. Including teachers, nearly 15 farmers attended the workshop. The beneficiaries include Chandra Bahadur Tamang, Achyout Prasad Poudel, Prem Hari Poudel, Hari Krishna Mainali, Mana Raj Tamang, Kanchhi Tamang, Dipendra Prasad Poudyal, Ganga Maya Tamang, Subba Singh Tamang, Durga Prasad Mainali, Ramkala Poudel, and Indira Koirala.
The beneficiaries not only learned these important terms of fruit trees management theoretically but also practiced them using proper tools and equipment (secateur, pruning saw, and grafting knife) at the respective fruit gardens. At Kalimati and Kot Timal, they could practice pruning and training on kiwi trees while at Seti Devi Primary School, they could practice on apple trees. They applied manure at the kiwi and apple trees systematically. They irrigated the fruit trees with water and mulched around the base of the tree using leaves and grasses to conserve moisture of soil for the long time. Besides, they learned how to graft onto rootstock and topworking on a few trees practically. Horticulturist Upadhyay suggested to apply pruning, training, manuring, watering, mulching, grafting, and topworking in between mid-December and end of January (in late winter or early spring) before new growth begins.
The workshop has created a very positive impacts in fruit cultivation in Kot Timal. The farmers are not only happy to harvest the fruits from the saplings we distributed for the last four years but also happy to see their older fruit trees are yielding quality fruits in larger quantity. A few farmers are able to sell their surplus fruits (particularly, kiwi fruits, orange, lemon, kumquat, and avocado) at the markets in Banepa and Kathmandu. They have assured to apply these knowledge and skills on their respective fruit gardens.
The participants highly appreciated Pax Earth for conducting such an important workshop and extended a sincere gratitude to horticulturist Upadhyay for sharing important knowledge and inputs to care and grow these fruit saplings and trees properly. The beneficiary farmers in both the villages expressed their gratitude to Pax Earth for teaching how to plant and care them properly and for providing the fruit saplings regularly. They requested to the Pax Earth team to organise such a valuable training and workshop time and again in future too.
To encourage the best performing farmers, we have started to provide incentives such as cash incentives, financial support for infrastructure, full subsidy on fruit saplings, and useful tools (secateur, pruning saw, and grafting knife) to manage fruit trees at Kot Timal from this year. We provided cash incentives to farmer Ramhari Khakurel for creating trellis for kiwi farming. Similarly, we provided cash incentives to farmer Lal Man Tamang for improving trellis for kiwi farming and selling a large quantity of kiwi, orange and kumquat.
Pax Earth has been implementing a fruit garden project to facilitate local farmers to create sustainable fruit gardens at the household’s level in these villages for the last 4 years. The primary objective of the fruit garden project is to contribute to create sustainable fruit gardens and thereby to improve the incomes of the farmers once the trees start to yield fruits in sellable quantity in future. Improve health and nutrition, promote greenery and minimise youth migration are a few secondary objectives of the project. Although we are still at experimental phase, we could identify kiwi fruits and lemons are highly potential fruits for selling based on production quantity and quality. In the next two years, we can identify the market potential for apple, pear, and orange too.
The Fruit Garden project and its important component the fruit trees management workshop have played a great role in attracting more and more farmers towards fruit farming gradually over the years. We expect the farmers in Kalimati and Poudelthok will involve actively to create sustainable fruit gardens too. We are happy to educate and empower the farmers through such workshops. We will support them to improve their earnings by involving them in creating commercially viable fruit gardens although it will take some years for these trees to mature and yield fruits in large quantities. We are happy to contribute to earth and environment even though in a small scale.
Reported by PEN Secretariat!
Acknowledgement!
Pax Earth would like to express a sincere gratitude to horticulturist Ramhari Prasad Upadhyay for his precious time and sharing important knowledge and inputs to the underprivileged farmers in Kalimati, Kot Timal and Poudelthok. His continued support has been instrumental in encouraging farmers for fruit farming in Kot Timal. We are thankful to local contact persons Umesh Khakurel, Pasang Tamang, and Subba Singh Tamang for contacting the farmers and setting up the venues for the training at the fruit gardens in Kot Timal, Kalimati, and Poudelthok respectively. We are grateful to president Sujan Koirala and secretary Manohar Sapkota for holding the workshops successfully.
