World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Women gather in the village to discuss about the agricultural issues in Moyal village of Bajhang district in far-western Nepal. In 2011, Under the Food- and Cash-For-Assets scheme, WFP in partnership with German development agency GIZ introduced the community-based commercial farming in the village to improve the livelihoods of food-insecure people through effective long-term agricultural interventions.

Women are the vital agricultural labour force in Moyal village. As most of the farmers struggle to produce enough food for their families, the men have migrated to India to work, leaving women to tend to farming.

Thanks to WFP and GIZ support, the food-insecure villagers have now switched to community-based commercial farming of cash crops instead of relying on traditional crops like rice, wheat and maize. The farmers said their lives have improved after switching to commercial farming of cash crops.

Women weed the garlic field in the village. This is their second cropping cycle. In the first cycle between May to October 2011, they planted chilly and had bumper harvest earning enough money to buy cereals from the market and to invest in subsequent crops.

Villagers show the dried chilly which they are planning to sell in the market at Rs. 300 (US $3.4) per kg. They are expecting to earn approximately Rs.300,000 ($3,410) by selling their stock of 1,000 kilograms of dried chilly - a fortune for the community which they plan to invest on constructing a multipurpose community house with an agricultural drying facility and improving the irrigation facilities.

After the first harvest, the village was nicknamed as the 'Chilly village' and became the role model in the district of Bajhang in Far-western Nepal. Under the joint collaboration between WFP and GIZ, the community-based commercial farming has now been implemented in 23 Village Development Committees of Nepal's far-western region benefitting nearly 47,000 people.