Mr. Buddiman Tamang, 25 years old, is a resident of Semjung VDC, a remote municipality in Dhading district, Central Region of Nepal. This area was highly affected by the earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25, 2015. I meet him in the district capital, where he is arranging transportation of galvanized zinc roofing sheets for members of the cooperative, with financial support of Agriterra. He manages time to join the meeting that I have with board and staff members of the District Agricultural Federation Dhading, one of Agriterra s clients in Nepal.
Mr Tamang is since three years the manager of the small farmers agricultural cooperative in Semjung. This cooperative was established in 2012 with the support of Agriterra and has 425 members, all female. The earthquake had a heavy impact among the 425 members: 4 members died, 4 got injured, all lost their house and several lost their livestock. Also the cooperative office was destroyed. On top of that, the area is very unstable an prune to landslide with the upcoming monsoon rains. About 50 members and their families will have to resettle somewhere else. The cooperative has provided some fund to those families for dead/injured members and provided food. From government and 2 INGO they received temporarily shelter (plastic sheets) and some food. Thanks to a good and fast communication and cooperation between Agriterra and the district federation, it was possible to have earthquake related relief and agricultural reconstruction support within 6 weeks on the spot.
Mr Tamang tells: “this evening 80 bundles of roofing sheets will be transported to Semjung, supporting 80 families to construct a temporarily house/ animal shed. It is not enough , and the support will never fully compensate the loss, but it helps. The board of the cooperative had the difficult task to divide the support: not easy when all families equally suffer to select whom you will help and whom not. But a selection was made and we try to provide to equally divide the support: Those who get roofing sheets will not get animals. The solidarity in the community has grown. We distributed 50 pouches of vegetable seeds, 10 families received 50 chicks/family and 40 families a goat. We are in process of purchasing 10 pigs for other families. The solidarity in the community has grown.
Mr Tamang says : “I am proud of the cooperative as we are very active, unlike many other cooperatives in his area. And the members as well as non members are very happy with the cooperative”. He asks Agriterra to continue the capacity building programme through the district federation: We want to move on with our lives, and we have to do better farming to have a better income, especially in such a period, so please continue with for example the farmer field schools”.
