Høsten slår fejl og stort dæmningsprojekt på vej. There is a growing trend of crops failure across the country in recent years with the use of
hybrid seed varieties by farmers and unregulated market mechanism.
Rabin Bogati
Trianglen Monthly Updates from Nepal
Crop failure
There is a growing trend of crops failure across the country in recent years with the use of
hybrid seed varieties by farmers and unregulated market mechanism. The defective
hybrid and genetically modified seed varieties of major crops, including rice, maize and
wheat are either provided as subsidies by the government, non-government organizations
and donors or are imported from India by the local companies for farmers, touting such
seeds as essential to increase production and earn profit. The Government officials say
that cases of crop failure particularly rice and maize are being reported with the entry of
hybrid and genetically modified seeds in the country through the porous Nepal-Indian
boarder. Government says the farmers are highly dependent on the imported seeds from
India, of which majority are unregistered and non-tested in our environments. Therefore
seeds fail to adapt to the local climate, resulting in serious crop failure.
The farmers have formed Victims Struggle Committee and accuse government for not
regulating the import of sub-standard seeds. They say we innocent farmers do not know
image1 much about the standard of
seeds, we used those seeds that
are largely available in the
market.
No scientific study has been
carried out so far to find concrete
reasons behind crop failures in
Tarai districts in recent years.
Reports attribute crop failure to
unfavorable climatic condition as
well as inappropriate use of
seeds. The use of hybrid seeds
particularly those imported from
India is also a major reason
behind the failure.
Failure and losses of crops in Nepal
2008 – Wheat hybrid seed failure in Far-western Tarai (lowland plain bordering with India)
2009-10 – Failure of hybrid maize seeds in Tarai area (Swiss Cooperation)
2010 – Failure of paddy crops in Far Western due to defective hybrid seed (World Food Programme)
2011 – Controversial deal by the government with the USAID and Monsanto to supply hybrid maize seeds
2012 – Severe crop loss in Tarai due to use of unregistered hybrid maize seeds smuggled from India
Solo tour for carbon measure
Slovenian aviator Matevz Lenarcic is on solo work tour to study carbon emission. He
landed at Pokhara Airport in Nepal on an ultra-light aircraft, Virus SW 914. The 53 years
old environmentalist, photographer and a pilot arrived here on a round-the-world ecofriendly
trip.
He started his tour
on 8 January 2012
and has traveled
to50 countries and
covered 86,000 Km.
His plane is fitted
with equipment for
measuring carbon
emitted by nature
and industry. He is
to cover 15 more
countries and
complete his survey
in two weeks (Mid
April 2012). image2
School Leaving Certificate Examination 2012 (SLC)
SLC is a test given by the government that every student has to take to go to college after
10th class in school. It is often called as Iron Gate for students. On 19 March more than
528,000 students took the test in about 1,750 examination centers. Among them 216,000
are girls students.
In the remote district of Rukum, two girl students gave birth to baby in two separate
exam centers while taking their English Test. Ms Rekha Garthi gave birth to a boy while
image3 Ms Kabita BK gave birth to a girl child within
an hour of commencement of the test at 7 AM
in a nearby health post. Both the ladies
continued to take the test after one hour rest.
The Examination committee allowed them one
hour addition time for taking the test.
Dil Kumari Oli, 20, brought her month-old
baby boy along to the SLC examination centre
in Butwal. She took her English exam nursing
her baby and she has brought along her fifth
grader niece, Ganga, to the exam room. “If the
baby cries, I give him to my aunt to breastfeed,”
says Ganga. Dil Kumari’s husband is a
former Maoist guerrilla and she had completed
up to Grade 8 in Dang.
West Seti Hydropower Project
image4
Government has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Three Gorges
Corporation (CTGC) for construction of 750 MW project in West Seti under public
private partnership. The CTGC will have 75% of the share and provide 2 to 5% share
from its stake to locals around the project. The project cost is estimated at DKK 0.1
Billion. The Parliamentary Natural resource Committee has also endorsed the project
implementation through CTGC. Though the West Seti Hydropower Project takes a few
years to complete, it has come at a critical time when the country is facing acute shortage
of power and up to 16 hours of load shedding situation.
Earlier this month Government established top priority to the development of
hydropower. The Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai (Vice Chair of Maoist Party)
coined a new slogan, “Democracy plus Hydropower equals to New Nepal” in
Hydropower Summit 2012 on 13 March. PM argued that hydropower is not an endproduct,
but an intermediary material that holds the key to the growth of other sectors
including agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and information and communication
services.
Biogas plants in clean development mechanism
Nepal has registered 40,000 biogas plants with the clean development mechanism (CDM)
of the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCC) for carbon trading. UNFCC
has approved 40,602 biogas plants so far, which will help Nepal to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions and earn foreign exchange.
Nepal has received $ 2.1 million for 20,000 biogas plants in 2006where the World Bank
bought carbon dioxide at $7 per tonne reduced due to the use of biogas. Nepal has
claimed that it has reduced 56,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year since 2006 and will
sell carbon to the interested party. Till date some 260,000 biogas plants have been
installed in the country.
Nepal has also initiated Forest Carbon Trust Fund and has received a total sum of US$
95,000 on behalf of community forest user groups in June 2011. The Forest Carbon Trust
Fund being implemented within a project on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+). The project focuses on sequestering carbon through
community-based forest management.
Danida supported Nepal in its community forestry programme since 1989 and helped
supported the local community in establishing a community forests in hills and middle
mountains. The carbon from these community forests could be sell in formal as well as in
volunteer markets.
Ex-fighters limited to 15 camps now
As per the decision of the Army Integration Special Committee, the ex-Maoist fighters
lodged at various 13 satellite camps have been shifted to the nearby main cantonments,
limiting the total camps to 15 – seven main and eight satellite camps.
Coordinators of the Army
Integration Special Committee
Secretariat source 13 satellite
camps were evacuated. Nepal
Army is assigned to look after
five of the vacated satellite
camps while Nepal Police shall
look after the remaining eight
camps. Two satellite camps
have been merged with a main
camp and other satellite camps
have been shifted to other main
camps. image5
Nepal Army personal erase Maoist Party slogans written on the gate of People Liberation
Army (PLA) Camp. NA has taken charge of the evacuated camp after the Maoist
combatants were shifted to divisional headquarters. The NA and Armed Police Force
have taken charge of the 13 satellite camps that were closed after the relocation of
combatants opting for integration.
The major political parties decided to vacate all the PLA cantonments and hand over
weapons stored there to the government by April 12. This development has raised hopes
that the peace process will finally come to a close. It is also expected to give the much
needed impetus to constitution making as the May 27 deadline of the Constituent
Assembly nears.
There are 9,705 combatants yet another chance to switch over to voluntary retirement and
refer the rest to the Nepal Army. The Army has been entrusted with the task to screen
candidates for integration based on its standard norms and the previous seven-point
agreement, which, among other things, commits to completing the integration process.
Leaders said it will be easier for the Army with a significant number among the 9,705
combatants likely to opt for voluntary retirement during the second survey beginning
April. Maoist leaders say the number will come down, but will be around the 6,500
ceiling set by the seven-point deal.
Maoist leader committed that all the combatants who opt for integration will be handed
over to the Army once the retirement process completes, weapons stored in containers
and used in the security of cantonments will be brought under the government within the
April 12.
Multi-million dollar forestry programme courts controversy
The Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Programme (MSFP) funded by UK Aid, Finland and
Swiss and supported by the government of Nepal has been questioned for nontransparency
and donor’s doubtful alignment with an NGO. An NGO called Rupantaran
has been chosen as an agency to execute the four-year MSFP. The donor community has
contributed 63%of the project’s total budget of US$ 62 million with the government
funding the rest for the implementation of the programme.
The NGO, set up in 2009 by a group of development professionals from the Livelihood
Forestry Programme (UK Aid) and Swiss Community Forestry Project is running various
programme on improving livelihood through the funds from the Swiss and UK Aid.
Various groups, including experts from forestry sector, officials and community forest
users, have been expressing serious concerns over the programme from the very
beginning for its lack of transparency during the preparatory phase in terms of
institutional role and funding modality about two years ago. A Civil Society (CSO) active
in forestry sector showed its serious concern over the activities of the donor participating
in the programme. The CSO showed its dissatisfaction saying the programme is a result
of a pre-planned design that came without holding consultations with partners concerned,
including the CSO. The CSO disclosed that Rupantaran Nepal is an NGO formed by the
donors to execute their programmes
A five-member multi-stakeholder committee, formed to provide strategic guidance for
the implementation of the programme has no representation be from CSO, despite the
fact that the plan was to be implemented by the government, CSO and private sector
organization. The Global Alliance of Community Forestry accuse that the MSFP just
holds a symbolic meaning to them and it is not a multi-stakeholder and people’s
programme.
The Parliamentary Natural resource Committee has asked started a probe on this issue.
The committee has asked the facts and status from Ministry of Finance and Ministry of
Forests. The ministers and secretaries have reported the committee.
Pulling children out of Nepal’s prisons
Every year CNN (Cable network news, USA) receives nomination of many social
workers and philanthropic personalities from allover the world and identifies top 10
among them to be selected as CNN Hero. The CNN posts stories, videos of their works
and sought online votes for the CNN Hero selection. In year 2010, a Nepali lady (Ms
Anuradha Koirala, Chair of Maiti Nepal) was nominated and selected as CNN Hero
(http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive10/anuradha.koirala.html). The
award was for her contribution in anti human trafficking in Nepal.
In the year 2012, CNN has nominated another Nepali lady Pushpa Basnet, Championing
Children, for CNN Hero. Pushpa runs Early Childhood Development Center
(www.ecdcnepal.org), a butterfly home where children, once lived in Nepal’s prisons,
have shelter and education.
Puspa was just 21, while her
family ran a successful business
and she was studying social work
in college, as part of her studies,
she visited a women’s prison and
was appalled by the dire
conditions. She also was shocked
to discover children living behind
bars. One baby girl grabbed
Puspa’s shawl and gave her a big
smile. “I felt she was calling me,” image6
Puspa said. “I went back home and told my parents about it. They told me it was a normal
thing and that in a couple of days I’d forget it. But I couldn’t forget.”
So when no local guardian is available, an arrested parent often must choose between
bringing their children to jail with them or letting them live on the streets. Puspa who
started a nongovernmental organization to help says It’s not fair for (these) children to
live in the prison because they haven’t done anything wrong, my mission is to make sure
no child grows up behind prison walls.
Puspa decided to start a day care to get incarcerated children out from behind the prison
walls. While her parents were against the idea at first — she had no job or way to sustain
it financially — eventually they helped support her. But prison officials, government
workers and even some of the imprisoned mothers she approached doubted that someone
her age could handle such a project. “When I started, nobody believed in me,” Puspa said.
“People thought I was crazy. They laughed at me.”
But Puspa was undaunted. She got friends to donate money, and she rented a building in
Kathmandu to house her new organization, the Early Childhood Development Center.
She furnished it largely by convincing her parents that they needed a new refrigerator or
kitchen table; when her parents’ replacement would arrive, she’d whisk the old one to her
center.
Pushpa doesn’t need an alarm clock. Every morning, the sounds of 40 children wake her
up in the two-story home she shares with them. As she helps the children dress for
school, she might appear to be a housemother of sorts. This 28-year-old woman has saved
every one of them from a life behind bars.
Puspa is one of several in Nepal who have started groups to get children out of prison.
Since 2005, she has assisted more than 100 children of incarcerated parents. She runs a
day care program for children under 6 and a residential home where mostly older children
receive education, food, medical care and a chance to live a more normal life. “I had a
very fortunate life, with a good education,” Puspa said. “I should give it to somebody
else.”
Puspa is one of the 28 social workers nominated for 2012 CNN Hero
(http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/2012.heroes/index.html)
