Fintrac Harvest Fall/Winter 2008

Fintrac quickly improves embankments to protect Nepal flood victims

KATHMANDU, Nepal – Fintrac is working to rehabilitate and improve community infrastructure and incomes for flood victims in six districts of the Central and West er n Ter ai r egi ons of Nepal t hr ough t he USAID-funded Nepal Flood Recovery Program (NFRP).

Heavy monsoon rains last year caused serious damage, adversely affecting more than 600,000 people. NFRP was designed to support grassroots community recovery efforts in direct coordination with village development committees (VDCs) to ensure strong local ownership and greater sustainability.

In its typical accelerated start-up mode, and with proven experience in “building back better” from natural disasters, Fintrac fielded its team, operationalized its

subcontract with local firm METCON, established its implementation and subcontracting mechanisms, officially launched the project, and completed an extensive community-based rapid appraisalprocesswithin the first quarter of operation.

Most importantly, it completed its first intervention, a 475-meter riverbank protection wall for the Barainiya VDC. The structure uses locally adapted, cost-effective bioengineering techniques and protects 275 households from further flooding and erosion damage.

Next up is a large- scale effort to support agricultural income generation for flood- affected families through establishment of demonstration plots and basic technology transfer and more infrastructure development.

Yohannes learned how to prepare land to improve soil composition and was introduced to high quality seeds, proper planting and spacing techniques, weeding techniques and IPM. The result was a substantial increase in yields: 420 kilograms per hectare, 50 percent higher than the previous season, and 170 kilograms per hectare higher than average sesame yields in Humera.

Moreover, the application of GAPs including proper land preparation, weeding and use of quality seeds lowered his production costs from $548 per hectare ($6,576) to $361 ($4,332), a 34 percent drop.

“My business is now profitable and I am planning to expand my farm,” Yohannes said.

Fintrac’s ATEP program is an aggressive, market-led effort designed to energize four Ethiopian industry sectors – coffee; hides, skins and leather; oilseeds and pulses; and horticulture. The project is dramatically improving competitiveness and productivity for thousands of farmers, processors and traders resulting in increased exports, investment, employment and incomes. The USAID-funded project is scheduled to end in April 2011.