Fintrac Harvest Summer 2009

New bridge opens route to market, improves access to Nepal schools

KATHMANDU, Nepal – After flooding destroyed a culvert in Rautahat, Central Region, growers in the area could not get their produce to market and school children in the area had to tread carefully across a makeshift bridge to get to school.

Fintrac, through the USAID/Nepal Flood Recovery Program (NFRP), quickly built a new, 40-foot bridge to get business flowing again and provide a safer route for pedestrians.

The program has completed 35 other infrastructure projects and 50 are underway.

Fintrac’s team in Nepal is also implementing a “livelihoods and income generation” component, which is training 2,200 farmers in integrated crop management techniques including nursery management, soil preparation, irrigation installation, IPM and postharvest handling.

Fintrac started rehabilitating and improving small community infrastructure and helping flood victims increase farm incomes after heavy monsoon rains in 2007/2008 affected more than 600,000, brought agriculture to a standstill and left much of the country’s rural infrastructure in shambles. Fintrac is working in six districts of the Central and Western Terai regions of Nepal.