Sujana Pathak is a female member of the Ananda Farmers’ group in Belaka Municipality,Ward Number 4.She has a ” five-years old son, and her husband is working abroad. She decided to stay in the group to acquire new farming techniques and methods. Specifically, she developed a keen interest in bamboo and mushroom farming. Being part of the farmers’ group, she gained knowledge about nutrition and other related information. Sujana expressed her eligibility to receive various trainings and highlighted the ease of learning new things through discussions and
information exchange within the group. Sujana also informed us about the group’s regular meetings on the 24th day of the Nepali monthly calendar. During these meetings, the group collects seed money and provides loans to members for their regular needs or Agro-related businesses, nutritional food consumption, and more. She shared her experience of the nursery development and Good Agricultural Practices training provided to them through the project run in partnership between Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Sahara Nepal which is funded by Phil good Foundation (Neuflize/ OBC).

Sujana explained how her understanding of bamboo plantation changed during the training. Initially, she believed that one bamboo would produce one sapling, but she learned that each nodule could be nurtured to produce multiple saplings, thus increasing production. She also mentioned learning about preparing bio-pesticides and seed preservation during the Good Agricultural Practices training. As the landowner, Sujana’s motivation to provide land for nursery development stemmed from the information about using bamboo for disaster resilience and the plan to provide it for municipal use. She further expressed that after joining the farmers’ group, they used to rely on various pesticides, but through the training, they learned about utilizing cow dung and farmyard manure. They discovered the importance of creating a manure bed and covering it to prevent gas released while preparing manure at home. They also learned how to make manure using various other products alongside cow dung.

Sujana concluded the conversation by expressing her hope to receive more training on NUCS (Neglected and Underutilized Crop Species) production in the future.