Asia Innovative Farmer’s Action (AIFA)

PROJECT LOCATION	Dang and Surkhet
PROFESSIONAL STAFF	x
OTHER STAFF	x
NAME OF CLIENT/DONOR	USAID
NO. OF PROFESSIONAL MAN MONTHS	X
NO. OF OTHER MAN MONTHS	X
START DATE (Month/Year)	10th October, 2016
COMPLETION DATE (Month/Year)	30th September, 2017
APPROX. VALUE OF SERVICES	$28,431
NAME OF ASSOCIATION FIRM, IF ANY:	Winrock
NO. OF MAN-MONTHS OF PROFESSIONAL STAFF PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED FIRM:	Not Applicable

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT

Pest Exclusion Net (PEN) component under Asia Innovative Farmers Activity (AIFA) is a one year initiative in Nepal funded by USAID and implemented by Center for Environmental and Agricultural Policy Research and Extension and Development (CEAPRED) in partnership with Winrock International (WI). The project has been partnering with universities, private sector actors, Feed the Future (FTF) projects, and others to increase food security, reduce poverty, and improve environmental sustainability by facilitating agricultural innovation and technology diffusion in the Asia region. AIFA carries out activities to increase agricultural productivity in primarily horticulture. This project includes five vegetable crops namely, tomatoes, brinjal, cucumber, cauliflower and leafy vegetables, which are highly demanded in market and have high value.

The project has identified pest exclusion nets on horticultural crops as the first technology for AIFA to support in Nepal. In Nepal, the use of pest exclusion nets is very limited as there are only a few farmers that started testing the use of the nets for commercial production of vegetables, mainly capsicum. Based on field research on the application of these nets, AIFA has identified a gap of knowledge on the technical and financial viability of the nets in Nepal. AIFA seeks to close this gap by supporting NGOs, to conduct field trials and complete an analytical study that compares vegetable production with and without pest exclusion nets. The objective of the trial and eventual study is to examine the performance of pest exclusion nets and to recommend appropriate options for net based vegetable farming.