Where rivers run dry, landless farmers benefit: vegetables from riverbeds

Ms. Katharina Schiller, a master student from Hohenheim University, is investigating the sustainability of riverbed farming in the Indo-Gangetic plains (the Terai) of southern Nepal, in collaboration with Helvetas Nepal. 

After the monsoon season, rivers run dry again, giving landless and land-poor farmers, as well as those whose arable lands have been lost to siltation from floods, an opportunity to use the dry riverbeds for vegetable farming. 

Ms. Schiller has been in Nepal since late March. After spending a week meeting stakeholders from the Riverbed Farming Alliance in Kathmandu, she went to Dhangadhi, in the southwest corner of Nepal, to do the bulk of her field work. There, she met stakeholders at the local government level before beginning regular trips to meet with riverbed farming groups in the two westernmost districts of the Terai, Kailali and Kanchanpur. Most groups she has met have been composed of Tharu (indigenous) people, and a large percentage have been female farmers. These represent two of the most disadvantaged groups in the Terai. 

In the riverbed farming program, riverbed land is leased to groups of farmers. The groups receive lessening amounts of inputs for 3 years. Technological training through Local Resource Persons continues after the project phases out. The groups Ms. Schiller has met have been farming in the riverbeds for several years now and report very positive results. The income from the sales of vegetables have allowed them to increase their household's year-round access to food, purchase arable land, open new businesses, and invest in their children's education. Eating patterns have changed, with all farmers interviewed thus far reporting that they eat much more vegetables now than in the past. Most groups also mentioned a reduction in male out-migration to seek employment in urban centers of Nepal or India. 

The success of riverbed farming is evident from the high level of replication of the technology by other villagers (spill over effect), clearly visible in adjacent fields. 

Ms. Schiller is looking forward to continuing to meet riverbed farming groups in the next weeks. 

Photos: Katharina Schiller