2021 Seed Grant Award Problem Statements 

Agriculture / Food Security

Problem #10: Women and smallholder ginger farmers suffer loss in productivity and profitability due to lack of access to locally appropriate, low-cost, and effective ginger storage options.

Country/Region of execution:  Nepal
Collaborating Organization: Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was founded in 1943 and has supported partners in Nepal since the 1970s. CRS arrived in Nepal in response to the 2015 earthquake, not only supporting over 20,000 households to rebuild their homes, but also integrating reconstruction programming with economic recovery through assistance to earthquake affected farmers. CRS assisted 40,000 families through seed distributions, farmer field schools on production and storage and goat interventions while also piloting a three-year project to introduce and support cardamom pre- and post- production. CRS works strengthen agricultural value chains in Nepal through the USAID Farmer to Farmer program in which provides technical assistance from US agriculture experts (including from Purdue University) to local organizations to improve productivity, improve access to markets, and build local capacities. CRS completed an inclusive value chain assessment for lentil and ginger in February 2020, the results of which inform our continued value chain support.
Problem Statement Description:  Ginger is a major cash crops for women and smallholder farmers in Palpa district of Nepal as it grows on hilly marginal lands with a relatively low cost of production. Demand for ginger in local as well as international markets makes it a lucrative option despite the occasional price fluctuations. CRS Nepal, in technical collaboration with Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), conducted an Inclusive Value Chain Study for Ginger Sub-sector in Nepal in 2020 to understand the barriers that smallholders and women farmers face to engage with key actors along the value chain to increase their income and profitability. The study showed that the profitability of smallholders is reduced as they are compelled to sell their produce immediately after harvest, when the prices are generally low, due to lack of access to appropriate storage options. Large farmers, who are better able to store ginger, can sell their crop off-season when the prices are high and earn greater profit. Ginger, being a perishable commodity, requires proper storage facilities to retain quality. Similarly, the majority of smallholder’s report deterioration of their stored ginger which they often use for seed purposes, impacting productivity as well. Based on the recommendations of the study, CRS Nepal is now exploring collaborations with various stakeholders, including government, to address the challenge. CRS’s work targets vulnerable populations like smallholders and women farmers to increase their incomes by strengthening their engagement across the value chain. The afore-mentioned challenges related to productivity and profitability need to be addressed to contribute to the objective of increased income for smallholders. While government agencies like the Ginger Research Program under Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) have developed ginger storage technologies, the outreach and adoption of these solutions has been low among smallholders and women farmers. Though the solutions developed by NARC have shown promising results in reducing storage losses, necessary adaptations are needed to make the solutions more appropriate for resource-poor smallholders and scalable across diverse locations. Hence, CRS does not anticipate co-creating new solutions but rather technical support in refining the solutions that NARC has developed to increase chances of adoption by women and smallholders. The problems and bottlenecks mentioned above are linked to SDG Goal 1 and Goal 2 which are related to achieving food security, promoting sustainable agriculture and sustainable livelihoods. By overcoming these problems, smallholders and women farmers will be able to increase productivity and income from ginger.