PHOTO CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

Unsung warriors: Breaking the bias for disaster resilience in the Koshi basin

We are excited to announce the long-awaited results of this photo contest! We ran the contest from February–September 2022 and received a wide range of excellent submissions.

Through the photo contest, we aimed to collate stories of individuals, institutions, and/or interventions that are significantly contributing to disaster preparedness and response or enhanced resilience in the Koshi basin. Our sub-themes included:

  • Water-induced disasters like glacial lake outburst floods, landslides, floods, flash floods, and debris flow
  • Green or resilient technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
  • Nature-based and scalable solutions for community resilience and adaptation

The entries were evaluated by a panel of four independent judges, including a professional photographer, communications specialist, gender specialist, and DRR expert. The photos were judged based on originality, clarity of the visual story, resonance with the theme, and composition (Focus of the main subject, creativity in the relative overall balance of the photograph).

Refer here for more details.

Implementing agri-based farming technology for off-season vegetable farming

Photographer: Bibek Yadav, CDAFN

Caption: Bishnu Maya Tamang, 43, is a resident of Bardibas Municipality-4, Gairi Tole, Mahottari district in Nepal and lives in a family of six. She was married at very young age and took on all the household responsibilities including taking care of her in-laws.

Bishnu Maya is a member of a 25-member community user group (CUG), the Community Development and Advocacy Forum Nepal (CDAFN) in Gairi Tole Village. Here, she has learned about preparing organic liquid fertiliser, integrated pest management (IPM), agri-based farming technology, and off-season vegetable farming with climate smart technology.

As an active member of CDAFN, Bishnu Maya has been able to develop her capacity in commercial vegetable farming through various techniques. She initially started with vegetable farming, earning a good income, and was inspired to expand to commercial vegetable farming within her 0.5 hector of land area.

Bishnu Maya explains, “This area is in a dry part of Bardibas Municipality where there are no irrigation facilities. I used to collect rainwater and drinking water from the nearby village for vegetable farming. When I became a member of the Panchadhura Livelihood Women’s Agriculture Group, I was able to receive irrigation facilities from the project. With an improved rainwater harvesting pond, the farming business has become easy for me and for other interested members in our group.”

“Due to changing climatic conditions, new diseases and pests have become a challenge for us every year. However, with the various IPM techniques we have learned, we are gradually moving forward from these problems and towards climate smart vegetable farming’’, she adds.

Bishnu Maya earns around NPR 45,000 per month through commercial vegetable farming after expenses. Her business has been profitable for past four to five years. She is happy with her work and plans to expand it continuously.