Rosan Subedi, Sindhupalchowk
Bhim Bahadur Tamang, 42, of Kadambas is a farmer who not only lost his house in April 2015's earthquake but also his granary, food items, and other utensils and goods.
Tamang's production of rice, maize and millet had significantly (more than 25 %) gone down after the earthquake. Then, he faced challenge in storing whatever was produced as he did not have space for storage, and moisture, rodents and rain further damaged his stock.
"I heard Oxfam was going to provide a grant of Rs 6500 to construct granary to earthquake-affected people who lost their houses and grain storage structure, so I contacted them," Tamang says.
In order to support people like him whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and were affected by earthquake, Oxfam has provided support for granary construction. The beneficiaries need to use local materials to construct the granary themselves. Oxfam provides technical support to design the granary, and after construction, provides them Rs 6500 as support.
It took Tamang six days to construct the granary for which he also employed one unskilled labor. He collected local materials like wood, bamboo, and stone for construction. "Excluding the cost of these local materials, my total expense was Rs 7000. I took some loan and bought iron sheets and pins from the market. I completed the construction and informed Oxfam to verify the constructed granary so that they could provide me the grant," says he. "I thank Oxfam for this innovative idea. Now it’s very easy for me to store maize, millet and rice in my granary and use them as per my need."
Until mid August 2016, 609 farmers have benefited from the granary support scheme, and this intervention has been appreciated by government authorities too. Ramesh Bhandari, a member of the joint monitoring visit from DADO (District Agriculture Development Office) said, “This intervention of granary support is very useful for farmers and it should be replicated in other village development committees too.”
“I thank Oxfam for this innovative idea. Now it’s very easy for me to store maize, millet and rice in my granary and use them as per my need.”