BIAC members have provided financial support for Roger Cozens of Greenacres Consultancy to return to Nepal to assist with the recovery and rebuilding of the agricultural infrastructure following the recent earthquake.Roger has significant knowledge of agriculture within Nepal having worked many times in the country and only returned from Nepal 10 days before the first earthquake occurred. Roger has over 20 years’ experience of working in Nepal ( 6 years living there and the rest on annual consultancy visits), he is also fluent in Nepali language. Roger has told his colleagues in BIAC how he was devastated by the news of the earthquake, and the effect on his many colleagues and friends there. The impact of the earthquake on food security and agricultural livelihoods is very high. Farmers who miss the planting season that is expected to start late May onwards will be unable to harvest rice – the country’s staple food -- again until late 2016. This, together with likely losses of food stocks and wheat and maize harvests, will severely limit food supplies and incomes. Some of the country’s most vulnerable agricultural areas, particularly the villages in mountainous and hilly regions, bore the brunt of the earthquake.
Thanks to the support of BIAC Members Roger is now back in Kathmandu to help and is expected to remain in the country until mid-June.
In Roger’s latest email he reports that aftershocks are still being felt with virtually all the local grain storage structures having collapsed. The situation is worse in the north due to landslides which have affected standing crops, there is an urgent need for 600 metric tons of rice for the whole district and vegetable seed.
He commented “The planting time for rice paddy is near and so we need to procure seed and deliver quickly. The weather is changing quickly as we are now going into the monsoon period”Roger can be contacted by
email at roger@greenacres-consultancy.co.uk
or to view his blog please go to www.agriadvice.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks to the support of BIAC Members Roger is now back in Kathmandu to help and is expected to remain in the country until mid-June.
In Roger’s latest email he reports that aftershocks are still being felt with virtually all the local grain storage structures having collapsed. The situation is worse in the north due to landslides which have affected standing crops, there is an urgent need for 600 metric tons of rice for the whole district and vegetable seed.
He commented “The planting time for rice paddy is near and so we need to procure seed and deliver quickly. The weather is changing quickly as we are now going into the monsoon period”Roger can be contacted by
email at roger@greenacres-consultancy.co.uk
or to view his blog please go to www.agriadvice.blogspot.co.uk