In August 2018, a project of Amics del Nepal called Namuna Bari started with the goal of creating a kitchen garden that could provide new and better nutrition to the Children of Bhimphedi Balmandir and be an inspiration and resource for the local farmers to include new techniques and products.
We started working on mushrooms, tomatoes and vegetables productions. Now it is the time to start working with the next objective of the project: fruit trees cultivation. Monsoon (June to September) is the right season to plant and grow for fruit trees. So we started doing research on the internet and making field visits to gather information.
The first visit of Kush (our Namuna Bari project coordinator) was the National Center of Fruit Development in Kirtipur. In this place he learned about a new system for growing fruits and vegetables that may be applied in future in Namuna Bari and he also got the prices of the different saplings and knew which saplings could be bought in this place.
The second visit was to a local nursery to know how much a fruit sapling costs and to make an exact budget. The cost of fruit saplings were quite high in comparison to Kirtipur but the nursery had tree saplings that were not available in Kirtipur.
The third place Kush visited was Swabalamban Bikash Company in Baluwatar. Actually, this is a bank, but they had a business of moringa (a kind of tree) farming outside Kathmandu valley. In that farm they made different products with moringa production. In our visit they explained in detail about moringa cultivation and production (where it can grow, plantation season, harvest time and caring period). We got also the prices of moringa saplings and seeds, and we decided for the seeds, as the transportation to Bhimphedi would affect the saplings badly.
Once we collected all the information, we made a list of fruit trees’ varieties that would be suitable for the Bhimphedi climate and its budget.Once the budget was approved, the youth team helped to buy and collect the saplings from different places and received some training in the process.
All in all, the saplings have already been planted in Namuna Bari in Balmandir:
- Apple
- Avocado
- Citric fruits (lemon, Pomelo, Junar, Orange and Muntala)
- Kiwi
- Moringa
- Litchi
- Mango
- Pomegranate
- Persimmon
- Custard apple
- Plum
We are taking good care of them and we will keep doing it further. The moringa seeds are already planted to grow to seedlings as well. We hope all these saplings will grow well.
After some years, these trees will hopefully give plenty of fruits to the Balmandir family and will be an inspiration to the local farmers who are yet unaware of some of the varieties that we have planted.
The Namuna Bari project is made possible by the support of Ateneu del Món and the City Council of Sant Quirze del Vallès