Foodgrains Bank Learning Tour visiting first project in Nepal

The adventure has started for the 13 participants in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank’s (CFGB) learning tour in Nepal, including four from Manitoba, as they left Kathmandu Monday to head west to visit their first projects of the excursion. The several hours journey via jeep, over rough terrain, took them to the Dhusel and Ikudol region to see a project working to improve nutrition through agricultural training for women and children.

Prior to departing, reporter Betty Sawatzky spoke with three of the youngest members of the group; recently graduated agronomist Kiersten Jensen from Saskatoon, farmer Clayton Reesor whose family farm is on the outskirts of Toronto and farmer Lukas Burkholder who farms near Stouffville, Ontario.

"I'm originally from Hanna, Alberta, but currently living in Saskatoon," explained Jensen. "I didn't grow up on the farm, but strong agriculture connections, and currently working as an agronomist in Saskatoon."

"We do cash crops, grain corn, soy, wheat, but our big our biggest operation, I'd say, is sweet corn and the summer time," shared Reesor who farms with his parents. "Because of our close proximity to the city, we pick it and sell directly to customers in the city. So, the spring and fall I'm in the countryside, and in the summer I'm down in the city selling corn."

"I'm a third generation farmer from Stouffville, Ontario which is just northeast of the city (Toronto)," shared Burkholder. "I work on my family's cash crop operation with both my brothers, my dad and both my uncles. We grow corn, wheat and soybeans in rotation, and we grow about 3,000 acres."

Both Burkholder and Reesor are familiar with the work of the CFGB, having been involved in local grow projects, with the family's connected to the same project in previous years.

The entire learning tour group in Nepal

From there, Betty turned the conversation with Kiersten, Clayton and Lukas to what they were looking forward to over the next couple of weeks as they toured Canadian Food Grains Bank supported projects throughout Nepal. 

"The outreach they have, and their connections with the organizations here, and how that is actually helpful," noted Jensen. "Also, how the organizations here are able to just help the community they're in, and practically what that looks like. And just meet up with the people that are recipients of this help, and see how it affects their life."

Reesor agreed with Jensen, noting he was most looking forward to learning more about the practical farming practices being used by Nepalese farmers.

"I'm just curious to see the boots on the ground work that's being done," Reesor said. "To my understanding, the Foodgrains Bank is involved with teaching them different farming methods, so whether that's implementing no till practices or minimum tillage, whether they're encouraging rotations. I'm really fascinated to see the boots on the ground, practical applications the charities working around here do with these communities."

Burkholder shared a similar sentiment.

"I'm interested in seeing the farming practices of the people we come across, and how their culture affects the way they farm," Burkholder said. "We're going to be in a very different area in terms of elevation, so it's going to be farming on slopes or at the bottom of a mountain. I'm pretty curious to see how, coming from our background, different that is. Also, what's a success in this type of an environment? Farming is much smaller scale, it can't really grow to big farming acreages like we have in our area, so I'm pretty curious to see what the locals consider to be successful farming, what type of yields they get, the type of crops they're producing and also where they source a lot of their materials, their seeds and fertilizers." 

The group returns to Kathmandu Thursday, before hitting the road again in a couple days to the Lalitpur region to tour a project led by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency of Canada. It's focus is on building agricultural resilience in earthquare impacted farmers.

- With files from Betty Sawatzky - 

You can listen to Betty's conversation with Kiersten, Clayton and Lukas, below.