Strengthening local capacity for climate-resilient agriculture in Karnali

About the event

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), through the Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP), in collaboration with the Agriculture and Livestock Business Promotion Training Centre, Ministry of Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, is organising a six-day training to strengthen the local capacity of government agriculture extension trainers from Karnali Province on climate-resilient agricultural practices (CRA). As Karnali Province is scaling up CRA and Climate Learning Centres (CLCs) across all districts, this training will play a vital role in supporting Karnali Province’s transition towards becoming an organic province.

Building on earlier collaborations with ICIMOD, the province has already introduced concepts such as Nature-based Solutions (NbS), community learning centres, and agroecological approaches in its Redbook- annual budget documents and related policy documents, which this training will further strengthen and operationalise.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the training are to:

• Enhance the technical capacity of agriculture extension trainers on CRA
• Demonstrate practical applications of CRA through hands-on learning at CLCs.
• Support the provincial scale-up of CRA and CLCs by equipping trainers with knowledge and skills to effectively transfer practices to farmers across all districts.

Background

HI-REAP is a component of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) Climate Action for Resilient Asia (CARA) initiative. The programme aims to build a more cohesive and enabling regional environment for greener and more inclusive climate-resilient development pathways, creating the right policy and practice recommendations, and the institutional and investment environment to scale up new solutions. These solutions will be co-designed, co-tested, and promoted across a range of contexts in the Himalayan region.

One key focus area of HI-REAP is the wider scale adoption of NbS and promoting them as key climate solutions. This requires close engagement with national and sub-national government institutions, communities, and regional and international partners to secure buy-in. Interventions under NbS include watershed management, ecological and landscape restoration, bioprospecting, and disaster risk reduction.

Therefore, we are working to address growing climate vulnerabilities threatening mountain communities’ agriculture and food security. CRA, as an NbS, offers a sustainable, locally adapted, and inclusive approach. Strengthening the capacity of local institutions, government agencies, and stakeholders is key to scaling these resilient solutions.