Non-formal education promotes innovation and climate change preparedness among isolated Nepalese farmers

Farming systems of western Nepal are home to isolated, poverty-stricken people who must cope with weak agricultural extension services and negative effects of climate change. Our research objective was to identify, implement, and assess a suite of interventions promoting climate change preparedness and poverty reduction for two traditional farming communities in Bajura District. Participatory processes were first used to identify priority problems and solutions. Residents then received an intervention package implemented over 16 months that was targeted for problem solving and founded on non-formal education (NFE) training modules. Following the intervention period, a random sample of households gave their trend perceptions for 24 socioeconomic and agroecosystem attributes, and findings were compared with those from adjacent control communities lacking interventions in a quasi-experimental approach. Results indicated that community-based participation was an effective diagnostic research tool that allowed priority problems to be ranked and linked to either climate change or other factors of under-development. This sharpened our focus for the intervention phase. The intervention package had positive effects (P ≤ .047) on 23 of 24 attributes with particularly notable impacts on altering previous attitudes and beliefs, improving skill sets, boosting cash incomes, and supporting a more diversified mix of agricultural enterprises largely based on existing technologies. Improved goat production and marketing, however, was the main driver for socioeconomic change. In sum, improved risk management, widespread adoption of a planning mentality, and expansion of community-based collaborations were keys to success. We estimated that the intervention package was generally inexpensive, costing from US$ 1.48 to 4.75 per beneficiary. We concluded that use of participatory processes and NFE-based interventions can achieve impact quickly here. These are important means to build human capacity and community resilience, especially in places where implementation of novel, climate-smart agricultural technologies is difficult.