We understand that rebuilding community is about more than home reconstruction. The life of every family involves the vegetable garden, the animal shed, water run-off, terraced crops, and the forested ravines where animal fodder is harvested daily. Our community-driven agriculture program is working to implement viable solutions in Nepal with the global goals of carbon sequestration and reforestation in mind. The permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share also help form the foundation of work within our volunteer camp and the greater community.

Our aim is to give local farmers the opportunity to engage in regenerative agriculture initiatives, such as: coffee, permaculture design, and agroforestry. These initiatives are beneficial to the land, the farmers, and the community. We employ locals to help build a mutual understanding of our varied practices and culture. A portion of the food our volunteers eat, is purchased directly from local farmers as an initiative to support the local economy. Last year, we built a village water tank to support year-round access to water for farms and families. Through access to resources and training in regenerative agriculture, our hope is that these income-generating initiatives will give back to the community for generations to come.

The rice, potato, and corn-inhabited fields which populate the hills of Sindhupalchowk are beautiful but, for many farmers, backbreaking and simply provide sustenance. Every spring large terraces are tilled, seeds are planted, and fields are maintained until harvest arrives months later - an annual tradition of labor ingrained in the community. Our agroforestry program aims to support farmers beyond that system so that they may make greater investments in their land through less long-term labor and diversify their family income. With the intentional integration of productive shrubs and trees (like coffee, citrus, and moringa) farmers have the ability to develop more dynamic, ecological agriculture systems which benefit provide equal benefit to them and the fertility of their land.

Takure, at 1400 meters elevation, is a wonderful place to grow coffee. Thanks to our international community of volunteers and donors, we were able to invest in building a large greenhouse during our first year, which led to for formation of our agroforestry program and the local coffee cooperative. The Basic Organic Coffee Cooperative was formed in June 2017 by 60 members from Bimire and Takure. This community cooperative works in partnership with a larger group, provides a guaranteed source of income for farmer who invest in caring for their trees organically.

Since it’s formation, 20,000 coffee trees have been distributed - some of which are beginning to fruit! In June 2019, we’ll be distributing 7,000 more coffee trees. Cooperative members have also begun to experiment with citrus trees - 500 of which were planted last year - and moringa - 2,000 of which were planted this year.

Volunteers from around the world are immersed in a world of organic agriculture while at camp. Our volunteers have grown a garden that provides camp with organic vegetables every day during its high season. We are designing our volunteer camp in alignment with permaculture principles. The goal of which is to work with nature to build, abundance, fertility, and leave behind a system that will continue to flourish and adapt long after we leave. Many volunteers find their time in our nursery, mulching garden beds, or helping with our neighbors’ rice harvest, to be the highlight of their time in Takure.

We are working to integrate self-sustaining solutions at our volunteer camp because we believe in working with nature not against it.