Omei Turnbull 1200867038|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
The primary motivation for this is that the economy of the Achham district is largely based on subsistence agriculture, with chronic food shortages having a major detrimental impact on the health of the population. In addition to the health problems caused by chronic malnutrition, food shortage is indirectly the main cause of HIV in the district. This is because most of the men leave the district to work in India for nine months of the year, and they do this not because they earn much in India, but to leave more of the food which they grew in the summer available for their families. While in India, the men contract HIV and bring this back to their families when they return.
This agriculture tradition of growing just a single crop seems to stem from the fact that most of the rainfall occurs during the summer monsoon season. For eight months of the year, there is a negative moisture index. (That is, there is less rainfall than evaporative loss.) There is little or no infrastructure for doing irrigation. But with the addition of irrigation infrastructure (the water itself is available year-round from the rivers), the climate in the district would support year-round agriculture. Average temperatures in the coldest part of the year are similar to San Diego, where winter is the best time of the year to grow many vegetables (beets, broccoli, cabbage, chard, peas, greens, onions and turnips being some examples). Achham is closer to the Equator than San Diego is, so there is at least as much sun. Specifically, The Map of Potential Vegetation of Nepal indicates that the climate of the Achham valleys is suitable for growing winter potatoes, which presumably (because they were used as a sample crop in the study) is a crop already familiar to the population.
The major reason the hill dwellers don't make better use of the their agricultural potential is lack of knowledge about the possibilities. This is where the training role of the tele-medicine facility comes into play. Water is available (free) on the site. With Internet access to information on suitable crop varieties and techniques, along with a demonstration garden that they pass on their way to the facility, people would see how they could improve their lives by growing crops year-round, and/or by growing more appropriate varieties of the crops they already grow.
Sources:
Nepal Agricultural Policy and Strategies for Poverty Alleviation and Food Security (http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/ae898e/ae898e00.htm)
The Map of Potential Vegetation of Nepal (http://www.forestrynepal.org/the_map_of_potential_vegetation_of_nepal)
Documentary of HIV in Far Western Nepal (http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8155873131923192292&hl=en)
Omei Turnbull, 1200867038|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
