{"id":20023190,"date":"2017-10-25T12:30:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=23190"},"modified":"2020-12-20T01:19:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T19:49:30","slug":"milk-to-meat-a-nepali-village-diversifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/milk-to-meat-a-nepali-village-diversifies\/","title":{"rendered":"Milk to meat: a Nepali village diversifies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surrounded by the rocky lower-Himalayan mountains, the village of Chyamrangbeshi is returning to normal after the deadly earthquakes in 2015 \u2013 but in a different way to most. The village, known for milk-based sweets called \u2018khuwa\u2019, now has fisheries and poultry coops for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chyamrangbeshi, Kavre, Nepal [image by: Nabin Baral]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cMy son got the ideas from several NGOs who came here to help after the earthquake,\u201d says Somnath Ghimire. In the village of about 50 families, almost every household relies on selling milk to the khuwa factories as its major source of income. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely new business for us.  It\u2019s also what we had never even thought we\u2019d do, as we don\u2019t eat meat.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are now three poultry coops in the village and several fishponds, some of which have already started selling fish. It takes some time to stabilise fish ponds to a point where they can produce fish at a sellable scale.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The fish pond of Kamal Lama, who was the first in the village to start fish farming [image by: Nabin Baral]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWe had subsistence farming. We continued what our parents did but after the earthquake, several organisations advised us about different ideas that could regain our economic prospects in better ways,\u201d says Ghimire. \u201cWe realised that diversifying our economy is important, because if something goes wrong in one business we will have other options.\u201d<\/p>\n