LocationsWith support from clean energy, improved farming practices and better market access, women in Jumla are increasing their incomes, gaining financial independence and taking leadership roles in their communities
Women farmers are reshaping remote Nepal’s economic landscape
October 15, 2026
Channarupa Budha of Patarasi Rural Municipality-4, Jumla, picking fresh apples
Photo: UNDP Nepal
For 50 years old Channarupa Budha of Lamri, Patarasi Rural Municipality 4, in Jumla, farming was once mainly about putting food on her family’s plate and table. Today, she is far more than a homemaker. She is a farmer, an orchard owner, and a source of inspiration and leadership in her remote mountainous village in western Nepal.
As chairperson of the Rani Farmers’ Group, she leads a 31-member group comprising of 26 women and five men. She works with them to increase agricultural production, strengthen food security and connect their products to local markets. She also helps farmers identify emerging problems in the field and find practical solutions.
Until three years ago, her main concern was producing enough food to feed her family. She cultivated maize, wheat, barley, beans locally known as Jumli Simi and potatoes. She spent most of her time in the fields working from dawn to dusk, counted as an ‘unpaid labourer’. Producing adequate food for her family was a source of happiness. Today, her focus has shifted towards farming as a source of income. She also encourages other group members to see it as an income-generating opportunity.
50 years old Channarupa carries a basket of freshly picked apples in her doko (traditional Nepali basket).
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Her outlook began to change after the Renewable Energy for Resilient Agri-Food Systems (RERAS) project, started providing the farmers’ group with monthly capacity-building training on improved agricultural practices, along with regular technical support. This water, energy and food nexus focused project, with a total budget of USD 12.54 million, is jointly funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Embassy of Finland, and United Nations Development Programme and implemented in collaboration with local governments and partners.
Meanwhile, today, 15th October, marks the International Day of Rural Women, a day to recognise and celebrate the invaluable contributions of farming women like including those in Jumla. These women not only sustain their livelihoods through their daily work in the fields but also play a profound role in protecting nature by preserving indigenous crops, conserving biodiversity, managing water resources, and restoring degraded soils.
From subsistence farming to entrepreneurship
Women are at the centre of agriculture in Jumla, often carrying a double burden of managing demanding farms and households while men migrate seasonally to India or urban cities for work. According to Mohan Singh Mahat, Agriculture Officer at Tatopani Rural Municipality, Jumla, women make up around 80 percent of the agricultural workforce, compared with 20 percent of men.
Since July 2023, RERAS has provided financial and technical support to farmers in Patarasi Rural Municipality, Chandannath Municipality and Tatopani Rural Municipality. The support includes gender-responsive agricultural tools and equipment designed to reduce women’s workload, as well as opportunities to increase production and income.
A woman working on apples from Jumla at the apple collection center in Chandanath.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Through the project support, Channarupa learned how to prepare land for apple farming, plant and care for saplings, prune and graft trees, irrigate orchards, and grow and harvest quality apples. Farmers in the area traditionally planted saplings with limited follow-up care and harvested fruit when it was ready. Premature harvesting was also common.
She now tends her orchard regularly and irrigates it using a micro-hydropower powered water-lifting irrigation system when there is no snow or rain. These improved practices have helped increase both her production and the price she receives for her apples. “When we provide proper manure, care and irrigation to our orchards, they produce bigger, juicier and tastier apples,” she says. The Rani Farmer Group’s members have also received a water-lifting irrigation system that draws water from Tila river to their orchards. This system is powered by the 998 kw community-led Chukeni Khola Micro Hydropower Project in Patarasi.
collection center for apples produced in the villages of Jumla.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Last year, Channarupa harvested five quintals of apples from 35 trees. This year, the same number of trees produced 12 quintals. Last year, she sold her apples to a middleman for Rs. 40 per kg. This year, after producing better-quality apples, she sold them to Chandannath Multipurpose Cooperative Limited in Khalanga for Rs. 80 per kg. “I have learned that when I produce quality apples, I can also get a better price than earlier,” she says. This shows how the farming skills acquired through the project are helping her earn higher prices for her produce and moving beyond subsistence farming towards a more income-generating livelihood.
Farmers supported by RERAS selling their produce in local markets
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Her potato farming tells same success story. Using an old seed variety, she could harvest only around 35 kg in a single season, making it difficult to meet even her family’s food needs. After receiving technical guidance, she changed to a different seed variety and improved her farming practices. This year, she harvested six quintals of potatoes, enough to eat and sell.
Her growing production has translated into higher income. She earned around Rs. 150,000 a year before the project support. This year, income from apple, Jumli bean and vegetable farming reached up around Rs. 350,000. The additional income has made easier for her family to buy food and meet household expenses.
Like Channarupa, women supported by the project are strengthening their economic, social and personal empowerment, creating more opportunities to participate in household and community decision-making. According to the project, women account for 71 percent of its beneficiaries including 11 percent Dalits.
Connecting clean energy to local food alters the economic and social fabric of rural Nepal.Kyoko Yokosuka, Resident Representative, UNDP Nepal
“In places like Jumla, we are seeing women progress from subsistence farmers to market-connected entrepreneurs and community leaders. Through the RERAS project, we are ensuring that rural women stand at the very center of self-sustaining local economies” says Kyoko Yokosuka, Resident Representative, UNDP Nepal.
A story shaped by resilience
Channarupa’s transformation is closely connected to her own life journey. She married at 15 and was widowed at 35. She raised her children through difficult circumstances. Her farm could not produce adequate food to feed her family of 10, so her sons worked as wage labourers. Two of them migrated to Rasuwagadhi in Nepal’s central mountain region to work on a hydropower project.
Channarupa Budha expresses joy while sharing her recent growth.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
As a single parent heading a household, she had few resources of her own, and the family depended on her sons’ wage labour. Project-supported training, irrigation, agricultural support, and a better market linkage changed that situation. As orchard income grew, both her sons planned to return home and expand the apple farming. Channarupa had already started planting up to 300 apple saplings, and her sons were preparing to come home for the upcoming Dasain festival.
On 26 August 2026, however, both sons went missing from the hydropower project area following flash floods in Rasuwa. Despite this, she continues to lead the farmers’ group and remains active in social upliftment work. Having long been actively involved in social work, she is now also considering contesting a future local-level election as she becomes more economically independent.
Technology means more opportunities
For 25 years old Samjhana Budha of Lasi, Patarasi, an electric sewing machine has changed the way she works. With grant support, she received the machine and 10 days of training. Previously she used a pedal sewing machine that required considerable physical effort. This strained her hands and legs, and she often felt pain through the night. The machine could also stop working during winter.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Samjhana Budha working on a tailoring machine in her enterprise supported by the RERAS project.
The electric sewing machine has made a significant difference. “Once I press the pedal lightly, this new machine starts working,” she says. “It is much easier, and I can work faster.” She now stitches seven sets of kurta-surwal in a day, compared with three before. She charges Rs. 350 per set and earns around Rs. 25,000 a month, nearly double her previous monthly income of Rs. 13,000.
Her journey into tailoring began with a need to earn. She married at 16 and had her first child the following year. The subsistence-oriented family farm production was only around for six months, so she looked for another source of income. She joined a free one-month tailoring training in her village and decided to turn the skill into a source of regular income. She moved with her husband and son to Lasi, a local market about a 90-minute walk from their village.
She bought a pedal sewing machine for Rs. 3,000 and started tailoring in a rented space. As the business thrived, she added a small clothing shop. The couple later opened a separate ready-made clothing shop for her husband. Samjhana claims the business she started six years ago has grown from a small investment into a business worth around Rs. 3,000,000. The electric sewing machine has enabled her to expand tailoring business and employ another person. In 2024, 14 women from Lasi including Samjhana, received electric machines. This has helped them reduce their workload, increase their income, and expand their business.
Timesaving for wellbeing
An electric mill in Patarasi is also saving women time and labour. Women previously walked 20 to 30 minutes to reach a traditional water mill, and with only one mill serving the village, getting a turn was difficult. “We often had to wait a long time to get our turn,” says local resident Sara Budha. “Now, the electric mill makes things much easier. It grinds the grain quickly.” The traditional water mills were located close to streams, exposing users to flood risks. Since men generally operated the mills, women also faced incidents of harassment and abuse, she says. The new electric mill is faster and safer. Sara now uses the time she saves to tend her apple orchard.
A couple supported by the RERAS project working on a mill.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
For Sapana Giri, a facilitator at Saideu Early Childhood Development Centre in Chandannath Municipality- 9, Umgad, reduced farm work has created more space to rest and care for her own wellbeing. She has worked as a facilitator since 2010 while also managing household farming.
In November 2025, she received an electric thresher through an 80 percent grant. She can now thresh up to 10 loads of rice a day. Previously, threshing four loads with a stick was physically demanding and time-consuming. Her 24-member group, Hamro Kuldev Krishi Utpadan Tatha Upabhokta Samuha, has also received an electric mill, which has also helped to reduce workload. Using a traditional mortar and pestle, two people could barely process 50 kg of rice in an entire day. The electric mill can do the same in around 15 minutes.
“Holidays used to be filled with farm work, and I would be completely exhausted by the end of the day. Now the work is easier, and I have time to rest,” she says, “Now, my husband is also encouraged to share the workloads by using technology-enabled agricultural tools.” Like many men in their village, he was previously reluctant to use traditional farming tools. She adds that the time saved has enabled members of her farmers’ group to participate in meetings, learn new skills and embrace new opportunities to increase their income. It has enabled family members, especially women, to devote more attention to childcare and caring for elderly family members at home, helping to reduce time poverty while improving household well-being.
Better income, stronger voice
For 27 years old Pabitra Koirala Neupane of Dhaulapani, Tatopani Rural Municipality- 6, income from farming has brought financial independence. She lives with her husband, son, daughter and in-laws and supports the family by growing apples and indigenous crops. Limited production once made it difficult to cover expenses, and the family relied partly on the small grocery shop run by her in-laws.
Pabitra Adhikari Neupane from Dhaulapani shares a joyful smile while interacting with other farmers.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Support for apple and bean production has raised her income, and a polyhouse allows year-round vegetable cultivation, adding diversity to the family’s diet. Her income has strengthened her role in family decisions. “Earlier, I had to depend on my in-laws for everything. Now I have my own bank account, and the money I earn from selling apples and Jumli beans goes directly into it. I no longer have to ask for even Rs. 100,” she says. She earned around Rs. 140,000 from apples last year and Rs. 270,000 this year, plus Rs. 5,000 from five days of apple harvesting work through a cooperative, which has established market chain through the project support. She uses part of her income to support her husband while he studies outside the village.
Empowering Dalit women
In Jumla, project-supported cooperatives not only established a better-organized links between production, collection, and markets but also increased opportunities for marginalized women, particularly Dalit women. The Dalits in Nepal’s Hindu caste system face the difficult dual challenges of extreme poverty and low human development indicators.
Basanti Nepali, a Dalit woman, shows how moving up the chain looks like, which is reshaped by a women led- Dhauligad Agriculture Cooperative Limited of Tatopani. She used to teach adult literacy classes. After having children, she was constrained by family care. However, the local cooperatives created space for her to contribute.
A woman stands at seed bank in Jumla.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
The cooperative began in 2020 as a seed conservation centre, was registered in 2023 and later began supplying school midday meals. Basanti joined as a facilitator in December 2025. She collects members’ savings, gathers seeds and produce, supports packaging and helps manage food supplies for school meals. She has learned to package indigenous crops, receive digital payments and prepare receipts on a computer. Having studied up to grade 10, she now wants to continue her education. “I want to improve my computer skills,” she says.
Reshaping the perspectives
Across Patarasi, Chandannath and Tatopani, women are increasingly participating in the full agricultural cycle, from production and collection to processing, marketing and leadership as their work is being recognised. Once primarily household for producers, they are now becoming income earners, financial decision-makers, agricultural asset owners, active market participants, and leaders of groups and communities.
Aerial view of Marsi paddy which is a rare, indigenous red/crimson rice variety grown along the banks of the Tila River in Jumla.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
Channarupa has taken the lead in connecting the group’s products with markets, including red Marsi rice, maize, finger millet, buckwheat flour, proso millet (Chino), foxtail millet (Kaguno), potatoes and Jumli beans. “I used to see agriculture as a means of survival; now I see it as a business that I need to manage more systematically for the collective benefit,” she says.
During the last two years, the group has received grants from the government’s National Agriculture Modernization Program for potato and Jumli bean production and has developed a potato production pocket area. All farmer groups must cultivate potatoes in their fields. Since April 2026, the group has supplied homegrown food for midday meals at six schools, with sales totaling around Rs. 200,000. Channarupa has also started approaching the local government to create markets for indigenous crops and vegetables.
Snacks made from traditional local crops set out for sale.
Photo: UNDP Nepal
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