“Animal pollination supports the production of three quarters of global crops, increasing their yields and quality. Just like other agricultural inputs, pollination services can be managed by farmers to improve their crop yields and deliver benefits for their livelihoods and food security. However, despite its enormous potential to sustainability enhance agricultural production, pollination is frequently overlooked by farmers.

In Nepal, pollinator understanding and management is absent in almost all tiers of our agricultural system (farmers, agriculture technicians and policymakers). This farmers field school manual aims to increase awareness and enhance capacities of our farmers and agriculture technicians in relation to pollinator conservation and pollination services management. This manual includes sessions on disseminating the concept of pollination, its importance, reasons for pollinator decline, and management strategies for enhancing pollination services. Additionally, other agro-ecological concepts such as pest management, nutrition and soil fertility are also included here. These FFS classes were conducted in three municipalities in Jumla district of Karnali province, Nepal. Whilst the manual was originally developed for farmers in Jumla District of Nepal, the principles described in these sessions could be equally relevant across all other regions of Nepal, and indeed in smallholder farming settings across the world.

This manual is published as an output of the “Embedding Sustainable Pollination Management into Nepalese Agricultural Systems” project funded by the UK Darwin Initiative and led by University of Bristol, UK. The project is jointly implemented by LI-BIRD and HERD International, with technical support from the Karnali Ministry of Land Management Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoLMAC), Agriculture and Forestry University, and Tribhuvan University.