Sudurpashchim is the most vulnerable province to climate change and other socio-economic changes in Nepal. This is the least developed province in terms of development indicators and has critical gaps in knowledge, evidence, capacity, financing, and institutional mechanisms to design and promote adaptation and resilience-building practices. LI-BIRD implemented the “Building Resilience in Agro-ecosystem and Community Empowerment (BRACE)” project, developed by ICIMOD under the component 2: Action Research of Green Resilient Agricultural Production Ecosystem (GRAPE) project, jointly funded by the European Union (EU), German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA), and implemented in Nepal by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The project was executed in 10 municipalities of the four districts of the Sudurpashchim Province that include: Kailali (Dhangadhi Municipality, Godawari Municipality, Chure Rural Municipality), Doti (Badikedar Rural Municipality, Jorayal Rural Municipality), Dadeldhura (Amargadhi Municipality, Alital Rural Municipality), and Bajura (Budinanda Municipality, Himali Rural Municipality, Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality).

The BRACE project aimed at improving climate resilience and sustainability of agro-ecosystems in Sudurpashchim province of Nepal through promotion of various climate-resilient agricultural practices. The project delivered three major outputs:

i) climate resilient agricultural solutions identified, packaged, and demonstrated at the community level;

ii) evidence-based knowledge co-created, and knowledge products made available for building resilience of the agro-ecosystem; and

iii) Climate-resilient solutions scaled up at the municipal level and contributions made for scaling up at the provincial level.

The project focused on promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices through action research and demonstrations. The project also generated knowledge products to foster climate-resilient food production (utilising and promoting crop diversity, improving soil health, conserving and sustainably utilising water and other natural resources, maximising optimum utilisation of local resources, etc.) and enhanced digital access (mainly to agro-advisory, weather forecast, and market information) for farmers by establishing pilots and demonstration sites at local levels.

The main target of the project was to identify and demonstrate the locally adapted, already tested/proven, and innovative climate-smart solutions at the farmer’s level and scale up the successful and appropriate innovative solutions by disseminating knowledge and integrating them within the regular plan and program of the local, provincial, and national governments for climate-resilient and sustainable green economic growth. The project reached out to around 1,250 households (300 HHs in demonstration communities and 950 at peripheral impact communities), of which 60% were women-led households. The project was implemented in three tiers as a core demonstration site, impact site, and scaling-up/extension site. The suitable climate resilient agricultural technologies and practices were tested at demonstration sites and disseminated in large areas within the project municipality, and were then further disseminated outside of the project areas through the knowledge products.