The concept of ‘Strengthening the Agriculture Value Chain in Salyan and Sindhupalchok districts of Nepal’ (SAVC) project was developed based on accomplishment of two previous projects namely i) “Improving the Livelihoods of Marginalized Groups in Salyan District (ILMG)” in Salyan districts of Nepal implemented by Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) and Welthungerhilfe (WHH) Nepal and ii)  “Enhancing Economic and Social Resilience (ESRS)” of Earthquake affected families in Sindhupalchok districts of Nepal implemented by LI-BIRD. The main goal of these projects was to transform the subsistence-oriented farming to market-oriented agriculture through establishment of value chains. Both projects were successfully concluded but in order to realize the impact of value chains at the household level, there was a need for the establishment of fully functional value chains of agricultural commodities in both of the districts. These projects created a good foundation for production and marketing of agricultural commodities in both districts. However, these projects were phased out immediately after the initiation of the collective marketing of agricultural produce through Cooperatives and Market Promotion Committees. Therefore ‘Strengthening the Agriculture Value Chain in Salyan and Sindhupalchok districts of Nepal (SAVC)  project was developed to further strengthen the collective marketing of agricultural produce through cooperatives in both districts.

The SAVC project aims to improve income and livelihoods of smallholder farmers through strengthening agricultural value chains in Salyan and Sindhupalchok districts of Nepal. The project aims to achieve following results.

• Established One-Stop-Shops and operational cooperatives that manage them for input supply and marketing of local agricultural produce.
• Established and increased linkages of cooperatives for regular input supply, technical services, and selling of local agricultural produce.
• Improved institutional governance and management capacity of cooperatives.   

The project will work on strengthening the capacity of six existing cooperatives and make them capable to support smallholder farmers in production and marketing aspects of the selected agricultural commodities for example fresh vegetable and potato in Sindhupalchok and fresh vegetable, goat, turmeric, and seed in Salyan. The cooperatives will establish and operate One-Stop-Shops to ensure sustainability and self-reliance in the longer term. The One-Stop-Shops will provide easy access to quality input to the producer farmers, and buy the produce from farmers market it in theough establishing a well functining value chains. The project will build and strengthen the capacity of cooperatives in the following ways: i) physical infrastructure development for value chains, ii) linking cooperatives with public and private service providers and buyers, iii) development and implementation of business plans, and iv) improve the cooperatives governance and management capacity. The project will train producer farmers and provide inputs and technical support to increase the income of households and create sustainable self-employment opportunities.