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BUSINESS PLAN FOR A

PLANTATION PROGRAMME

FOR NEPALESE FARMERS

By Tom van Strien, Rik Land, Luc Zijlmans, Jaap de Leeuw and Roy Emmen

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

Introduction 3

Hypothesis 4

Main and sub questions 5

Economic analysis of Nepal 6

Differences Nepalese/Western farmers 8

Climate analysis and suitable products 10

Similar projects in the region 15

General plantation plan 16

Microcredit 18

How to produce mangoes 21

How to produce quinoa 24

How to produce wheat 26

Conclusion 28

List of sources 29

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INTRODUCTION

This is the business plan of our group. Our group consists of Jaap de Leeuw, Rik Land, Luc

Zijlmans, Roy Emmen and Tom van Strien. We’re all boys from sixteen or seventeen years

old and we work together in this project. In our project we are desired to help out our

organization called Nepalimed. We have to come with a business plan for microcredit groups

to start up a plantation program. This could for example be the growing of avocado’s or

bananas. In order to do this, we have to go through a couple of steps to find out what our

business plan has to look like. We first have to find out what the situation of Nepal is like at

the moment. We will make an analysis of the economy and geography to get a clearer image

of the country which will help us to come to the product(s) which we can produce best. We

will also have to find out about how much money can be spend, and which investments will

be necessary to make. Next to this, we will also investigate what results can be expected

after we choose a product. The most difficult part will be the choosing of the product, but

we will try to make the best choice we can so the farmers will benefit from it a lot.

We hope you enjoy our work!

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HYPOTHESIS

We would like to know what would be the best way to apply microcredit funding in order

for it to be profitable for Nepalese citizens. We expect that after the research, we are going

to see that the best option for applying microcredit is within the agricultural sector. Given

that Nepal is less economically developed, we think that other sectors such as electronics

or social media is not going to work out in a country like Nepal. The best option according

to us would be to start growing an upcoming super food. It seems that this type of food is

becoming more and more popular in the western world and it could be a very good export

product for development countries.

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MAIN AND SUB QUESTIONS Main question: What would be the best businessplan and training module for a Nepalese microcredit

plantationprogram?

Sub questions:

What’s the current economic situation in Nepal (especially in the agricultural sector)?

What are the differences between Nepalese and Western farmers?

What products can be produced best in Nepal?

What would be the best way to produce this/those product in Nepal?

What do we need to produce these products?

What amount of money is available for the process?

What amount of money has to be invested?

How high will the profit be?

What would be the best place/way to sell the expected products?

Has there already been a similar project like this and what was the result?

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF NEPAL

Nepal is seen as one of the poorest countries in the world. It is seen as a development

country because the average annual income is around €190,- which is very low. Nepal is

totally enclosed by other countries and it has a lack of good infrastructure because the big

distances from for example the top of a mountain to a city in

the valley are very hard to get through. Due to this, Nepal

has been struggling very much on economical level. Next to

this, the country has faced many floods, droughts and crop

failures. Because of this, there has been a lot of poverty in

Nepal the last years. Luckily, things are getting better now.

The GINI coefficient has declined from 41 into 35 in the last

seven years, which is a really positive thing, because now

the inequality is less. Also the proportion of poor people

was halved in only seven years. So overall, the Nepalese

economy is growing slightly.

In total 75% of the people get their income out of

agriculture, forestry and fishery. The problem is, that there actually is too less farmland,

this leads to crop failures because the farmland which was available was overused. This

makes the ground less fertile and therefore the harvest becomes less good. Next to this,

the lack of farmland causes unemployment. There also is too less industry, this is a big

opportunity in this sector, but it’s just not taken yet. The GNP of Nepal consists of 36,8%

from the agricultural sector, 14,5% from the industrial sector and 48,7% from the services

sector.

The agricultural sector consists out of different products which are mostly produced for

trade, not to be used by the people who produced the products. The products which are

produced most often are rice, maize, wheat , millet, and barley. Next to this there are also

some products which are traded most, in this regard you can think of sugarcane ,

potatoes , oilseeds, jute and tobacco.

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The agricultural system in Nepal isn’t working very well so the Nepalese people wanted to

change the way of producing their new products. The problem is that this is very difficult,

because the particular leasehold systems which are mainly used are very difficult to

change, because people who have been using this system for decades, don’t want to

change their whole production method.

When we look at the aspect of livestock, we can see that the most popular animals to

have are cows, yaks , buffalo , sheep and goats. In Nepal most energy is generated via

wood. The Nepalese people get this wood by cutting trees, this is very bad for the

environment because this causes erosion. The government saw this and wanted to

change it, so from now on, the main focus for generating energy lays on water-power

energy, this is way better for the environment and also way cheaper.

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEPALESE AND WESTERN FARMERS

There are very big differences between farmers in Nepal and farmers in the Western world.

These differences are due to some reasons. Some of them are differences in the climate,

differences in landscape and differences in the soil. This causes the differences between the

farmers to by big.

The first difference is the number of squared kilometers per 1000 people that is used as

agricultural land. In Nepal approximately 1.46 squared kilometers is used per 1000 people.

This makes Nepal the number 159 of the world. In Europe this is much more, namely 6.4

squared kilometers per 1000 people. So in Europe it’s more than four times as much. This is

probably due to the difference in landscape. But Nepal is getting more agriculture land very

fast. In 1956 there was only 6200 hectares of land under irrigation and in 1990 this grew to

583000 hectares.

Although they have less agricultural land in Nepal, they still have a lot more farmers. In

Nepal there are 11,34 million people working as a farmer, which makes them the 16th of the

world. In the complete European Union they only have 410000 farmers. From this you could

conclude that the labor intensity in Nepal is much higher than in Europe. When you take a

look at the numbers, you see this actually is true. In Nepal there are 3,4 workers per hectare

of cropland. This causes they are the 5th in the world regarding labor intensity. This is much

higher than in Europe, where there are just 0,129 workers per hectare. Even when you take

a look at the surrounding countries of Nepal, it’s lower than in Nepal itself. In South Asia as a

whole there are 2,78 workers per hectare of cropland, which also is a bit lower than in

Nepal.

A big reason for this difference between Nepal and Western countries is the use of

machinery. In Europe there are 17,89 tractors per 1000 people. In Nepal this are just 0,215

tractors per 1000 people. So in Europe there are nearly 100 times as much tractors per 1000

people as in Nepal. This difference is very big and leads to less effective production of

agricultural products.

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Also there is a difference between the kind of products which are produced in Nepal and in

Europe. In Nepal they mainly produce pulses, rice, corn, wheat and sugar. In Europe they

produce wheat, barley, wine, grapes, dairy products, cattle, fish. So the main difference is

that in Nepal they don’t produce dairy products, unlike farmers in Europe. The reasons for

this are the differences in environment but also the ability to have cattle on a large scale.

The main differences between the farmers in Europe and the farmers in Nepal are the scale

on which farming is done, the difference in use of machinery and the production of different

products. This leads to less squared kilometers of agricultural land per 1000 people and a

higher labor intensity in Nepal compared to Europe and the Western world.

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CLIMATE ANALYSIS AND SUITABLE PRODUCTS

Before we can set up a proper business plan with training schedules, needed materials,

etcetera, we have to determine what the business is going to be all about. This is mainly

determined by our choice of crop. We thought of multiple possibilities of produce able

crops. We checked which one would prove the most useful by comparing them with the

following questions:

- What are the production costs?

- What would the profit be?

- Is there an adequate demand for the crop in- and outside of the country?

- How many times can the crop be harvested a year?

- Are there any special production conditions for the crop?

Lastly, we had to know more about the climate of the region we are discussing, as this will

also greatly affect the choice of crop. We found the following information about that.

We’re a bit unfortunate on the climate. Of the 3 climate regions in the country, we have the

driest. 312 mm of rainfall in the summer, 15 in the winter. This means that we will need a

crop that is not very rain-thirsty, can handle high temperatures (28 celcius) and low

temperatures (3 celcius). Since there is no all-round plant that can handle all temperatures

and low rainfall, the most logical thing to do is to have different kinds of vegetables or fruits

to grow. One for the dry period in the winter and one for the more rainy period in the

summer.

Now, we will discuss the positive/negative aspects we found with every crop we

investigated:

Mango

Positive

The mango is a fruit which is rather easy to produce. It is common to the

geographical region. Tending mango trees is not too hard if the farmers receive some

proper training. Also, producing mangoes is not too expensive as the trees can bear

fruits multiple years.

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Mangoes are a common source of food in Nepal and its neighboring countries. This

means that the demand for mangoes will be rather large.

There are a lot of different varieties of mangoes which have a harvest times over

quite a large time-span. This means that:

o The mango production can be divided over a larger time-span, giving more

economic security to the farmers

o The farmers have a more equal division of their work over the year

Negative

Mangoes can only be harvested once a year, and the production is highly dependent

on the health of the trees. If the trees grow sick, the harvest will not only be bad for

one year, but most probably for more years after.

Mangoes grow on trees. To obtain such trees there are two possibilities:

o Buy saplings which will grow into adult trees. This does not require a lot of

work, but a lot of time. Therefore this method is only usable if there is an

alternative for the farmers in the mean time.

o Buy already full-grown trees. This is an easy ways to obtain the trees, but it is

rather expensive. Also, bought full-grown trees normally have a bad root-

system, making the trees weak if exposed to strong forces such as storms.

Saffron

Positive

Saffron is not too hard to produce. We estimated that the amount of time, money

and labor needed to produce saffron is not too large.

Saffron is one of the most expensive products world-wide. This would make the

profit reasonably high.

Saffron is a common spice in Nepal. Combined with the fact that it is expensive, this

makes for a good combination to sell the product to hotels and restaurants.

Producing saffron-flowers is rather easy. To make these flowers into good spices,

though, is very labor-intensive. Combined with the fact that saffron can be kept good

for quite a long time, this makes saffron into a product which needs attention all year

round.

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Negative

pH value of the soil of the place where the project is set-up may not correspond to

the needed pH value for saffron. In this case, (expensive) fertilizers have to be used.

As said before, creating good spices with saffron flowers is labor-intensive. We are

not sure whether there are enough people working the farm to make sure all saffron

is converted fast enough.

Saffron can only be harvested once a year.

Tomato

Positive

Tomatoes are a crop which require work all year through.

Negative

Tomatoes require a lot of water to grow. Looking at the climate we have to grow the

crops in, this is not available.

Tending tomatoes is more complicated than tending most of the other investigated

crops. There are more steps to be taken which require more expertise when

producing tomatoes.

Corn

Positive

Corn has a recommended pH level of around 6. The pH level in our region in Nepal is

5.5

It requires a lot of sun, and because Nepal is quite sunny, this is a good match

Negative

A lot of corn is already harvested in Nepal – it’s the second main crop to be harvested

in Nepal.

Corn can be harvested only once a year.

Corn requires manual watering, which requires a lot of time. In contradiction to other

crops, you’ll be able to harvest less of the crop.

Prices of corn have been dropping for the past 6 months.

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Wheat

Positive

The soil levels of wheat are quite close to the pH level of Nepal. In Nepal, there’s a pH

of 5.5 whereas wheat grows best at a pH of 6 to 7.

Requires a lot of sun that Nepal can offer.

Wheat does not require more watering, Nepal offers all the aspects needed for

Wheat to grow well.

Negative

Price has been dropping for the past 6 months.

Is harvested a lot already in Nepal (third biggest harvested crop)

Can be harvested only once a year.

Rice

Positive

The soil levels of rice and that of Nepal match. Nepal has 5.5, rice has 6.5.

Requires 6 hours sun, and Nepal offers at least 6 hours of sun. The crop will most

likely grow well.

Can be harvested more than once, most likely twice a year.

Requires little water.

Price has been rising the past 6 months.

Negative

Can’t resist freeze, however, Nepal barely has any moments of freeze. Therefore this

actually can’t really be regarded as a disadvantage

It’s the most popular crop to harvest in Nepal meaning the price is quite low.

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Avocado

Positive

Avocado’s have a high sell price and are quite popular amongst more expensive

products

Negative

Requires a soil level of over 6.2 to grow, in contradiction to the other crops which are

only advised to grow on 6.2. Avocado will not grow in Nepal.

Grow on trees which is not useful for our situation

Quinoa

Positive

Quinoa has a very high sell price as it is eaten a lot in western countries as

'superfood'

It requires just a little water

It needs quite a lot of sun, which is offered in Nepal. It can also be produced best at a

place which is quite high up in the mountains, between 1500 and 4000 meters. This is

also possible in Nepal

Negative

It isn't eaten a lot in Nepal which means you need to export it to the western world,

which is expensive

It requires a lot of work, especially in the beginning. Although this isn't a very big

problem while there is a big group of women

To conclude, we have investigated eight different kinds of crops. All have them have both

positive and negative sides. We decided to contact two contact persons (one from the

Worldschool website, and one we found ourselves who works at the university of

Wageningen) to discuss our findings and get advice on what crop would be most suitable.

Eventually we decided quinoa, wheat and mango would be quite good options to produce.

That's we took a closer look at how to produce these products.

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SIMILAR PROJECTS IN THE REGION

Of course, good causes have been doing work in Nepal for decades. Nepal belongs to the ten

poorest countries of the world. The Nepalese government and banks have also looked into

microcredit and microfinance. In 1975, the Asian Development Bank launched the SFDP

(Small Farmers Development Programme). This is still an ongoing project and it has already

helped and improved the position of farmers tremendously.

A large number of small farmers were provided with access to institutional credit. The

Agricultural Projects Service Centre conducted a research, and it turns out that in some

project areas the livestock income rose considerably due to increased sales of milk and other

dairy products. There was an obvious reason for this raising market demand: the Nepalese

government has restricted the imports of subsidized powdered milk from the European

Union. The establishment of a milk-collection system with the state-owned Dairy

Development Corporation improved farmers’ market access and linked them to urban milk

consumers.

The farmers have also been provided with bullock carts that featured rubber tyres. These

carts are far superior to the improvised carts they first used both in capacity and general

quality. They gave benefits such as flexibility regarding land-preparation times and they also

allowed for planting crops in time.

An important achievement that wasn’t even planned at first, was the fact that poor rural

women started participating in the creation on women’s groups. These could be seen as

small feminist organizations. They aimed towards enhancing women’s roles and status in

society as well as increasing their incomes and economic independence.

So we can see that there have been projects that had to do with micro financing in Nepal.

We can also see that they have achieved significant results. There was a boost in the

economy altogether, a lot of farmers will helped and even some form of emancipation was

achieved. There were developments in the agricultural sector such as the replacement of old

carts with new carts that featured rubber tyres. Also, the farmers learned new ways in which

they could grow crops. Thus far micro financing in Nepal has been a success.

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GENERAL PLANTATION PLAN

At first we brainstormed about possible products to be produced in Dulikhel, Nepal. After

this, the products we thought of were investigated. We looked at multiple factors when

deciding which product would be most suitable including price, annual amount of harvesting

periods, producing difficulty, climate, etc.

Together with a researcher from Wageningen University, we came to the conclusion that

the two most profitable products are mangoes and quinoa. We chose for a combination of

two products to spread the risk of a failing harvest. Also, growing mango trees to a

productive age is a process of years, while the project has to be productive quite early after

the start. The quinoa also requires quite some training and it is still a bit difficult to set up

the production of such a rare product. We also investigated wheat, but came to the

conclusion that the low profits made by selling wheat were too much of a disadvantage.

The general plan goes as follows. First, the Nepalese farmers start their preparation by

reading the information we found and which is added below in the business plan.

Afterwards, the farmers will hopefully have acquired enough knowledge to start working

with the two products mentioned earlier. In the end, our hopes are high that the products

will bring up enough money to provide the farmers and to extend the farmers business.

We will now explain what the plan is in a little more detail. At first, the farming land will be

mainly used for producing quinoa, a so called super food. The growth of mango trees will

only be a very minor part of the plantation program in the first few years due to the fact that

the growing of the trees takes long. But, full grown mango trees are rather large, providing a

reasonable amount of mangoes even when they are grown in a small number. After some

years, we hope that the farmers will have enough experience regarding mango trees due to

the care they gave to the very small amount of trees which they grew in the first couple of

years. Then, with the gathered knowledge and money they will be able to grow more mango

trees If this happens, slowly but surely the division between the quinoa and the mango

production will be more equal. This is a good process because of two reasons. Firstly, mango

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trees are very reliable for annual harvesting. Secondly, spreading the sources of income for

the farmers also spreads the risk of a failure during harvest or (e.g.) a radical price drop.

There are lists of the basic steps to undertake when producing both quinoa and mangoes

below. What is important to remember too is that producing quinoa is labour intensive,

while producing mangoes is more of a ‘time-intensive’ business. Producing quinoa requires

quite some input from the farmers, while growing mango trees is a process of good, easy

care and most importantly: patience. These last characteristics also account for producing

wheat. Growing mango trees takes quite a while, and growing quinoa is a productive on an

annual basis, even in the first year.

This general plan, of course, requires money for it to be set up. This money will be acquired

in the form of microcredit. The microcredit will be explained below. Because it remains

unclear how large the sum of this microcredit is, we had to decide upon a general plan which

can easily be adopted in different situations. We believe that the general plantation program

plan which is explained above is broad, but at the same time it has many solid elements,

which makes the plan as adoptable as required. The money which will be available will be

used to buy seeds/saplings, buy/hire the required tools, storage containers, supplies (e.g.

water and fertilizers), etc.. Overall, the plan will be suitable for the situation which the

farmers are in and executing this plan would create a plantation generating a reasonable

amount of money for the farmers.

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MICROCREDIT

We first would like to tell you something about a microcredit in general, because you need

to understand it before you can use it. A microcredit is a small part of the bigger whole

called micro financing. A microcredit is a very small loan of approximately some hundreds of

euros. Mostly these microcredits are given to small organizations in developing countries.

These organizations are most of the time led by woman. These organizations aren’t able to

show a pledge to the bank so a bank won’t give them any kind of loan. Through micro

financing, it’s possible for these organizations to get a loan. When an organization gets a

micro credit, it is possible for them to make some investments. These investments can be

anything, like a cow, a sewing machine, or in this case, plants which can grow into an end

product. These investments are made to make the financial position of the organization or

company a bit better. Microcredit is given to either non-profit organization and to an

organization who wants to make profit.

When we look at the history of the micro financing, and therefore the history of the

microcredit, we can see that it actually was invented by the Irish. At the beginning of the

eighteenth century, they used the microcredit because there was a famine. With the

microcredit they tried to help the farmers to start producing food for the people because

first their harvest failed. Some Dutch people who lived in India when it still was a Dutch

colony actually doubt this theory. They say that they were the first ones who used a

microcredit. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Dutch used the microcredit and gave

this to the farmers in the villages, they tried to stimulate the economy with this because this

could be a way to get the Indian farmers on the right track. After this, the micro financing

through a microcredit wasn’t used for a long time. Only in 1976 it was used again for the first

time in years. Bangladesh was the lucky country to introduce it again to help the poor people

to set up a business or farm. Since the globalization which is going on in the world right now,

the microcredit is getting known again and it’s used way more often. We think it’s a great

way to help a small company to start.

How to obtain a microcredit

So, we now know what microcredit is and was. But how do we obtain a microcredit in our

situation, where the target area is Nepal with over 200 Nepalese farmers?

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After we’ve done research, it seems that it’s impossible to simply ‘ask’ for a microloan and

then you simply receive that. It’s more difficult. You need to ask for the money by applying

on websites like Kiva.org. Here, there’s a possibility that people from all over the world may

support your organisation (in this case: the microcredit for a plantation program). Obtaining

more than 10 loans of over 500 euro isn’t going to be an easy task, though.

Another way for microfinancing is to have the organisation itself, in this case Nepalimed

Holland, finance the microcredit. However, Nepalimed Holland has no budget for such a big

investment at this moment. This problem is solvable; however, a fundraiser has to be

started. Fundraising normally is quite a task, but in the situation of a loan, many people

might be interested when they hear they will get their money back. Helping the poor

without spending a lot of money sounds appealing to many. A fundraiser is started as easily

as money is normally collected or gifted – however, now you add the option to give money

and have a big chance (at this moment, no experiments could have been done, so no vast

percentages can be given) of having the money returned. Then, as an extra motivation, a log

per small microcredit group would be made including photos and profit information. This

will have many people interested in giving a loan as it is very exciting to see something back

extremely directly from the group you’ve given it to.

Costs

The advantage of Microcredit is that it doesn’t cost anything! The whole idea is to support a

third world country but at the same time get your money returned within years. Optionally,

for the ‘investors’, a small loan percentage to cover the current inflation (1%) can be set – so

that the people who give loans will not lose anything on the loan, and will only receive an

extraordinary experience by experiencing a third world organisation grow and become more

wealthy and less poor because of your money!

Division

The microcredit amount obtained per group, will be a variable sum of money so no concrete

numbers can be given. But we are able to make a rough estimation of where to invest the

loan in, as product division:

- 80% Quinoa

- 20% Mango

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Because our plan is based on a quick farming of quinoa and a slow farming of mango, the

farmers will require a quick and solid income first. That’s why we suggest to have an

approximate 80/20 division, where a lot of money will be made in the first year, but a stable

amount of mango trees, to increase each year, will be possible as well.

Of course, the farmers will need training on how to practically farm the crops. However, we

cannot really make a solid estimation of how much money will be necessary for that.

Because the ways of planting/harvesting the crops are quite simple, no complicated or

expensive training is necessary. A teacher professionalized in farming and harvesting should

be able to teach the farmers how to farm the crop by the rough explanations we’ve given in

our report.

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HOW TO PRODUCE MANGOES

In our business plan, there is a minor part of the assessable money which will be invested in

mango trees. The reason for investing only a small part of the money is that mango trees can

take quite some time to grow to a fruit-producing age. On the contrary, producing mangoes

is relatively profitable. The following article gives a step-by-step plan on how to grow mango

trees in the region of Dulikhel, Nepal

- Go in search for a terrain which has the following specifications:

Lots of daily sunshine hours

Relatively large amount of available space (also think about the height

of a mango tree. Mango trees are shaped like in the picture below,

meaning that they take up quite a lot of space, and should not be

placed too close to one another)

- Buy mango seeds in/near Kathmandu, or buy tree saplings. The choice between

these two should be dependent upon the amount of available money. When, in a

year, the amount of money is relatively low, the choice for seeds is more favourable,

as these are cheaper. On the contrary buying saplings is more expensive, but the

growth time is smaller, and growing tree saplings is easier.

- Before the tree can be planted, a hole must be dug. For planting seeds this is quite

easy, but it is important to remember that for planting more grown trees, the hole

must at least be twice as wide and deep as the root system ball of the tree is. The soil

in which the mango tree will be planted must drain well. You can best check so by

pouring water into the dug hole and checking the drainage speed. For planting seeds

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it is important to remember that the seed has to protrude above the ground for 2/3

of a cm. First the seed has to be planted in a pot with soil which is kept moist. The

temperature for growing a mango tree from a seed has to be at least 21,1 oC.

- The amount of work needed after the tree has been planted is rather low. Mango

trees do not have to be pruned, but frequent watering is necessary (and therefore

the ground has to drain well). Water the soil deeply, but wait until the upper soil has

drained its water for about 20 cm

- Prune the tree after four years. Remove all weak stems, and from then on only prune

the tree again when it is necessary (diseased or broken branches have to be

removed).

- Keep watch over the tree(s). Trees can turn sick, and therefore it is important to

know what the most frequent tree-diseases and disorders look like, and what can be

done about them. The following list gives an idea of some diseases, but the amount

of these is great and therefore it is recommended that you check a professional

gardening book or website when anything strange appears to be going on in or on

the tree.

Watch out for so called ‘suckers’. Suckers are (usually green) branches

which grow from the graft of the tree. Sucker-branches look quite

different when compared to the mother tree. Suckers are actually

(mutated) branches from a different mango-tree species. Even though

suckers might grow big quickly, and therefore seem to be positive for

the plant, it is important to prune them off. These suckers deplete the

mother tree of water and food and are not very productive.

A very common disease mango trees can suffer from is called

‘Powdery mildew’. A white powdery substance (fungus) may grow on

the trees leaves, flowers, fruits or stalks of panicles. The flowers and

fruits may drop pre-maturely due to this disease. To fight the disease

fungicides must be sprayed three times with two intervals of 15 days.

After this treatment, the following substances may be used if

necessary:

o Wettable sulphur 0.2 per cent (2 g Sulfex / lit. water).

o Tridemorph 0.1 per cent ( 1 ml Calixin / lit. water).

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o Dinocap 0.1 per cent (1 ml / g Karathane / lit. water)

Anthracnose can be spotted when the tree develops black spots on

panicles and fruits. Fruits also shrivel and drop off. To control the

disease the tree can be sprayed at a 15 days interval during flowering

with 0.1% Bavistin.

- Mangoes are picked while they are still firm. After picking, the mangoes should be

kept at room temperature until they are slightly softer, which is the moment to place

the mangoes in the fridge for 2 to 5 days. Mangoes can be frozen. The skin will turn

black, but the flesh will remain perfectly edible.

- After harvesting, the mangoes can be used as food resource for the farmers

themselves, or sold to merchants at local/regional markets. You might also want to

consider approaching hotels or restaurants in the region. The demand for mangoes is

quite large in Nepal, as Nepal also imports mangoes from India, and therefore the

given price for the mangoes will be reasonable.

- It is important to remember that the given instructions on how to grow mangoes are

very basic. If you require more information on (e.g.) fertilizers, right time to pick

mangoes, etc. it is useful to contact local farmers, read books on gardening principles

or check the internet.

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HOW TO PRODUCE QUINOA

Planting

- Buy quinoa seeds in/near Kathmandu or order them on the internet. You can buy

these seeds at a lot of places and they aren’t that expensive. You can already buy a

lot of quinoa seeds for just a few dollars. You also don’t need a lot of seeds, while

one gram of seed will fill 50 feet (15 m) of a row. This means you only need one

pound of seed for an acre (±4000m2).

- Before the seeds can be planted, the surface must be finely prepared. There also

needs to be adequate moisture. When you plant the seeds a small hole must be dug.

For planting seeds it doesn’t need to be very deep, no more than one-quarter inch

deep. The seeds need to be planted in rows one-and-a-half to two feet (45-60cm)

apart. The planting of the seeds can just be done by hand. When the quinoa seeds

sprout, you possibly need to take out some seeds which have sprout. You need to

make sure eventually the plants are 10-14 inches apart. If the seeds don’t sprout, you

can always replant them almost within a week.

Growing

- During growing it is very important that you do a lot of weeding. The quinoa seeds

first are very small and when you don't do enough weeding, the small plant will

suffer from the weed. It will take a while till the plant is big enough to be self-

sufficient, as the plant grows quite slow. When the quinoa reaches a foot high, it will

grow much faster and from then on it will also be self-sufficient.

- During the weeding you need to take a close look at which plants are quinoa, as

quinoa resembles lamb's-quarters. On the left picture below you see lamb's quarter,

while on the right picture you see a quinoa plant. You can make the weeding a bit

easier by planting the quinoa in clear, straight rows.

- During the growth of the plant you don't have to worry that much about watering.

Quinoa is extremely drought tolerant as a total of 10 inches (25 cm) of water is

enough for the plant to grow.

25

Yield

Quinoa yields approximately 450 grams for 10 plants, which means 45 grams of seed per

plant. Because the available ground information is unavailable, we’re unable to say how

much grams this would be. Per a thousand plants, 45000 grams or 45 kilograms. Being able

to harvest twice a year, this means there’s 90 kilograms of quinoa available for every 1000

plants per year.

Every kilogram of quinoa makes a profit of about 3 to 10 euro. When you consider that the

seeds need to be 10-14 inches apart, which is approximately 30 cm, one seed takes up an

area of 900 cm2. This means you can put 100000 seeds/plants of quinoa on one hectare. This

will make 9000 kilograms of quinoa per hectare, which means you can make a profit of

27000 to 90000 euro's per hectare.

Harvesting

To harvest quinoa, you first have to be really careful if the quinoa is actually ripe. You can

check this in two ways: First, all leaved have to be gone off the plant. If that’s the case, the

chance is big that your quinoa is proper to harvest. However, there’s an additional

technique, which ensures an even bigger chance of ripe quinoa: this is to take one quinoa

seed of a plant, then try to dent it with a fingernail. If you succeed denting it, the quinoa isn’t

ripe enough yet. When all leaves have dropped off but you can dent the quinoa, then you

may as well still harvest the quinoa and let them dry inside. It’s important to store quinoa in

a dry, sunless and if possible: cool area.

When you’ve let the seeds dry, you can take the seeds off the heads easily. You can do this

by shaking the quinoa (for example in a bowl). If possible, use a boulter/sieve to get off the

sand of the quinoa as well. After you’ve done this, wash the quinoa with water thoroughly.

It’s mandatory that you clean the seeds really well, for the benefits of hygiene. Dry the

quinoa off very well and then store them in an again cool, sunless and dry area.

26

HOW TO PRODUCE WHEAT

Planting

The planting of wheat isn’t very difficult, there are just a few steps you need to take into

consideration. Although we did not choose to produce wheat as a part of our business plan

because the profit is too low, we did quite some research on the subject, and we would like

to show this information as an alternative to the ideas proposed earlier.

- First you need to rake the soil. This is important to make sure the wheat is able to get

out of the ground and is able to grow. To need to work the soil into a good seedbed.

- Next you need to dig long trenches. You can do this using a shovel. In this way you

create long narrow furrows.

- When you have long narrow furrows, you need to use natural manure to fertilize the

soil. In this way you ensure proper growing of the wheat stalks.

- Throw the wheat seeds into the furrows. You can do this by hand by using a semi

circular movement of your wrist. As it is quite dry in Nepal, it’s important that you

sprinkle a small quantity of seeds. When you put in too much seeds, it uses up the

water in the ground more quickly.

Growing

- Water the wheat seeds immediately after you have planted them. During the

growing season you also need to water them once each month

- Place several plastic flags throughout the wheat field. The plastic blowing in the wind

will make a noise which deters birds from landing in the field. It also scares off any

birds that already are in the field. In this way you will prevent birds from eating the

wheat seeds before the seeds have an opportunity to sprout.

Yield

For this year, the yield per one hectare of area planted with wheat is around the 3 metric

tons. Every metric tons of wheat makes a profit of about $230. This means that per hectare

of wheat you make a profit of about $700. This is just a little when you compare it to the

quinoa or the mangoes, but the wheat requires just some little investments and it doesn't

require a lot of work.

27

Harvesting

- Wheat is usually harvested

from spring to the early

summer, this really depends

on the weather. That's why

you should first test if you can

harvest the wheat. You do

this by rubbing the wheat

head between your fingers

and chewing on a piece of grain. The wheat is ready to be harvested when the grain

cracks in your mouth and becomes soft as you chew. The seeds of the wheat will also

be hard and the wheat will look yellow-gold. You can also see wheat which is ready to

be harvested in the picture above.

- For the harvesting itself you can use a combine, but as long as it is on small scale you

can also do the harvesting by hand. You can do this with a hand sickle. You cut the

wheat with the help of the sickle one foot below the top of the wheat plant. When

you have a bigger wheat field, you can use the Austrian scythe.

- When you have scythed the whole wheat field, you need to gather the stalks of

wheat and tie them into sheaves. Put these sheaves together to form a teepee, this

is called a shock. Put something on top of the shock in order to keep the birds away

and leave the shock dry on the field for 7 - 10 days.

- When the grain is dry, you need to thresh it. In this way you separate the wheat

berries from the chaff. You can do this best by banging the seed heads against the

side of a bucket.

- The next step is to winnow, which is separating the chaff from the wheat berry. You

can for example do this by throwing small amounts of what you gathered during the

threshing in front of an electric fan. In this way, the wheat will fall into another

bucket and the rest will fly away. In this way you get pure wheat, which you can sell

on a market in for example Kathmandu.

28

CONCLUSION

After we investigated all different options, we came to our final choice. As our products

which are going to have to be produced will be Mangos and quinoa. We think that this

products are the best choice because all the other options we investigated we’re or not so

profitable, or just more difficult to produce. We did research to this products on the best

way we could and tried to make a clear explanation of what has to be done to make the

plantation of these products a success. The reason why we choose to put two products in

our plantation program is that we would decrease the chance that if your harvest fails, you

don’t have anything anymore. The chance that this happens while you are planting two

products is way smaller than when you only have one product. The only thing that we had

difficulties with is that we didn’t know how much money we have available. This gave us

some problems in calculating the expected profit and determining how much plants should

be planted. However, overall we think that we did a good job and we hope that we’ve

helped the organization in such a way that you can move forward and keep doing what

you’re doing so well already.

29

SOURCES SOURCES General

http://welcomenepal.com/promotional/know-nepal/plants/

Elaborate travel agency page with lots of info of Nepalese plants and different regions in

Nepal where these plants are grown. They work together with the government (trusted) and

they also give a link to a page of the government for more information. There also is lots of

information on the history, geography, climate, wildlife, people and culture of Nepal.

http://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Major-Finding.pdf

A big document made by the Dutch CBS and it contains all kind of data about Nepal. It are

facts and numbers about the situation in Nepal. Mainly the first part of the document gives

information on the living condition in Nepal.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html

Very elaborate information about Nepal regarding all kinds of subjects. It contains lot of

numbers and facts. It is made by the CIA so it’s connected to the American government and

therefore it’s really reliable. Your also able to compare Nepal to other parts of the world.

http://www.nepal.gov.np/portal/npgea/home?l=en&rn=1418910185320

Website of the Nepalese government so very reliable. You can find lots about all kinds of

subjects which are important about Nepal and especially you can find information about laws

in Nepal.

http://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/NPL

It’s the site from a trade solution. It’s reliable because they work together with organisations

within the United Nations. It gives all kinds of numbers on Nepal and especially on their

trade. You can also compare Nepal to other countries in the world.

https://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Nepal/

A website which gives all kinds of websites divided in separate categories. So you can go to

a certain category for Nepal and there you can find links to all kinds of websites with

information on that topic. It’s reliable because its linked to the government.

SOURCES Nepalese agriculture

http://www.agricultureinnepal.com/

A website from a group of farmers who produce organic products. On the website is

information about a lot of different products which can be produced in Nepal.

http://www.usaid.gov/nepal/agriculture-and-food-security

USAID is the US government agency that works to end extreme global poverty. It is an

organization that is connected to the government so it is reliable. USAID also works in Nepal

in the agriculture and on the site there is general information on the Nepalese agriculture.

30

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Nepal-

AGRICULTURE.html

A site which gives general information on the agriculture in Nepal. On the site you can also

find general information on Nepal and information on other subjects of Nepal for example

economy and politics.

http://sadpnepal.org/

An organization which wants sustainable agriculture in Nepal. On the site is information

about what organic agriculture is and what the organization does to make the Nepalese

agriculture more organic. It isn't a very reliable site but it contains good information if we want

to produce the products organic.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Nepal/Agriculture/All-stats

A site where you can find a lot of statistics about the agriculture in Nepal and you can also

compare Nepal to nearly all the countries in the world and even to groups of countries, for

example western Europe. A very good site to compare the Nepalese agriculture to the

agriculture somewhere else in the world.

http://www.zadenkopenonline.nl/tuinzaden-bestellen-groenten/tomaten/tomaat-rosso-

cremlin-f1-type-sweet-100.html)

http://welcomenepal.com/promotional/know-nepal/climate/

Two sites where you can find a lot of information about all kinds of products which we could

decide to use in Nepal. The sites contain a lot of information about what the plants need so

about the environment in which the plants grow.

SOURCES Business plan set up

This are all different sites which we can use to make our business plan. The sites mainly

explain how to make a business plan. When we follow these steps we will be able to produce

a good business plan.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessplan/index.htm

http://www.entrepreneur.com/landing/224842

http://www.inc.com/guides/write_biz_plan/20660.html

http://grantspace.org/tools/Knowledge-Base/Nonprofit-Management/Establishment/business-

plans

http://www.mkbservicedesk.nl/33/hoe-stel-ondernemingsplan-businessplan.htm

https://www.ikgastarten.nl/ondernemingsplan/ondernemingsplan-maken/een-bedrijfsplan-10-

stappen

This site mainly explains about a business plan when it is a non-profit organization. It shows

a lot of things you need to think about when making a business plan for a non-profit

organization.

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/f/busplan.htm

This site mainly shows all the steps that need to be taken by a non-profit organization after

they have set up a business plan.

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/gettingstarted/tp/tipsstartup.htm

These sites explain where the organization could get their money from as they are a non-

profit organization.

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fundraising/a/fundraising101.htm

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fundraisingbasics/tp/basicfundraisingtips.html

31

SOURCES Crowdfunding

The first site explains how crowdfunding works and how a non-profit organization could raise

money using crowdfunding. The second and the third sites are sites where non-profit

organizations are raising money.

http://www.thefundraisingauthority.com/internet-fundraising/crowd-funding-your-non-profit/

http://www.kickstarter.com

http://www.fundraise.com

SOURCES Microcredit

Examples of microcredit projects:

http://www.povertyactionlab.org/publication/latest-findings-randomized-evaluations-

microfinance

Elaborate research report about recent findings about microcredit and microfinance.

http://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work

US government good cause that focuses on microcredit and microfinance. It's reliable

because it's a site of the government.

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/microfinance/review.php

Brief description of the history of micro financing that also includes a recourses list.

http://www.mra.gov.bd/

Bangladesh microcredit regulatory authority. Reliable because it's connected to the

government.

http://www.credit-coops.ru/

Website about a project that wants to achieve an equal economy in Russia.

http://www.kbyutv.org/programs/smallfortunes/

Another microcredit instance that also includes personal profiles of the people they

help.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-

network/2013/nov/19/microcredit-south-africa-loans-disaster

News article of a big Britain newspaper about the negative results of micro financing

in South Africa.

What is microcrediting?

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/microcredit.html

A clear definition of the word microcredit.

http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=108

Broader description of what microcredit is, also includes several examples.

32

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/microcredit.asp

Another basic definition of what microcredit is.

Difference between microcredit and microfinancing:

http://www.lendwithcare.org/info/microfinance_microcredit

A site which gives an elaborate explanation of the difference between microcredit and

micro financing.

http://www.unep.org/training/programmes/Instructor%20Version/Part_2/Activities/External_Dr

ivers/Finance/Core/About_Microfinance_and_Microcredit.pdf (PDF)

A FAQ list about microfinance and microcredit, includes a lot of small facts.

SOURCES products

Mango

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/mango/growing-mango-trees.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Mangoes

http://horticultureworld.net/mango-india2.htm

Sources we used to find information about how you produce mangoes.

Quinoa

http://www.heirloom-organics.com/guide/va/guidetogrowingquinoa.html

http://www.gardeningblog.net/how-to-grow/quinoa/

Sources we used to find information about how you produce quinoa. For the production of

quinoa we also used the information we got from the expert of Wageningen University.

Wheat

http://www.heirloom-organics.com/guide/va/guidetogrowingwheat.html

http://www.groworganic.com/organic-gardening/videos/wheat-harvest-by-hand

Sources we used to find information about how you produce wheat.