Project description / objective
To facilitate the transformation of the agriculture market system in Koshi Province to ensure women and men - including from disadvantaged groups, find employment and increase income.
Market system focus
Large cardamom
Nepal produces 55 per cent of the world’s large cardamom and exports 98 per cent to India, yet its quality remains under-recognised. Limited value addition and branding persist, highlighting the need for diversification and premium product development to boost employment and benefit all value-chain actors.
Dairy
Dairy production spans the whole of Nepal, but the country still imports over 2,500 MT of SMP and key dairy items. Many processors focus on traditional products, while value-added processing offers opportunities to create jobs, diversify trade and reduce imports.
Vegetable
Rising demand for processed food increases imports, while vegetable processing units grow across Nepal. These units rely on investment, simple technologies and basic inputs. Promoting them supports poor farmers, creates value-chain jobs and boosts low-income household earnings, contributing to poverty reduction.
Maize
Nepal’s poultry growth drives rising maize demand, with over 70 per cent of it imported. Strengthening domestic maize production, improving post-harvest activities and developing services like custom hiring and storage enhance supply, create jobs and boost income across the maize value chain.
Programme approach
NAMDP II adopts a flexible, context-driven MSD approach that diverges from conventional models by simultaneously engaging private actors, public institutions and local governments. It combines technical assistance, tailored financing and investment facilitation across large cardamom, dairy, vegetables and maize, promoting value addition, strengthening market systems, creating jobs, boosting farmer incomes and driving inclusive, sustainable sectoral growth.
Programme interventions
Cardamom
- Technical support to FLCEN members
Providing technical assistance to the Federation of Large Cardamom Entrepreneurs of Nepal (FLCEN) and its members to identify, develop and produce value-added products and promote them through service providers. - International market exploration
Supporting FLCEN in exploring international markets for large cardamom and its diversified products. - Domestic demand promotion
Increase domestic demand for large cardamom through the Wah Alaichi campaign. - Access to improved dryers and grading machines
Facilitate access to low cost, improved dryers and grading machines to enhance product quality.
Dairy
- Capacity building for SMEs / dairy processors
Strengthen the capacity of dairy SMEs to diversify products and provide value addition support to small and medium processors. - Access to finance
Improve access to finance for milk processors through tailored loan products. - Access to business development services
Expand access to business development services for small and medium dairy processors. - Standards and quality control
Develop and improve dairy product standards, including protocols, registration and licensing.
Vegetable
- Standards and quality control
Improve and develop standards for processed vegetable products, including protocols, registration and licensing. - Digitalisation of licensing
Support the digitalisation of the food licensing system at the Department of Food Technology & Quality Control (DFTQC). - Capacity building for machinery manufacturers & traders/local collectors
Build capacity of machinery manufacturers for vegetable processing & grading. Facilitate B2B meetings and exposure visit with farmers for market linkages and exposer visits for traders/local collectors to strengthen market linkages and partnerships with farmers. - Access to finance
Enhance access to finance for processors through tailored loan products, enabling financial institutions to provide SME-specific financing. - Business development services
Increase access to business development services for small and medium vegetable processors.
Maize
- Capacity development
Strengthen technical and business skills of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs), traders, aggregators and warehouses. - Market linkages
Facilitate linkages between large traders/feed mills and small/local traders to enable bulk maize collection through network formation. - Access to finance
Improve access to finance for processors through tailored loan products, enabling financial institutions to provide SME-specific financing. - Policy advocacy on warehouse receipt financing
Promote warehouse receipt financing by supporting warehouses and Banks and Financial Institutions (BFIs) to initiate the system. Advocate for policy development, including minimum standard protocols for storage facilities to maintain crop quality.
Notable results
Enduring systemic changes
Large cardamom
- Interventions in the large cardamom sector benefited 4,418 farming households, increasing annual farm income by USD $163 per farmer (total USD $721,336).
- Adoption of improved dryers, grading machines and agro-processing technologies reduced post-harvest losses and enhanced product quality, enabling farmers to access premium prices.
- Collaboration with FLCEN and private actors through the “Wah Alaichi” campaign strengthened institutional capacity and increased domestic consumption by 5 per cent from 2 per cent, while expanding post-harvest and processing services created 181 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs and generated USD $253,578 in sector income, fostering long-term competitiveness and resilient value chains.
Dairy
- Interventions in the dairy sector benefited 11,986 farming households, increasing annual farm income by USD $163 per farmer (total USD $1.96 million).
- Adoption of value-added products - such as cheddar and gouda cheese, flavoured milk and IML-packaged lassi - along with improved chilling, retort and packaging technologies, enhanced efficiency, reduced seasonal disruptions and boosted profitability.
- Transparent payment systems and the development of national Churpi standards strengthened trust and competitiveness across the value chain. These improvements created 490 FTE jobs and generated USD $687,924 in sector income, fostering a more resilient and commercially viable dairy system.
Vegetable
- Interventions in the vegetable sector engaged 17,367 farming households, generating USD $161 per farmer (total US$2.8 million) in additional annual farm income.
- Strengthened partnerships with 14 local governments improved market access, enabled value addition (e.g. Gundruk processing, MAP bag use) and supported agri-SME financing, creating sustainable business opportunities for traders, processors and service providers.
- These systemic improvements generated 711 FTE jobs and USD $996,737 in sector income, fostering a more resilient, commercially viable and inclusive vegetable value chain.
Maize
- Interventions in the maize sector benefited 5,293 farming households, generating USD $163 per farmer (total USD $864,175) in additional annual farm income.
- Strengthened Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) and improved mechanisation and post-harvest services reduced losses, while expanded networks of aggregators, processors and warehouse facilities enhanced market access and efficiency.
- These systemic improvements created 217 FTE jobs and USD $303,791 in sector income, fostering a more resilient, commercially viable and inclusive maize value chain.
Impacts for target beneficiaries
- By June 2025, the programme had achieved 1,679 new FTE jobs and enabled 41,034 smallholder farmers to increase their annual farm income. Among these, 13,811 (34%) were women-led households and 18,835 (46%) belonged to socially discriminated male groups.
- The average annual farm income increase per household reached USD $163, exceeding the project target (USD $105) by 55 per cent. This growth was driven by greater commercialisation, increased use of machine rental services and stronger market linkages across the four priority sectors: maize, vegetables, dairy and large cardamom.
- The programme mobilised significant co-investments of USD $1.18 million (54%) from the private sector and USD $1 million (46%) from the project, which enhanced market access, promoted innovative products and services and generated sustainable jobs and income opportunities that strengthened local economies.
- Overall, the trade value of four priority sector large cardamom, maize, dairy and vegetable increased from USD $475.86 million in 2020/21 to USD $ 670.11 million in 2024/25, which is 40.8 per cent higher than the baseline value (Trade value study 2025). This growth reflected rising value addition and processing within Koshi Province, driven by increased engagement of the private sector and local governments. Prices of both large cardamom and maize also increased over the period.
[Updated November 2025]