The goal of the local community capacity building program is to empower local communities by sharing valuable knowledge and information generated through research, which would add to their own knowledge base, and by encouraging them to participate in sustainable development initiatives. The major local community capacity-building activities are described below.
This training program is designed to provide basic knowledge and practical skills related to natural resource management and environmental conservation to students, teachers and local community leaders on a regular basis. In addition to this, ISER-N also organizes environmental awareness programs to celebrate the World Environment Day.
Trainings for local communities of flood and soil erosion prone areas are organized regularly to provide technical knowledge and practical skills on soil conservation and bioengineering techniques. The trainings are conducted twice a year: one in winter and the other right before the rainy season. ISER-N also conducts awareness programs on bio-engineering technology (for example, single-node bamboo propagation technique) with the aim of controlling edge cutting by the Narayani River.
Trainings on modern agricultural technologies are designed to help farmers increase agricultural productivity through providing technical knowledge and practical skills to farmers regarding appropriate and environment friendly agricultural technologies. The training areas include: system rice intensification (SRI), integrated pest management (IPM), organic farming, vegetable farming, poultry farming, and livestock production.
This training program is designed to document indigenous knowledge and information on local biodiversity and provide training to transfer such knowledge to young generation collaborating with academic institutions and civic societies. This study helps us to understand the value of conservation of local knowledge and biodiversity in the livelihood enhancement in a local context. It also helps us to know the factors that influence the loss of indigenous knowledge and biodiversity.
ISER-N has been conducting several adult literacy and child education programs in the western Chitwan Valley. Each year, before the start of the programs, trainings are provided to the resource persons who run the classes. The resource persons are selected from among the local school teachers of the program implementing areas by the local communities.
ISER-N organizes farmers field visits to promote farmer-to-farmer learning on improved agricultural practices. Farmers from one area where new agricultural technologies have not yet been introduced are taken to the farmers’ fields where new technologies have been practiced. These tours provide opportunity to observe actual use of technology in the field and to interact with the technology adopters.