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news from Nepal
left: Radika Rokaia celebrated another successful harvest in 2006.
If you celebrated Harvest with MRDF this year, you'll recognise her smile.
Radika Rokaia's successful crops of juicy apples and healthy vegetables have meant that she has plenty to smile about.
MRDF partner, the Himalayan Permaculture Group (HPG), visited Simikot village this November for an update from Radika and to find out the results of this year's harvest.
"The results of the greenhouse have been very good. Mustard was the best and coriander," explained Radika. "It was so hot in there, it was nice on a cold winter's day to spend time in there looking after vegetable crops ... There were so many different varieties that even if one was attacked [by pests] there were still plenty of vegetables from other varieties."
Two years ago Radika and her women's group built a greenhouse in which they grow vegetables to eat and sell. Their efforts have now paid off; the group has generated 2,000 rupees of extra income, equivalent to a third of the average annual earnings in Nepal.
But the changes won't stop here. Radika is now looking to HPG to help improve life inside the home, as well as in the garden: "I'd like them to teach us any new techniques - in particular the stoves which they can make from local resources, rather than the expensive iron stoves."
