Ministry of Commerce And Supplies - Enhanced Integrated ...

N T I S2010ILAM Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI)ICCI was founded in 1967. It has between 70 and 80 member enterprises that export large cardamom, tea,and ginger to the region (South Asia) and the Middle East. This TSI has a proactive management that is focusedon the needs of its clients. Despite its small size, limited infrastructure, and budget, it has used innovativemethods to provide BDS to its clients such as enlisting retired professionals from civil society to help withcapacity building and knowledge dissemination activities.ICCI is hampered by lack of capacity to train cardamom farmers in fighting the spread of diseases that havereached almost epidemic proportions in the area. Farmers are reluctant to seek advice from inexperiencedgovernment agricultural extension officers. And despite requests to Kathmandu, including through the FNCCI,no assistance has been forthcoming. This situation is quite representative of the difficulties local TSIs confrontin rural Nepal in trying to address effectively the needs of their clients. ICCI is also hampered by its limitedfinancial resources that restrict its ability to organize meetings and seminars.Observations from enterprises and other stakeholders: ICCI and similar sub-national TSIs need better technical and substantive support to service the needs oftheir members; Support for extension services is also an important requirement; and, There is need for an institutionalized mechanism to ensure prompt assistance from Kathmandu.Large Cardamom Association of Nepal (LCAN)LCAN is based in Birtamod, Eastern Nepal and has been active since 2002.There are about five serious exporters of large cardamom from Birtamod. Though small in number they arethe largest players by virtue of the town’s location as a major market for hill produce. LCAN was createdwith technical and financial support of Mercy Corps/USAID, as part of their support to boost rural householdincomes in the area around Birtamod. A major achievement of the technical support provided through USAIDand by SNV has been to replace the traditional weights and measures ‘Fawa’ system, biased against growers,with a more equitable system of weighing produce.Observations from enterprises and other stakeholders: The service capacity of LCAN is very limited. Yet, the needs of growers are great; Plant diseases have reduced planted acreage by almost 40 per cent in the preceding five years, whichurgently needs to be arrested. With proper resources, LCAN could help in providing extension servicesto growers (like ICCI mentioned above); and, New farming and post-harvest methods need to be introduced. Current practices are more than acentury old and reduce the resistance of plants to diseases. Likewise, LCAN and similar district-levelorganizations could help educate farmers.NEPAL TRADE INTEGRATION STRATEGY 2010BACKGROUND REPORT231