Nepali Organic Food

Nepali Organic Food

According to a report in The Independent, U.K., a review by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of scientific studies (of the last 50 years) on organic food compelled the reviewers to conclude that organic food does not have any significant advantage over normal food. This, however, holds no meaning for millions of health conscious people. For them, organic is the way to go. In Nepal too, organic food is finding an increasing number of followers and the interest in Nepali organic food is growing stronger by the day.

Samir Newa, founder of The Organic Village in Baluatar, Kathmandu, is generally credited for bringing organic farming into the limelight in the country. The Organic Village was founded in 2003 with the aim of not only growing chemical free food, but also of creating public awareness about the benefits of organic food. The Organic Village is supported by development agencies like UNDP, Winrock International, GTZ, Micro Enterprise Development Program, Small Grants Program,

            The Organic Village works in partnership with local farmers and provides them with a self-sustainable approach to farming besides secure markets. The Organic Village also serves as an information center where farmers, students and researchers can come and make use of the available resources. Their products are sold in various parts of the capital and some cities like Narayanghat and Pokhara through their own outlets as well as through department stores and other retailers.

The Organic Village’s products include rice, lentils, jams, beans, honey as well as different vegetables and fruits and dairy and meat products. Most of the products are grown in mountainous places like Jumla, Humla and Mustang. According to Samir Newa, foods grown at high altitude contain less fat than those grown in warm regions. Some premium products of The Organic Village are Jumli Marsi Rice from Jumla (grown at 2500 m); Kalo Dal (black lentils) from Rasuwa (grown above 2000 m); red rice and yellow rice from Humla; frog meat (called ‘paha’). All together, The Organic Village gets its products from 33 districts of the country. It has recently begun exporting organic products of Nepal to the United Kingdom, the Unites States, South Africa and Qatar.

There are of course, other Nepali organic food companies. One such is Kheti Bazar, an organic retail establishment with a café established by a well-known businessman, Bharat Basnet. Kheti Bazaar is located on the courtyard of Bhojan Griha Restaurant in Dilli Bazaar of Kathmandu which is also owned by Basnet. Kheti Bazaar only opened a couple of years ago but has already garnered quite a reputation as a store with perhaps the most diverse selction of Nepali organic products. Products are classified as OP, meaning organic-in-process (the grower has stopped using chemical fertilizers for less than three years), O, meaning Organic (grown for more than three years without chemical fertilizers) and DO, meaning Default Organic (products are from extremely remote places where chemical fertilizers have never been introduced). In addition to many others, the more popular products at Kheti Bazaar (all of which have been grown the organic way) include vegetables, lentils, white rice, brown rice, coffee, tea, cheese, pesto, fresh spices and dried spices as well as Nepal’s only certified organic apples (grown in Mustang). On Saturday mornings, you can also buy organic croissants and breads.

The 1905 Restaurant in Kantipath, Kathmandu, holds a weekly Farmers’ Market where one can get a variety of delectable Nepali organic food. These include three varieties of artisan cow’s milk cheeses—Tomme, St. Marcellin and Ricotta— produced by Frenchman Francois Driard’s company called Himalayan French Cheese. You can also buy a large selection of organic vegetables and fruits produced by Fresh Organic Farms (established in 1970 by an American) as well as artisan cow’s milk cheeses produced by Italian Sandro Serafini’s Himal Farm. His products include fresh-milk mozzarella, smoked cheese, soft fresh cheese, charcuterie, sausages, boar meat and burger patties. 

While all this paints a rosy picture of Nepal’s organic farming scenario, it is a fact that organic farming is not as widespread as wished for. This is something that needs to be addressed because more than 75% of the populace is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and organic farming could give them better returns as the demand is good and organically grown foods do command better prices. According to experts, the investment is also much less than in farming using modern methods (fertilizers, pesticides, et al). And, of course, organic farming will help the environment significantly. But still, all said and done, Nepal is seeing a growing interest in organic foods. This is apparent when you see the growing number of restaurants in the Kathmandu serving dishes made only from Nepali organic food.