The Farmers' Handbook
HPC staff have years of experience working in remote mountainous
regions which led to the development of a wide range of appropriate technologies and approaches aimed at increasing domestic farm productivity and reducing its costs. Concrete and positive outcomes, such as a measured increase in crop production, vegetable consumption, and reduction in firewood
use, have been demonstrated. These techniques are published in the Nepali language “Farmers’ Handbook” which is also used for practical literacy education. It was published in the Nepali language by
co-creators Chris Evans and Jakob Jespersen
in 2001 (7500 copies). In 2002 the handbook
was then translated into English and in 2009
made available for free download as
PDFs (click here) via the
Australian Permaculture Research
Institute’s website. In 2011 it was
released as a free e-book (click here)
by UK-based Permanent Publications,
publishers of the Permaculture Magazine,
via their Green Shopping Guide.
The English version is still in draft
form and the authors seek feedback
for improvement.
The Nepali hard copy finally sold out in 2011,
and a project has been started to reprint
this with revisions and a few additional
techniques added, with a deadline ofJanuary 2013.
Himalayan Permaculture Centre (HPC)
Farmers' Handbook
re-print
- see here
To celebrate International Permaculture Day on Sunday 6th May 2012 it's great to announce that we're reprinting the original Farmers' Handbook in Nepali. The Book will be distributed by various outlets such as Nepal Permaculture Group (NPG) from its office in Babar Mahal in Kathmandu. The publishers are currently contacting development organisations to announce this, and are seeking funds to be used towards the re-printing through pre-publishing sales agreements and donations. The aim is to set up a revolving fund and use new "print on demand" technology to make smaller print runs as required.
The Farmers’ Handbook was originally published in Nepali in 2001 and has sold out of the 7500 copies that were printed. Demand has been so high however, especially in the field of organic agriculture, that the time has come to make more, and a further print run of 1500 copies is planned. This edition will have 3 new chapters (techniques) in addition to the 40 plus it already contains.
In 2002 a translated English version was made available on the World Wide Web via the International Permaculture Research Institute in Australia (and has had over 8200 visits), and later as a free e-book (which has had over 1000 downloads of each of the 5 Volumes) by Permanent Publications of the UK.
If your organization is interested to pre-purchase copies of the Farmers’ Handbook to distribute to farming groups and use in your programs, or can otherwise support this project, please contact to discuss details.
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