Activities

a. National Activities

1. Encourage mid-career professional to record their experiences on fmist .

FMIST  encourages mid-career professionals to record their working experiences in FMIS.  These experiences are shared among the peer groups, university students and other interested groups of the individuals.

2. Encourage graduate students of the universities within Nepal and outside to write master thesis

They are encouraged to write thesis on the issues of FMIS and  provide them funding support for field work.Trust has provided Field Work Support Scholarships to the students for masters’ degree thesis writing in different fields of FMIS . Following students were awarded scholarships :

S.N.	Theme	Discipline	Affiliated Institute	Name of student	Year
	Sedimentation process in Nepali rivers and consequences.	Civil Engineering	Institute of Engineering, Lalitpur	Mr. Bholo Chhatkuli	2001
	Indigenous knowledge and practice of FMIS: A case study of Dandakhet Kulo of Batakachaur VDC, Baglung.	Anthropology	Tri-Chandra College, Kathmandu	Mr.Lal Bahadur Pun	2001
3	Role of gender in Sali Nadi Irrigation management(Thesis for (MS)	Economics/Gender Study	IWMI Nepal	Ms Shuku Pun	2001
	Comparative study of multi-purpose and single-purpose WUAs	Agriculture Science	Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand	Ms. Komal Kumari Magarati	2003
5	“Reviving Boshan Khola Irrigation Project by Rehabilitating Head Works and Strengthening Institutional Capability”	Engineer	Nepal Engineering College, Bhaktapur	Chandra Bhusan Dutta,Himalaya Poudel,Netra Prasad Bohara, Dhruba Raj Paudyal	2005

3.   Development of methodology to prepare inventory of FMIS in Nepal It was felt necessary to know how many units of FMIS exist and its status. A one page questionnaire incorporating physical, agriculture, social and institutional characteristics was prepared for the irrigation inventory preparation. A collaborative exercise with the district units of National Federation of Water Users Association of Nepal (NFWUAN)  took place for piloting of inventory preparation. Technical assistance as well as nominal financial support was provided by FMIST.  The district units of NFWUAN contributed time and manpower for this pilot exercise.

4. Provide support to international students undertaking research activities on FMIS in Nepal.  

Members of FMIST  provided  support to the international students from other universities. The library of FMIST is made open to them.

 b.   Award and Training Programs to the  Best Performed FMIS.

The Trust initiated this program  from 1999  with the objective of recognizing best practicing FMIS from all around the country in the subject  of a given theme and providing interactive training in the award theme. The best performed FMIS as identified by FMIST are given below.

S.N.	Awarded FMIS	Location of FMIS	Theme for the Award	Awarded Year
	Bhutlung Jal Upabhokta Samiti	Topgachhi, Jhapa district	Conservation Measures in Irrigation Systems	1999
	Chhattis Kulapani Samiti	Rupandehi district	Resource Mobilization for O&M of Irrigation Systems	2000
	Sardikhola-Puranchaur Sinchain Samiti	Puranchaur, Kaski district	Diversification of WUA Activities	2003
	Panchakanya Sichain Jal Upabhokta Samiti	Ratnanagar, Chitwan district	How much Participatory is your Irrigation Management?	2004

For award competition, the Trust developed questionnaire form. Questionnaire were circulated among the FMIS. They  filled in the questionnaire and returned to the Trust. The Evaluation Committee formed for this purpose evaluates the questionnaire filled in by the FMIS. Six candidates will be short listed. Field verification  of each short-listed FMIS takes place, Thereafter, comparing information provided by the candidate  FMISs with that of field based informatione obtained from the field-verification, final scoring and evaluation would be done. To avoid the social and other biases, confounding variables were also considered in the final evaluation process and then the highest scoring FMIS was decided as the best practicing FMIS for that year.  “ Medani Nath Award Fund” in the name of the Director General of Department of Irrigation of Nepal was established. Fund was made available by Mr Engineer, Lava Bhattarai, son of Mr. Medani Nath Bhattarai. The yearly Trust Award given to the best performing FMIS includes Rs. 5,000 (Five thousand) cash and a Copper Plaque. Beside this, the Trust provides  training to the farmers of the award winning FMIS on the awarded theme related issues.

1.   Farmers’ Training

Following training programs were organized  to the  best performing FMIS.

• Conservation Measures in Irrigation Systems. 15 farmers participated  in the program.
• Resource Mobilization for O&M of Irrigation Systems  to 29 farmers
• Diversification of activities for sustainable WUA to  18 farmers
• How much Participatory is your Irrigation Management? To 25 farmers

Following training programs were organized to Kathmandu District  units of  NFWUAN.

• Exercise on “Problem Identification of WUA” to 16 farmers
• Exercise on Organizational Strengthening of WUA  to 37 farmers.
• Organized  Farmers to Farmers Training program taking Kathmandu farmers to Argeli and Cherlung of Palpa District. Organized similar program to the farmers of  Khokani Irrigation System, Khokan, Lalitpur.