Bagwati Khadka was not at her farm the day we arrived, as she had to be with someone in the hospital, so her brother-in-law, Deepak Khadka, showed us around the farm and told us her story.

Bagwati and her husband, now stationed at the police post in Naya Pati, come from Dolka, a hilly region east of the Kathmandu Valley. When Bagwati arrived to Kathmandu four years ago she received a letter from WCS about offering loans for creating businesses. She decided to take a loan of 10,000 rs (89 GBP) to open and run a small shop. It took time for her to see that the shop was not making a good profit, so she opted to invest in vegetable and poultry farming.

A year and a half ago, Bagwati took a three-day, Level One vegetable farming training offered by WCS (Women Cooperative Society). Shortly after this she and her husband rented two and half ropanis of land to begin her farming. Since this land is run down and only used to grow mustard seed plants, it will take Bagwati some time to cultivate the land.

Bagwati took a loan of 400,000 rs (3,571 GBP) - only 35,000 of which was from WCS, the rest from a local bank. She used this money to invest in vegetable farming, poultry farming, land rental, digging a well and fertilizers.

Deepak helps carry the vegetables to local markets in Jorpati, near Boudha, where they sell potatoes, garlic, beans, onions, spinach, buck beans, cauliflower and cabbage. Deepak does not know what profits have been made on selling vegetables, but knows that the poultry farming is yet to make a profit, as the losses have canceled out any gains.

I encouraged Deepak to tell his sister-in-law to take the poultry farming and Advanced Level class on vegetable farming so she can learn more about making her investments work for her.

We were met above a most expansive and impressive field by Sabina Pohkrel, who was holding her curved knife in her hand, a symbol of a farming woman in Nepal. She looked like many Nepali woman who work their farms. She is thin, strong, determined. Sabina is a fortunate one, as she has family land in a rural setting not far from the large city of Kathmandu. She took the three-day Level One training - offered by WCS (Women Cooperative Society) in April 2010, where she learned that there is more profit in growing potatoes than the rice she previously grew. Before this training, Sabina said that she knew nothing about vegetable farming. She just did what those before her did.

Since she had her own land, her own seeds and homemade fertilizer she only had to invest a little money in urea (an organic fertilizer), some additional vitamins for the plants, and the wages of laborers to prepare the land.

She has already earned 100,000 rs (892 GBP) selling her first crop of potatoes – grown on 5 ropanis of land-, and 9,000 rs (80 GBP) selling bean seeds from plants she grows on 2 ropani of land. Sabina can grow two crops of potatoes a year, one of bean seeds, and one of rice. People come to her to buy the potatoes, so she does not have to pay for any transport costs.

Sabina would like to take the 7 day vegetable farming training, which can happen when funding comes in to support it.

I visited Laxmi Karki at her home in NayaPati, a small village on the road leading from Boudha, Jorpati to Sundarijal, the set-off point for many treks into the Helambu/Langtang region of northern Nepal. Laxmi is 60 years old and has raised goats all of her life. As a child, young woman and adult, she and her family knew nothing about raising goats. They just followed the ways of those before them, feeding them what they now know is not the best of food, and never thinking to offer anything but Ganja as a medicine when goats had diarrhea.

Laxmi joined her local WCS branch office ten years ago, then quit, then rejoined. She decided to take a loan of 6000 rs (54 GBP) to begin raising goats. Soon afterwards, WCS began offering goat-raising training and she decided to take the first level, a three-day course. Laxmi now needs to take the 7-day advanced level training, which WCS can only offer with further funding.

Laxmi's eleven goats - 7 males and 4 females - go to the pasture daily to eat the local grass, but Laxmi also needs to prepare a mixture of corn, wheat and rice that her goats eat three times a day. Laxmi spends about 13 GBP a month on this food, and 11GBP a month on medicine for her goats.

The gestation period for goats is 3 months, so if she is smart and fortunate, Laxmi can raise many goats and make a good profit. After her training she sold 8 goats for a total of 50,000 rs, or 450 GBP. Male goats sell for more than female goats, which are mostly used for breeding.