Nepal's agricultural performance has been extremely poor over the last 30 years. Nepal's crop yields and agricultural growth have stagnated.  Rural poverty rates are extremely high in Nepal, leading to fertile conditions for social unrest and insurgency. Winrock and its partner, International Development Enterprises (IDE), along with regional, national, and local partners have identified the high potential of micro irrigation to improve smallholder productivity and income in Nepal as part of developing a Smallholder Irrigation Market Initiative Business Plan.

The SIMI effort is a part of an international SIMI network (SIMINet). The network, formed in 2002 in Switzerland, includes SDC, GTZ, FAO, the World Bank, and the Dutch Government, as well as several international NGOs and private sector firms in micro irrigation. Winrock and IDE are committed to a 10-year SIMI Nepal program with the goal of alleviating poverty for 250,000 households (over one million people) through facilitation of access to micro irrigation and sales of high-value crops.

Since 2003, SIMI Nepal has operated in 28 districts in total, with an objective of increasing the average family income by $133 per year for 71,000 participating households (an estimated 350,000 total beneficiaries) through the sale of high-value crops. SIMI aims to establish private sector micro irrigation supply chains, expand market linkages, and develop connections to South Asian markets.

The SIMI program fits closely and contributes to USAID SO 1: Increased Sustainable Production and Sales of Forest and High-Value Agricultural Products.  SIMI has targeted and exceeded an increase in annual sales of US $26.25 million under this indicator.  Because SIMI follows a value chain approach, it aims to strengthen agricultural input and services markets. To this end SIMI has targeted and surpassed an increase in sales of over US $11 million in these markets.

The SIMI approach is proven and straightforward:

• Development of the supply chain for private sector provision of micro irrigation technologies and productivity packages initially facilitated by social mobilization, market promotion, and provision of technical services through local dealer extension.
• Marketing support and development of sustainable local market institutions to take advantage of profitable high-value crop opportunities afforded by Nepal's wide range of climates. Market development includes domestic and international opportunities focused on expanding local market linkages as well as linkages to the large Indian market. A series of market assessment activities, particularly sub sector and policy analysis of market constraints and opportunities have served as a guide for designing interventions to respond high-value horticulture markets. 
•  Development of point sources of water to facilitate large-scale smallholder participation in high- value agriculture based on micro irrigation. These efforts will include development of demonstration on hybrid drinking water systems with excess capacity for micro irrigation.