This means you can see both pine trees and rhododendron trees on a walk through the forest.
The soil, especially in Tachai, helps people live here. People grow apples, leafy greens, garlic, barley, wheat, legumes, corn and potatoes. According to one of the locals, Tachai is the best place in Manang to grow corn.
The greatest challenge is climate change, which is altering weather patterns. Farmers no longer know when it will rain or when it will snow, because temperatures are rising and causing unpredictable rainfall. In the communities I'm studying, there was a week of extreme rainfall in June 2021. The river next to Tal, the Marsyangdi River, flooded the town. Dharapani and Tachai experienced flooding and landslides.
After the floods, farmers in these communities restored their soil by adding manure from their cows and clearing out debris from the landslide. They also planted apple trees near their crops, which help prevent soil erosion during heavy rains.
From the interviews, I've learned that not much has changed in their farming practices from before the flood to after the flood. Though crops are growing, there's not enough snowfall for them to thrive like they used to. There are also not enough farm laborers because many young people go abroad to study and get jobs unrelated to agriculture.
