Chitwan, June 15 -- A decade ago, Tek Bahadur Chepang returned home disappointed after spending three years working in Malaysia. The earnings were not enough to improve his family's life, and he faced the same uncertainty that had long defined the lives of many Chepang families in the hills of northern Chitwan.

Now, standing amid rows of thriving cucumber vines in Hapani, a Chepang-majority settlement in ward 2 of Ichchhakamana Rural Municipality, he represents a different story-self-reliance, rising incomes and changing aspirations.

On Friday morning alone, Tek Bahadur sold five quintals of cucumbers from his farm. There were plenty others nearly ready for harvest. "I started picking cucumbers on May 29. The first harvest was 80 kilos,...