Agriculture in nepal
DHANKUTA, JUN 26 - Farm lands used for vegetable cultivation in Dhankuta district have more than doubled in the last decade from 992 hectares to 2,187 hectares, said the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) branch office quoting the Agriculture Census.
While 83.13 percent of the country’s population is engaged in farming, it is the main source of livelihood for 93.26 percent of the people in Dhankuta district, said CBS Branch Officer Purna Bahadur Gharti.
As per the report, use of chemicals in farming has decreased 27 percent. However, Gharti said that their use in vegetable production had grown 35 percent during the review period.
The district has a population of 163,000. The number of people who survive on what they grow on their farms for three months of the year has dropped 7 percent. However, the number of landless people has risen 5 percent in the last 10 years.
Similarly, the number of people depending on seasonal farming has decreased 16 percent. As per the report, farmers switching to growing fruits from food crops like millet, maize, wheat and paddy has resulted in a decline in the number of temporary types of agricultural production.
As the local people have been taking up alternative jobs, the area of grazing land has jumped three-fold. Most of the farmers have been taking loans from women’s groups, while 19 percent borrow from other sources like friends, local money lenders and financial institutions.
According to the Agriculture Census, 55 percent of the farmers took loans for livestock farming. Similarly, 21 percent borrowed money to buy agricultural inputs like fertilisers and seeds.
The report shows that most of the men have been drawn towards foreign employment. As a result, women’s participation in farm work has shot up 177 percent. The census report was based on a study conducted on livestock and vegetable production, market access, participation ratio in agriculture, status of irrigation, commercial farming, agricultural credit and crop diversification.
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