Agriculture Potential in Nepal

Agriculture is considered as the main basis of economy for Nepal as we all know that Nepal is an agricultural country . It is known fact that our country is geographically diversified. 18-20% of the total land is only cultivable but the climatic variation found in Nepal provides a huge potential for the successful cultivation of food crops and cash crops.

According to the recent update, the contribution of agriculture in the GDP of the country is 31.7%. Though the contribution is massive the production isn’t self sufficient properly. The average yeild of cereal crop(kg per hectare) was 2896 kg according to 2018 . There is good increase ratio In the production of the foods in the present moment. Rice, wheat, millet ,barley ,buckwheat are the major staple food crops likewise oil seed,potato, tobacco, sugarcane,jute, cotton are important cash crops. Where as lentils, black garms ,horsegrams ,soyaben ,etc are the some important Pulse crops.

The good thing is that the food production potential of Nepal is enough to full fill the demand of self consumption . But the struggling thing is that we haven’t reached that potential yet. Nowadays people are aware and have understood the need and importance of Agriculture more better.
Though there are some problems and challenges that are dragging us to reach the fullest potential. Such as :

• Traditional way of farming are still practiced on most of the areas. The effort invested is more but the production is quite less .
• Most of the cultivation relies on rain water and due to the modern climactic changes ,the cultivation may face the condition of droughts or loss of soil moisture. And also the lack of proper irrigation facilities may result the same.
• After successful cultivation and harvesting ,still the product are not able to find good market . They rot where they are produced. This may be due to the lack of proper transportation facilities and availability of a good market.
• The transportation facilities are lagging to the upper hills and mountains and rural areas because of the difficult land topography.
• The production is still behind because of the poor economic condition of the farmers as they cannot afford good quality of seeds or required fertilizer and technologies.
• Going abroad of the skilled man power also hampers the way on lifting up the agriculture .

Considering these problems and challenges, we need to focus on the solutions to overcome them and following things can be done :

• Replacing the traditional farming ways or upgrading them to modern one . Then we can get a good production with a good effort .
• Managing proper irrigation facilities will reduce the risk on the crops. Different policies should be made regarding to support irrigation.
• Transport facilities should be increased by different means . Proper market availability should be granted to the farmers and producers.
• Free training on modern practices of agriculture should be provided time to time to the farmers.
• Involvement of trained , skilled manpowers and youths are necessary for the cultivation, production and harvesting.

Considering all these aspects, though our country has not met its true potential of production on agriculture but the production rising near to its fullest potential. And it’s up to our hand how far we can take the agriculture in the coming days.

Writer: Nikhil Chaudhary (Student, Bsc. Ag IAAS Paklihawa Campus)