AgricultureNepal

Agriculture dominated the economy. In the late 1980s, it was the livelihood for more than 90 percent of the population--although only approximately 20 percent of the total land area was cultivable--and accounted for, on average, about 60 percent of the GDP and approximately 75 percent of exports.

 

Since the formulation of the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1975-80), agriculture has been the highest priority because economic growth was dependent on both increasing the productivity of existing crops and diversifying the agricultural base for use as industrial inputs.

 

In trying to increase agricultural production and diversify the agricultural base, the government focused on irrigation, the use of fertilizers and insecticides, the introduction of new implements and new seeds of high-yield varieties, and the provision of credit.

 

The lack of distribution of these inputs, as well as problems in obtaining supplies, however, inhibited progress. Although land reclamation and settlement were occurring in the Tarai Region, environmental degradation--ecological imbalance resulting from deforestation--also prevented progress.

 

Although new agricultural technologies helped increase food production, there still was room for further growth. Past experience indicated bottlenecks, however, in using modern technology to achieve a healthy growth. The conflicting goals of producing cash crops both for food and for industrial inputs also were problematic.

 

The production of crops fluctuated widely as a result of these factors as well as weather conditions. Although agricultural production grew at an average annual rate of 2.4 percent from 1974 to 1989, it did not keep pace with population growth, which increased at an average annual rate of 2.6 percent over the same period. Further, the annual average growth rate of food grain production was only 1.2 percent during the same period.

 

There were some successes. Fertile lands in the Tarai Region and hardworking peasants in the Hill Region provided greater supplies of food staples (mostly rice and corn), increasing the daily caloric intake of the population locally to over 2,000 calories per capita in 1988 from about 1,900 per capita in 1965. Moreover, areas with access to irrigation facilities increased from approximately 6,200 hectares in 1956 to nearly 583,000 hectares by 1990.

 

Rice was the most important cereal crop. In 1966 total rice production amounted to a little more than 1 million tons; by 1989 more than 3 million tons were produced. Fluctuation in rice production was very common because of changes in rainfall; overall, however, rice production had increased following the introduction of new cultivation techniques as well as increases in cultivated land. By 1988 approximately 3.9 million hectares of land were under paddy cultivation. In 1966 approximately 500,000 tons of corn, the second major food crop, were produced. By 1989 corn production had increased to over 1 million tons.

 

Other food crops included wheat, millet, and barley, but their contribution to the agricultural sector was small. Increased production of cash crops--used as input to new industries--dominated in the early 1970s. Sugarcane and tobacco also showed considerable increases in production from the 1970s to the l980s. Potatoes and oilseed production had shown moderate growth since 1980. Medicinal herbs were grown in the north on the slopes of the Himalayas, but increases in production were limited by continued environmental degradation. According to government statistics, production of milk, meat, and fruit had improved but as of the late 1980s still had not reached a point where nutritionally balanced food was available to most people. Additionally, the increases in meat and milk production had not met the desired level of output as of 1989.

 

Food grains contributed 76 percent of total crop production in 1988-89. In 1989-90 despite poor weather conditions and a lack of agricultural inputs--particularly fertilizer--there was a production increase of 5 percent. In fact, severe weather fluctuations often affected production levels. Some of the gains in production through the 1980s were due to increased productivity of the work force (about 7 percent over fifteen years); other gains were due to increased land use and favorable weather conditions.

 

  Jomsom Apple

The village of Marpha is situated in the Kali Gandaki Valley of the Annapurna Conservation Area at an altitude of 2.650 m. The exact geographical location is 28°45' Northern latitude, 83°42' Eastern longitude. It lies in a very remote region. The next road starts in Beni (2 to 3 days by foot); the next big market is Pokhara (3 to 4 days by foot). Marpha is also accessible by plane; from the small airport in Jomsom (1 hour by foot) it takes only half an hour to Pokhara by plane.

 

When we first decided to do a project on apple farming in Marpha, we did not know what to expect. Except for what was told to us by Prof. Haffner of our department we could gather only very little information about Marpha and its surroundings. So the idea was to decide on concepts and methods when we had had a chance to get a rough picture of the situation.

 

Once in Marpha we got the impression that almost every household seemed to be engaged in apple farming to some extent. Also any literature we found in the village library stretched out the economic importance of apple production for the region. Thus we decided to conduct interviews with a small number of sample households participating in apple farming. The teachers of the secondary school of Marpha helped us to select families for the interviews. They chose them according to their financial and social status and the approximate number of apple trees they own.

 

Once we had worked out a set of questions which seemed on one hand precise enough to provide us with an overview of the farmers' financial situation without on the other hand invading their privacy, we were facing the next severe problem: How to talk to Nepalese families who mostly speak only little English while our Nepali did not reach further than two or three words? Fortunately, one of the teachers, Mr. Shalikram Lamichhne, spent many hours of his spare time translating for us. Without his and many other people's friendly help and advice our work would not have been possible. The families we interviewed were without exception friendly and helpful and answered our questions willingly even though it took them at least half an hour of their free or even working time.

 

In the following chapters we first specify the objectives of the project and methods used. In the following results part we present after a short history of apple farming in the Marpha region a variety of economical and social aspects connected to apple farming. Finally, sustainability of large scale apple farming is discussed in the conclusion.