Agriculture | Characteristics | Importance | Problems | Solutions | Agriculture Marketing
Agriculture | Agriculture in Nepal
Nepal is an agricultural country.
The primary occupation of Nepalese people is agriculture.
The agriculture has importance for the promotion of the Nepalese economy.
Most of the Nepalese people are engaged in agriculture i.e. about 65.7%.
Agriculture contributes about 28.9% of the GDP of Nepal.
Most of the industries are also based on agriculture for their raw material.
Due to all sort of these reasons, the agriculture is considered as back bone of Nepalese economy.
Agriculture includes food crops, cash crops, horticulture, poultry farming, beekeeping, animal husbandry, fisheries, floriculture etc.
Characteristics of the Nepalese Agriculture
The major characteristics of the Nepalese agriculture are as follows:
Subsistence farming
There are two ways to carry out farming.
They are subsistence farming and modern farming.
Nepal mainly practices the subsistence farming.
In subsistence farming, people grow corps only for survival not for commercial purpose.
The farmers of Nepal grow crops which is just enough for livelihood.
There is hardly any surplus product left for sale but nowadays the commercial farming is increasing in the country.
Monsoon based agriculture
Due to lack of proper irrigation facility, Nepalese agriculture is depended on monsoon.
The monsoon rain is uncertain and it is limited to a few months in a year.
If monsoon rain is favourable, the agricultural production increases.
If it is unfavourable the agricultural output decreases.
Hardly, about 40% of the total cultivable land is irrigated in Nepal.
Low productivity
Due to lack of irrigation facility, small size of farming land, untrained farmers and traditional farming system, the agriculture production is very low.
Mass people of Nepal are engaged in agriculture.
Due to low productivity of agriculture, the living standard of Nepalese people is very low.
Predominance of food crops
There is dominance of food crops in Nepalese agriculture.
Most of the crops grown in Nepal are food crops.
People grow paddy, wheat, maize, millet in large quantity.
Tea, coffee, sugarcane, jute, fruits, potato vegetables etc are also grown in Nepal as cash crops but the portion of cash crops is less then food crops.
Out of the total agriculture production, more than 49.41% of the in Nepal is food crops.
Small size of land holding
The distribution of land is very unequal in Nepal.
The average size of land holding is estimated 0.5 hectares (14.7516 million hectare ÷ 30 million populations).
This small size of land holding is economically not viable for commercial farming.
Modern agriculture is impossible in the small size of farming land.
Disguised and seasonal unemployment
Due of lack of employment opportunity in industry, trade and service sector, mass people of Nepal are engaged in agriculture. There is high burden of population in agriculture.
There is disguised unemployment in agriculture sector.
Similarly, people engage in agriculture for few months then they are jobless for the rest of the time.
Therefore, there is seasonal unemployment in agriculture too.
Geographical variation
The topography (geography) of Nepal is not same in all the parts of the country.
Due to geographical variation, the agricultural products are different in different parts of the country.
Paddy, wheat, maize, jute, sugarcane, oilseeds, pulses etc are grown in Terai.
Wheat, maize, coffee, tea, fruits etc are grown in hilly region.
Similarly, Millet, buckwheat, herbs, apple, are grown in mountain region.
There is food-surplus in Terai region but hilly and mountain region cannot produce sufficient food grains to feed the people living in these regions.
Dual ownership of land
There is dual ownership of land in Nepal.
Large portion of the cultivable land is owned by rich people but they do not cultivate the land.
They lend the land to the poor farmers.
The landlords do not make any effort to improve the productivity of land.
They take large portion of agricultural product.
On the other hand, poor farmers cultivate on the land but they do not have sufficient money to invest to increase agricultural product.
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Importance of Agriculture in Nepal
Nepal is an agricultural country.
Agriculture is the major occupation of the Nepalese people.
It is the primary sector of the economy.
Most of the Nepalese industries and foreign trade are based on agriculture.
It is the major source of income and livelihood.
Some of the importances of agriculture in Nepal are explained below:
Source of food
Agriculture is the main source of food grains in Nepal.
It supplies food to the growing population.
Agriculture provides various types of food grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, milk and other products.
Employment opportunity
Agriculture is the major source of employment opportunity in Nepal.
Due to lack of alternative source of employment opportunity, mass people of Nepal are engaged in agriculture (66% approx).
Nepalese agriculture is labour intensive, so that it creates large number of employment opportunity in the country.
Raw material for industries
Since Nepal is an agricultural country; most of the industries are based on agriculture for raw materials.
It provides raw materials to the industries like sugar industry, tea industry, jute industry, paper industry, juice industry, coffee industry, rice mills, flour mills etc.
Agriculture provides sugar, tea leaves, coffee grains, fruits, paddy, wheat etc to the different agro-based industries.
Source of government revenue
Agriculture is one of the major sources of public revenue in Nepal.
The government collects its revenue through different types of taxes and fees.
Land tax, land fees, land registration tax, export duties and other various indirect taxes are the major source of government revenue in Nepal.
Basis of foreign trade
Nepalese foreign trade is mostly based on agriculture.
Agriculture contributes about 70% of the total export of Nepal.
Nepal exports jute, tea, coffee, oilseeds, animal skins, cardamom, ginger, organic pulses etc to the foreign countries.
Environmental protection
Agriculture promotes healthy environment by providing greenery and freshness.
Agriculture helps to pressure bio-diversity and ecosystem.
It also preserves soil and its productivity.
So, agriculture helps to maintain environmental balance and helps to protect living beings on the planet.
Source of animal forage
Animal husbandry is one of the major occupations of Nepalese people.
Nepalese farmers rear (bring up) various animals like cow, buffalo, goats, sheep, horses, donkey etc.
Agriculture provides food to those animals.
Agriculture plays vital role for the development of animal husbandry in Nepal.
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Problems of Agriculture in Nepal
Although agriculture is the most important occupation in Nepal yet it is still in primitive stage.
Traditional farming, lack of irrigation facility, lack of improved seeds, lack of modern tools and technology, lack of trained farmers, lack of agriculture marketing is the major problems for the development of agriculture in Nepal.
The main problems of agriculture in Nepal are discussed below:
Lack of irrigation facility
Nepal has a very poor irrigation facility.
Despite it, richness in water resources at present, about 40% of the total cultivable land of Nepal is irrigated in the country.
Most of the Nepalese farmers depend on the monsoon for farming.
Nepalese farmers are facing a great problem due to the lack of adequate irrigation facilities around the year.
Use of traditional techniques
Nepalese agriculture is still in the primitive stage.
Due to lack of trained farmers and lack of capital, Nepalese farmers are applying the traditional farming system.
Nepalese are farmers still using traditional tools, traditional technology, traditional seeds and traditional farming style.
Due to use of traditional technique, agricultural production is very low.
Poor infrastructural development
Agriculture needs transportation to carry agro-tools and agro-products.
Similarly, it requires communication facility, electricity to get the market information and to store agro-products.
There is no more agricultural development due to lack of the infrastructures development.
Lack of credit facility
Most of the Nepalese farmers are poor.
Due to poverty, the farmers cannot invest sufficient capital in agriculture.
Poor farmers cannot get easy credit facility from financial institutions.
So, they take take loan from local money lenders or village merchants at high rate of interest.
The farmers are exploited by the village money lenders.
Lack of storage facility
Nepalese agro-products are not getting high price due to lack of proper storage facility.
If farmers get storage facility to store their agricultural products, they can sell their products in the ‘off season’ at high price.
But due to lack of storage facility, the farmers sell their products at low price.
Due to this reason, they cannot earn sufficient profit from their products.
Unequal distribution of land
Due to lack of scientific land reform system, Nepal follows unscientific distribution of land.
Land of Nepal is highly fragmental into very small pieces.
It is very difficult to use modern tools and technology in such a small pieces of land.
So, the agricultural production is very low in the country.
Dual land ownership system
Dual ownership of land is another major problem of Nepalese agriculture.
Very few rich people own the large portion of cultivable land but they do not cultivate themselves.
The rich people lend land to the poor farmers and take large portion of agriculture product without any efforts.
Due to this reason, the real farmers are exploited in the country.
Lack of agriculture marketing facility
Nepal has unorganised market.
Most of the poor farmers have to sell their products to the local merchant or middleman.
The farmers are not getting reasonable price of their products.
Farmers are exploited by the middleman.
Lack of research
Agriculture needs adequate research to develop agriculture in Nepal.
There are not sufficient researches to develop agriculture.
The researching works in the country are also not relevant to the actual condition of poor rural farmers.
Lack of effective government policy
Lack of effective government policy is one of the major problems for the development of agriculture in Nepal.
The agricultural policy adopted by Nepalese government is not based on need of Nepalese formers and geographical condition.
It seems lack of co-ordination between different policies, programmes, plans and their implementation.
Solutions to the Problems of Agriculture in Nepal
There are various problems of agriculture in Nepal.
Agriculture is the backbone of Nepalese economy.
The efforts made by governmental and non-governmental sectors are not enough to develop agriculture sector in Nepal.
The solutions to the problems of agriculture in Nepal are given below:
Infrastructure like transport, communication, electricity, education etc should be developed all over the country.
Irrigation facility should be provided all over the country.
Farmers should be encouraged to use modern seeds, tools and technology for modern farming system to increase agriculture product.
Easy and cheap loan facility should be provided to the farmers.
Organised agriculture marketing facility should be developed all over the country.
Scientific land reform policy should be adopted in the country to distribute land equally.
Effective agriculture trainings should be provided to the farmers.
Government should provide subsidies in modern seeds, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and tools so that the farmers can produce agro-products at lower cost.
Excessive population pressure on agriculture should be reduced by generation employment opportunity in other sector of the economy.
Policy related to crop insurance, extension of bank branches, formulation and implementation of farmer friendly programmes have to be adopted.
Government should formulate and implement effective plans and policies to develop agriculture sectors.
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Agriculture Finance
Agriculture finance refers to the loan provided to the farmers to purchase modern seeds, tools, technology, fertilizers etc.
Nepal is an agricultural country; mass people of Nepal are engaged in agriculture
Most of the Nepalese farmers are poor and agricultural productivity is very low.
Agricultural product is not sufficient even to fulfil their basic requirement.
Farmers cannot save money due to low production.
They need short term, mid-term and long-term loan to fulfill their requirement.
The source of agricultural finance in Nepal is unorganised.
Due to poverty, urban-centered banking services, the Nepalese farmers have to borrow loan from unorganised source.
The institutional source is also developing in the country but they are not spread to the rural and remote areas.
The sources of agricultural finance in Nepal can be broadly divided into two categories.
They are unorganised sources and organized sources (non-institutional source and institutional sources)
Unorganised sources | Non-institutional source
Unorganised sources of agricultural finance are also known as traditional sources and non-institutional source.
From the ancient time, Nepalese farmers are dependent on non-institutional sources.
Unorganised sources of agricultural finance are easy way to manage agricultural loan to the Nepalese farmers.
Due to lack of other sources of finance and lack of collaterals, the farmers are compelled to borrow from such unorganised sources of finance.
About 79% loan is provided from unorganised sources to the farmers in Nepal.
The farmers have to bear high rate of interest.
The main suppliers of the non-institutional agricultural finance are:
(a) Village money lenders
(b) Friends and relatives
(c) Village merchants and traders
Organised sources | Institutional source
Institutional sources are the organised sources of agricultural finance in Nepal.
They are established to develop agriculture under the policy and conditions of the government.
About 21% loan is provided from organised source to the farmers in Nepal.
The suppliers of institutional agricultural finance are:
(a) Commercial Banks: Nepal Bank Limited, Rastriya Banijya Bank etc.
(b) Development Banks: Agriculture Development Bank, Rural Development Bank, Micro Finance Development Bank etc.
(c) Co-operatives
(d) Finance companies etc
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Agricultural Marketing in Nepal
In agriculture marketing, agricultural products move to from farmers to the final consumers.
Agriculture marketing is very important for the development of agriculture.
Farmers get market for their products through agriculture marketing.
The agriculture marketing is not well developed in Nepal.
Nature of Agriculture Marketing
Unorganised
There is unorganised agricultural marketing in Nepal.
Most of the agriculture products are subsistence farming; farmers sell very few products.
The farmers sell their products to the village money lenders and local traders at lower price.
There is no uniformity in price, weight and quality of agro-product.
Therefore, agricultural marketing is unorganised in the country.
Seasonal
The marketing activities of agro-products are seasonal in Nepal.
The farmers sell their products immediately due to lack of storage facility.
The farmers compel to sell their products at lower price due to oversupply of agro products in season.
Limited market
There are few numbers of markets to sell the agro-products in the country.
Small farmers sell their agricultural products at Haat Bazar (weekly market).
Due to lack of permanent markets, farmers face various problems at the time of selling their products.
Farmer has to travel long distance to sell their products which especially affects the perishable goods badly.
Predominance of intermediaries
Nepalese agricultural marketing is characterized by predominance of intermediaries or middlemen.
The middlemen visit door to door and purchase goods at lower price and sell the same products to others at higher price.
This practise discourages the farmers to invest and produce goods.
Influence of Indian market
Nepalese agricultural market is directly influenced by Indian market.
Generally, Indian products are cheaper than Nepalese agro-products.
Therefore, Indian products adversely affect the Nepalese products.
Poor marketing network
Due to lack of development of road and transportation facility, the Nepalese agro-products do not get market.
The farmers sell their products in the limited areas.
The goods produced in remote areas and mountainous areas do not get market.
The agro-products of Terai are also not getting sufficient market due to lack of transportation facility.
Traditional measurement tools
Farmers of Himalayan region of Nepal are still using the traditional measuring tools.
There is not proper implementation of using metric weights and measures.
People use stone, bricks, pieces of metal, mana, pathi, dharni etc to measure the weight of agriculture products in Nepal.
Problems of Agricultural Marketing in Nepal
There are many problems in agricultural marketing in Nepal; some of them are explained below:
Lack of development of infrastructures
There is still lacking of road and transportation facility in the rural and remote areas.
The agricultural products of remote and rural areas are not getting market facility due to lack of infrastructure.
The farmers carry the agro products on their back.
When they bring their products in the market they have to sell their products at lower price.
Lack of storage facility
Nepalese farmers are compelled to sell their products at lower price due to lack of storage facility.
The farmers do not get chance to sell their products at higher price in the off-season.
Due to this reason, they are not getting adequate profit from their products.
Some farmers apply the traditional methods to store the agro products.
Due to such unscientific methods, a lot of agro products are damaged or destroyed by rates and insects.
Limited market facility
Due to lack of sufficient market centers, the farmers are compelled to sell their products at local Haat bazars at lower price.
The farmers do not get reasonable price of their products.
Therefore, they are discouraged to invest in the agriculture sectors.
Existence of middlemen
There is predominance of middlemen in the Nepalese agricultural market.
The middlemen visit door to door and purchase the agro-products at lower price and sell the same products at higher price.
The formers are not getting reasonable price.
The Nepalese formers are exploited by middlemen.
The real farmers are in loss and middlemen are earning profit in Nepal.
Problem of adulteration
There is practice of mixing inferior goods with superior goods.
People mix water in milk, stone in food grains, oil or vegetable ghee in deshi ghee.
Generally, such bad practices are performed by middlemen and traders in Nepal.
Inadequate credit facility
Most of the Nepalese farmers are poor.
Due to poverty, the farmers cannot manage sufficient capital to invest in agriculture.
Farmers take loan from unorganised source at higher interest rate.
They have to sell their products at lower price to the village money lenders or traders.
The farmers do not get sufficient benefit from their products.
Lack of uniformity in weight and measurement
People are still using traditional measurement units to weight the agro-products.
There is not uniform weight and measures regularity system in Nepalese agro-market.
People use stone, bricks, pieces of metals to weight the products.
The traders cheat the formers and consumers by using such illegal instruments.
Lack of grading and standardization
There is lacking of proper grading and standardization in Nepalese agricultural market.
Due to this, both farmers and consumers are cheated by traders.
The farmers do not get reasonable price due to lack of proper grading and standardization.
Inferior products and good quality products are equally treated.
Other problems
Apart from above mentioned problems, lack of organisation of farmers, effective government policy, lack of proper processing and packaging, barter system etc are also the problems of Nepalese agricultural marketing.
Remedial Measures of Agriculture Marketing
The measures to solve the problems of agricultural marketing are listed below:
· Transportation and communication facility should be extended to rural and remote areas.
· Storage facility should be provided to the farmers to store their products to sell at higher price in the ‘off season’.
· Permanent market centers should be established all over the country.
· Standardization, grading and weighting system should be enforced in rural and remote areas.
· Reliable and relevant market information should be provided to the farmers as well as consumers.
· Appropriate pricing policy should be adopted by the government.
· The government must fix the minimum price of the agro products.
· Easy and cheap loan facility should be provided to the poor farmers.
· The government should adopt the policy to open banking and financial institutions in the remote and rural areas.
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