NepalAGRICULTURE, NEPAL
Oxen in fields, Tulsipur area, Rapti Zone in the Tarai Region
Courtesy John N. Gunning
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
(see The Land
, ch.
2).
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 (see
table 20, Appendix).
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 (see
table 21,
Appendix). 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.
Data as of September 1991
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