The National Agriculture Census 2011/12 has shown that Nepal’s agriculture sector has changed course over the last decade with the farmers shifting from growing cereals to planting cash and vegetables crops. According to the Census released last week, the land area dedicated to cereal cultivation has decreased by nine percent while the area under vegetable farming has increased by a whopping 41 per cent to 84,000 hectares. Similarly, the Census has revealed that the number of households involved in vegetable farming has nearly doubled to 1.931 million from 977,000 in 2001-02. This means several things simultaneously. 

 

First, there is a growing interest of farmers in vegetable farming and cash crops. It is encouraging in terms of both food security and higher purchasing power of farmers. Growing fruits and vegetables is a much more profitable activity than the farming of cereals. The argument that the trend of famers shifting towards vegetables and other cash crops might have negative impacts on the country’s food security doesn’t hold much water. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, people have food security when they are able to grow enough food or buy enough food to meet their daily needs for an active, healthy life. Vegetables and other cash crops are more lucrative anyway and farmers engaged in such type of farming always have the option of buying rice, wheat or maize by selling vegetables.

 

Second, this trend also helps in boosting food diversification in the country and lowering the imports of vegetables which are high-value crops. Vegetables have tremendous market potential now and in the future as well. This also means there is huge scope for corporate investment in vegetable farming. Only big investments from the corporate sector can ensure large-scale commercialized vegetable farming in the country.  

 

Third, this trend needs to be encouraged. The donor community as well as the private sector in Nepal has been concentrating on the production of high-value vegetable crops. The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has already implemented the concept of “one village, one product” in several districts. The farming of fruits and vegetables is particularly being promoted through this concept. Nepal’s hilly areas which have access to irrigation are particularly suitable for vegetable farming. According to experts, farmers can grow vegetables for up to five cycles in a year compared to the two cycles of cereal farming. Also, farmers growing vegetables don’t have to worry about market as vegetables sell easily in the market and have in fact become “quick and guaranteed returns”.

 

Another important revelation of the Census is that Nepal’s agriculture has made some progress in terms of farm mechanization. The census shows that a good 22.04 percent farm households use tractors to plough their farmlands while 20.96 percent use threshers to harvest the food grains. This is a good progress as compared to the previous agriculture census of 2001/02. The previous Census showed that the percentage of farm households using tractors and threshers was less than 10 percent of the total holdings. Similarly, around 14.30 percent farm households have reported using pumping sets or motors for irrigation.

 

The progress in farm mechanization is good but it’s not enough. Nevertheless, we should feel happy that farm mechanization has increased without any encouragement from the government. This shows that the Nepali farmers are responsive to change in the market forces. On its part, the government should introduce suitable policies offering tax exemption on the import of agricultural tools and equipment. If possible, it should also provide grants in the case of high-price equipment. Similarly, the government should implement policies to facilitate agro loans. The process of sanctioning agro-loans should be made easy and hassle-free. Agro loans must be made cheaper. At present, a farmer has to pay up to 16 per cent interest on loans to buy tractors whereas a car loan comes at an interest rate of six percent. Such discrepancies should be removed. The government and the central bank should work on this.