28th Ambassadorship, Month 2, Report 1

Month: April

Free report

Topic: Mountain Agriculture

Mountain agriculture is largely family farming. Cultivating mountain areas, with their patches of

useable land dispersed at different altitudes, with many different climates and limited use for mechanization, is most effectively carried out by family farms. Diversification of crops, integration of forests and livestock husbandry are major characteristics of mountain agriculture. Mountain agriculture has evolved over the centuries in an often harsh and difficult environment and contributed to sustainable development. Remoteness, low productivity due to the poor quality land, extreme weather and small farm size, lack of adequate infrastructure and high transport costs are some important traits of mountain agriculture.

In Nepal the mountain peoples are influenced by Tibetan culture and Thakalis, Sherpas and Bhotias live in separate, single ethnic settlements. Climate varies from warm temperate to alpine. Livestock production is based primarily on crops and grazing. Cultivation includes annual crops on rainfed and irrigated land and perennial crops. Grazing includes the migration of ruminant livestock and the utilization of vegetation. Farming is subsistent in nature and crop is mostly integrated with livestock. Mountain farming is richly endowed with agro-biodiversity. Maize, millet, wheat, barley and buckwheat are the major staple food crops. Similarly, crops like amaranth, naked barley, proso millet, foxtail millet, finger millet, common bean, and high altitude rice (cold tolerance rice) are also grown in different parts of mountain.

Constraints of Mountain Agriculture

1. Physical constraints

 Undulating topography

 Remoteness and inaccessibility

 Marginality and fragility in terms of moisture stress

 Poor soil condition

 Short growing season

 Due to the slopes, soils are prone to erosion, which is aggravated by heavy migratory grazing which has also led to soil degradation.

 Soils are shallow and stony, and subject to periodic water stress

 Despite sufficient water resources, irrigation facilities are meager, and most agriculture

depends on rainfall

 The land is inaccessible, and infrastructure, communications and mobility are obstructed by different physical, climate, biological and socioeconomic factors 

2. Socioeconomic constraints

 Small and fragmented and scattered land holdings

 Very limited use of inputs.

 Poor productivity

 Labour shortage

 Lack of entrepreneurship

 Low priority of local knowledge and indigenous technologies.

 Unable to sustain the basic family livelihoods from farming job.

 Increasing the trend of outmigration in search of off-farm employment

 Most of the local people are survive in remittances

 Women are headed in farming households due to migration of men to employment

 Shortage of energy and labour, especially women and children, which constituted 75-

80% of family labour, due to their engagement in other activities

 Natural hazards like intense rainstorms, hailstorms, floods, epidemic diseases, insects and an erratic monsoon

 In some regions monkey, wild pigs, stray animals and birds menace crop 

3. Technological constraints

 Poor management practices.

 Lack of appropriate technology

 Poor marketing and marketing networks

 Research and development is oriented towards the plains and neglected to mountains.

 Improved technology has largely remained confined to irrigated areas and commercial crops

Features of mountain farming

1. Small land holdings, sloping marginal land, and rainfall-dependent farming.

2. The summer crop season receives about 75% of the total annual rainfall, of which much goes

to waste through runoff.

3. A variety of cereals, fruits, vegetables, flowers, and medicinal, aromatic and dye plants

(MADP) are grown.

4. The major rainfed cropping systems are maize-wheat, rice-wheat, and intercropped pulses and oilseeds in maize and wheat, while rice-wheat and vegetable based crop sequences are dominant under irrigated conditions.

5. Only one cropping season is feasible in the high-hill temperate zone where crops are grown

during the summer (April to September), as snow cover during winter does not permit sowing.

6. Two short duration crops such as pea-buckwheat and pea-pea are possible in a single summer season in the high-hill dry-temperate zones.

7. The major fruit crops are apple, subtropical and temperate fruits including nuts and dry fruits.