Organic farming
Organic farming
Published: 02:40 am Oct 11, 2017
In Nepal, a major portion of the incomes are spent on rice, maize and wheat. Therefore, the incidence of poverty is highly sensitive to the changes in economic availability of these crops. Crops constitute 62% of the farm output, making people vulnerable to food security. According to the International Labor Organization, 68% of Nepal’s population is employed in the agriculture and forestry sectors, accounting for 34% of the GDP. Nevertheless, Nepal struggles to produce an adequate supply of food for its citizens. At present, about six district out of the 75 are highly food insecure as reported by Nepal Food Security Monitoring System (NeKSAP). The main challenge for experts of the agriculture and agri-engineering is developing the most suitable farming system and the technological advancement suitable to be incorporated in the hilly region which occupies about 64% of the total land of the country. The scenario of the country is itself challenging but it along brings the opportunity like the promotion of the organic agriculture and the export of the organic produces to international markets. Organic farming is reliably cheap, eco-friendly and sustainable for the farmers. Introduction of indigenous knowledge and promotion of the integrated farming can be best-practiced by the farmers to grow healthy food. A typical Nepalese farmer practices complicate and composite farming technique where s/he grows different crops, rears livestock, poultry and some other commodities for risk minimization through diversification. Primarily, this mode is intended for the fulfillment of the family food demand. It is a traditional subsistence mode of farming with optimum utilization of the locally available resources. Thus this system should be promoted and scientifically merged in similar organic farming by capacity building of the farmers through skill oriented training through Farmers Field School (FFS). Nepal by nature supports a diverse mode of agriculture system within a small territory since it possesses most of the climate from tropical to tundra. Thus, Nepal is also known as a micro-climate museum of the world. While most of the developed and developing countries are struggling to reduce pesticides use in the field, it is justifiable for Nepal to become an example for the agrarian economies of the world by transforming its traditional system of agriculture into a organic one.