KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 7
The National Statistics Office released the results of the National Agricultural Census, 2021 today.
According to the National Agricultural Census, a total of 4,130,789 farmers in Nepal are involved in agriculture-related work on 2,218,410 hectare land. The previous agricultural census, 2011, showed that 3,831,093 farming families were involved in agriculture on 2,525,639 hectare land. Similarly, 62 per cent of all households in Nepal are farmer households, which was 71 per cent in the previous census. The office has been conducting agricultural census every 10 years since 1961. This is the first agricultural census after federalism was adopted as the form of governance in the country.
The latest census shows that irrigation facilities are being used by farmers on 1,209,265 hectare land. Out of the total land under the ownership of families, 54.5 per cent of the land is used for irrigation. The area of land with irrigation facilities was only 52 per cent in the previous census.
As in the previous census, food crop was found to be cultivated in 2,586,183 hectare land, while pulses were grown in 199,844 hectare land and oil seeds in 180,141 hectare land. Likewise, vegetable crops are grown in 107,733 hectare land.
In the past 10 years in Nepal, farmer families raising livestock have increased from 3,353,857 to 3,405,014. According to this census, the number of cattle is around 4.6 million, the number of buffaloes is about 2.9 million, the number of goats and sheep is about 1.42 million, the number of pigs is about 1.4 million and the number of chickens is about 45.1 million.
Meanwhile, the Agricultural Census, 2021 has showed that 1,639,000 farmers are using tractors for agriculture. The previous census showed that 845,000 farmers were using tractors for agriculture. A total of 42,008 farmers are engaged in fish farming in 48,763 ponds while 196,854 farmers keep bees in 510,414 hives.
Furthermore, 182,441 (4.4 per cent) farmers have mentioned that they have got agricultural insurance, of which 153,962 (84.4 per cent) have insurance for livestock. According to the results obtained from the census, 308,500 (7.5 per cent) farmers have received government subsidy, with 46.2 per cent are getting it in the purchase of chemical fertilisers. The census showed that the main source of income of 70.4 per cent of farmers is agriculture. The previous census showed this percentage at 83.1. Out of the total farmers, 26 per cent said they were engaged in other economic activities in addition to agriculture. This percentage was 16 in the previous agro census.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 08, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
