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I Nepal
is a small, landlocked and mountainous country, located along the
southern slopes of the Himalayan mountain range between India and the
Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies between 27º and 30ºN
latitude and 30º and 88ºE longitude. The average length being 885 km,
east to west and average breath is about 193 km north to south. The
country can be broadly divided into three parallel geographical regions
based on topography. Proceeding from the east to the west is the Terai,
or lower elevation fringe of the Geogetic plain in the southern border
at 100-500 m elevation with an annual rainfall of more than 1600 mm, the
middle hills at altitudes between 500 m and the forest line at 4000 m,
and the high mountains of the Himalayas in the north, extending above
the forest line as high as 8000m. With more than 50% of the cultivated
land in the country, the Terai is the granary of Nepal, mountain regions
cover only 5% of the cultivated area.
Agriculture is and will remain the dominant sector for providing
income and employment for about 80 percent of the population.
Agricultural development is crucial for Nepal's overall economic
development. Agricultural production system in Nepal has been
self-contained creating a very complicating system.
The population of Nepal has reached 20 million which is growing
at 2.08 percent annually. The
national average farm size is estimated at 0.95 hectare per farm family.
Nepal is a small landlocked agricultural country with only 2.3
million hectares of arable land which is distributed among 2.2 million
farm families. Nepal's land
area is composed of three distinct agro-ecological zones.
The southern most area comprising of 17 percent of the total land
stretching east-west, called Terai is situated 75 to 300 meters above
msl. This agroecological
zone occupies 55.51 percent of 2.3 million hectares of total arable land
of the country. The northern most land area called Mountains, is
situated above 3000 meters above msl to the top of the world and
consists of 15 percent of the land area but only 6.97 percent of total
arable land. Between these two is the Hill area, between 300 and 3000
meters above msl and occupies 68 percent of the total land area but only
37.52 percent of total arable land (Rames B. Munankami 1995).
The growing economic prosperity in Asia is a crucial factor that
determines the availability of labour, water and land for rice
cultivation. The competing
demand for these inputs in various economic activities affected their
relative scarcities and prices and changed the relative profitability
depending on the intensity of use of these inputs in various economic
activities (Hossain, 1996).
Rice-wheat is a dominant cropping pattern in Nepal, occupying
about 43% of the rice areas and is most common in the foothills and
medium-rainfall hills of Nepal, including Kathmandu Valley.
In the mountains, the pattern is practiced in the medium-rainfall
area. In the Terai,
rice-fallow is a major cropping pattern in the high rainfall area, and
covers about 56% of the rice area. The rice-maize rotations is more common in the high
rainfall Terai area. Double
rice cropping, which covers only 2% of the rice area, is mainly
practiced in low-and medium-rainfall areas of the Terai and the
foothills where irrigation facilities area available (Uppadhyay, 1996).
Rice is one of the most important staple food crop of the
country, accounts for more than 50 percent of the calorie intake of the
Nepalese people. The crop is grown in different agro-ecological zones
accounting for more than 50 percent of the total agricultural area and
production. About 73 percent of the total rice area is located in flat
plains of the Terai. The mid-hills and high-hills occupy only about 24
and 3 percent of rice area, respectively. The crop is grown in Nepal
ranging from 60 m to 3050 m masl, the highest rice cultivation point in
the whole world (Jumla District) (Shahi and Heu, 1979).
Rice (Oryza sativa) in Nepal has been cultivated since before Vedic time.
Nepal is considered to be one of the countries of origin in South Asia.
Its description is found in the Veda and other Nepalese literature
written in 1500 B C. The
cultivation of rice is mentioned even in the ancient literature of 2800
B.C.
However, rice research was started in 1951 in Nepal (Mallick,
1981). A total of 930 local varieties from 54 districts were collected
and intensive evaluation was carried out at Parwanipur and Khumltar.
Initially, exotic rice variety from Taiwan were introduced, evaluated
and were found to be high yielding in the Kathmandu valley. This greatly
inspired to focus on rice varietal research and development.
Subsequently, introduction and evaluation of indica rice lines were
carried out since 1959 at Parwanipur Agriculture Station. After testing
of various exotic materials at Parwanipur, CH-45 was recommended as the
first modern variety in Nepal. The variety is still popular in various
rice growing areas where double rice is commonly grown.
The area under rice increase from 1.2 million ha. in early 1970s
to about 1.51 million ha. Roughly, two thirds of their increase was in
the hills (Anonymous, 1996). The Terai region (60-900 masl) constraints
nearly 73% of the area and 75% of the total production.
Mid-hills (900-1500 masl) and high-hills (1500 masl) have 24
percent and 3 percent of total rice area producing 23% and 2% of rice
production, respectively (C B S, 1996). The total rice area gradually increased from 1.45 million ha
during 1988-89 to 1.51 million ha. in 1996-97 with 0.43 million tons
increase in total production. The
productivity also increased from 1.76 to 2.46 t/ha. in the span of 25
years (Table 1.1). Table
1.1 :
Trend
in rice area, production, productivity of rice in Nepal.
About 79% of the rice is grown under rainfed conditions, 70%
under rainfed lowland and 9% under upland conditions.
Only about 21% of the rice area is irrigated, either fully or
partially (NARC, 1996).
Efforts to increase rice production
and productivity in Nepal by developing several modern rice varieties (MRV)
along with management technologies can be attributed to the National
Rice Research Program, because more than 50% of the rice areas are
planted to MRVs. Altogether
42 rice varieties have been recommended so far.
Among them, Masuli one of the oldest variety, is still the most
popular and widely grown in the country.
Recently, Makwanpur-1, Sabitri, Radha-4, Radha-7, Radha-11 and
Radha-12 are also gaining popularity among the rice growers at different
rice growing environments (Upadhyay et al., 1996). SIGNIFICANCE
OF RICE IN THE NATIONAL ECONOMY
The agricultural sector employs more than 80% of the labour
force, producers, nearly 50% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and
generates a significant part of the export earnings of Nepal (Ministry
of Finance, 1997). With in
this sector, rice is by far the most important staple crop of the
country. Its importance in
the national economy can not be overstated, as the country’s economy
is predominantly rural and agrarian.
The crop is grown in about 1.51 million ha with a total
production of 3.7 million tons and a productivity of 2.46 t/ha.
It contributes nearly 20% to the agricultural GDP and 54% to the
total food grain production of the country (Ministry of Finance, 1995).
It has meets more than 50% of the total calorie requirement of
the Nepalese people.
Rice crop has three important by products which contributes
substantially to agriculture and agro-based industry in Nepal.
Rice straw meets about 32-37% of total digestible nutrients
required for 8.6 million Livestock unit.
It especially accounts for a large share of Livestock feed during
scarcity of green fodder. It is also used as bedding materials for livestock in winter,
thatching for house and raw materials for composting making and paper
industries. Farmers often
sacrifice grain yields and grow tall varieties with high straw yields to
meet above mentioned requirements.
Rice bran is another by product that is also used as livestock
feed. It is preferably fed
to milch and draft animals. In
turn, about 39 million tons of dung is available annually from cattle
and buffalo population in addition to milk and meat.
Use of dung as natural fertilizer plays a key role for
sustainable crop production and productivity, as the Nepalese
resource-poor farmers cannot afford for chemical fertilizers.
Rice husk is also an important by-product which is used as fuel
energy for running some industries.
Over the past 25 years, rice production has increased by almost
50% in the country. The
increase in production is partly attributable to increase in rice area
and partly to MRVs and other management technologies.
Regardless of low successful it has been in the past, research
program in 25th anniversary needs re-examining its role and
operations in the light of new circumstances.
STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
The cultivation of high yielding varieties of paddy is a most
profitable crop in Bardiya District of Nepal. The root of the problem
can be traced to resource and the nature of agricultural sector in
Nepal, which is not yet geared to suit the need of modern technology,
which the farmers generally face in the area of study. The problem
apparently seems to be that the crop is much capital and labour
intensive besides the prices of the rice in the market fluctuates from
year to year, month to month and even week to week.
The other problems are the different size of holdings, lack of
knowledge of the latest modern Techniques, unavailability of
fertilizers, Irrigation and transportation of rice for marketing. The
problem apparently seems that improper technical practices and marketing
schemes, which is likely to discourage the farmers to take up this
business extensively. At the time of the producer face the problem of
disposal of the product at the post harvest time because the investment
to net crop and low prices. There is no other opportunity to the farmers
to sift from paddy to other crops because of the agro-ecological
condition is only suitable for paddy in Kharif crop. JUSTIFICATION
AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
Agriculture is the dominant sector for providing income and
employment for about 80 percent of the population. The present study
revealed the nature and extent of investment for the farm inputs
required for rice cultivation and problem faced by paddy farmers in the
study period of its cultivation of rice in the study area. The main
purpose of the study was to study the economics of production of H.Y.V.
(paddy) crop for different types of farmers in Bardiya District of
Nepal. The findings of present study will help different categories of
farmer to increase faced the challenges in production of paddy on their
farms. The study will
encourage further research to increase the economic of paddy growers in
Nepal. OBJECTIVES
OF THE STUDY
The
specific objectives of the present study are as follows: 1)
To study the farm structure and cropping pattern of the different
size of farm in the study area. 2)
To work out the cost of production of high yielding varieties of
paddy on different size of farms. 3)
To find out the benefits received from the production of high
yielding varieties of paddy on different size of farms. 4)
To find the problems faced by high yielding varieties of paddy
producers in the study area. HYPOTHESES
To
achieve the proposed objectives the following hypotheses were formulated: 1)
Production of high yielding varieties of paddy is profitable crop
for all size of farms. 2)
As the size of farms increases, the cost of production also
increases. 3)
Most profitable size of farms
is small size of farms. Limitation
of the Study This study suffers with several limitations, some
of which are mentioned here :- 1.
The findings of this study is
based on the oral replies of the respondents and the personal
observation of scholar at the time of survey for collection of data,
since traditional farmers do not maintain any farm record, hence the
objectivity of this study is limited to the ability of respondents to
recall and to their memory in furnishing the required information. 2.
Due to limitation of time, only
60 samples were studied. 3.
The Nepal rural and urban areas
are Maoists infested area so it is difficult to cover the larger area
for the study, so the study was confined only one district and one
Village Development Committee. 4.
The study is planned to cover
only one agricultural year 2001-2002 which may not have it’s impact on
future. 5.
The study is identified as Terai
Region of Nepal, which has a limited scope of agricultural development
specially in Kharif season rice is constrained enterprises of Terai
farmers. PLAN
OF THE RESEARCH The thesis is presented in six chapters, in the current chapter, I have discussed the importance, scope, objectives, hypothesis and limitations of the study. In subsequent chapter II, review of literature has been presented. Chapter III deals with the methodology used in the study, which includes sampling designs. Statistical tools and concepts used in the present study. Chapter IV describes the main agro-economic features of Bardiya district of Nepal as background information which made use it for interpretation of the results. In Chapter V, the results of the present study are presented and discussed. Chapter VI presents summary and conclusions inferred from the results and findings. Suitable measures also have been suggested from the result of the study .
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