Home to the highest mountains on earth, the Himalayas, Nepal is a country with a wealth of diversity in its peoples, its climate and its natural resources. Its mountainous topography, however, means that much of rural Nepal remains isolated due to the lack of roads and markets. The difficult access to much of the country's rural areas has hampered effective and sustainable development efforts. Agricultural productivity is low, with arable land increasingly fragmented and declining in fertility. Endemic rural poverty and food insecurity are critical issues, especially among tribal people living in isolated rural areas. Extension contact in such areas is very limited.
Another crucial problem is overpopulation of the small mountain kingdom (Nepal's population is currently estimated at around 19 million2). The impact of high population growth rates is readily seen in rural areas as forests are rapidly being converted to cultivation, and many local areas have experienced a complete loss of adjoining forest reserves, private forests, and common land in the past generation. Nepal's unique ecosystems include many endangered species of flora and fauna and valuable natural resources, all of which are fragile and vulnerable to degradation and rapid loss.
The Government of Nepal has attempted to address the problems of the rural population. During the last four decades, a major portion of national budgets has been spent on research and extension services for increasing production and productivity of agricultural commodities. But productivity levels are decreasing, the ratio and the number of people below the subsistence level are increasing, and the overall national GDP per capita has been stagnant or decreasing for decades.
More than 80 per cent of the economically active population are engaged in agriculture which accounts for some 55 per cent of GDP, in contrast to 5 percent accounted for by manufacturing Owing to population growth, foodstuffs - which used to be exported - must now be imported. Foreign exchange earnings are small and depend largely on foreign assistance and loans, exports of a few agricultural products and some handicrafts (such as carpets and garments), as well as tourism. The average annual GDP growth rate was around 4 per cent during the last two decades; however, since population grew at 2.6 per cent or more during most of this period, there has been only 1.4 per cent GDP growth per annum3.
Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries with a per capita GDP of about US$ 190. Data suggest that about 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line which is even lower than the accepted international definition of absolute poverty: US $150 per capita per annum4.
Since 1991 a strong economic liberalization programme has been in place under the advice of the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. There have been tariff cuts, the import license auction has been abolished, export incentives have improved, the dual exchange rate has been unified, foreign investment has been deregulated, and the tax system is being reformed to raise additional revenue and make it more efficient and equitable. The programme has had a positive impact on trade, improving the balance of payments and reducing inflation, but so far it has not had a noticeable effect on GDP growth.
A map of the country and a table on salient characteristics of the agricultural sector are found in Annexes 1 and 2.
Although rural life is hard for both men and women in Nepal, rural women in Nepal work longer hours in a day and have a higher workload than men due to their double responsibility for reproductive and productive tasks. Women play a significant if not predominant role in agricultural production. Based on the data gathered during the PRAs carried out under the project, women were found to do more work in agriculture than men in the high mountain areas, equal to or more work than men in the middle hills and slightly less work than men in the Terai (low foothills and plains). In all agro-ecological zones, men generally perform those tasks which require heavy physical labour such as ploughing (although women all over rural Nepal can be seen carrying heavy loads of firewood, water and fodder). Women, on the other hand, chiefly perform the tedious and time consuming work such as weeding, harvesting, threshing and milling. Especially in upland locations, women have a significant role in farm decision-making.
Although women's labour inputs to agriculture are often higher than men's, they rarely have access to extension services, institutional credit or production inputs. Extension agents mainly target male farmers. Consequently, women farmers' food production is often insufficient and the productivity of their labour remains low.
Tables of key gender-disaggregated information are found in Annex 4.
In view of the important role of agriculture in Nepal's development, this sector has been accorded high priority in almost all the development plans adopted since 1956. The Eighth Plan (1992-97), which was the first plan formulated after the restoration of democracy in 1990, gave emphasis to diversification and commercialisation of this sector to raise income and employment opportunities of farmers. The plan included the following specific objectives for agricultural development: increase agricultural production and productivity to meet the growing domestic food demand and to provide raw materials for agro-based industries; increase productive employment opportunities to the majority of small and marginal farmers; and maintain a balance between agricultural development and environmental protection. The three national development objectives of the Plan were to: (a) attain sustainable economic growth, (b) alleviate poverty, and (c) decrease regional imbalance.
His Majesty's Government (HMG) of Nepal has just finished preparing a long-term Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) for the next 20 year period (with the support of the Asian Development Bank/Manila and other multilateral and bilateral donor agencies such as the World Bank and the FAO). The Plan aims to increase the per capita agricultural growth rate and the per capita non-agricultural growth rate by two and three percentage points per annum respectively. The plan intends to accelerate agricultural growth by concentrating on (a) four priority inputs: irrigation, roads and power, fertiliser, and technology, and (b) four priority outputs: livestock, high-value crops, agribusiness and forestry. Following the approval of the APP by the Government, a task force is now presently working to develop an implementation strategy.
Women's important role and contribution to agriculture remained nearly invisible to policy and decision makers in Nepal before the restoration of democracy in 1990. The Eighth Plan introduced the first efforts by stating that "The Government is committed to equal and meaningful participation of women in development". One of the requirements of the 8th Plan was to establish a Women Farmers Development Division (WFDD) in the Ministry of Agriculture. WFDD's mandate is to mainstream gender issues in all agricultural policies and programme and to increase the participation of women farmers in Ministry of Agriculture activities and programme. The Division has recently played a major role in assuring that the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) already mentioned recognises women farmers' needs. The APP specifically aims to:
· improve women's access to production inputs and credit;
· bring women actively into income generation and marketing activities;
· ensure women (and men) have access to the development opportunities being promoted.
To achieve these objectives, the APP has suggested the following actions:
· appoint more women to staff positions;
· change the attitudes and behaviour of the existing staff with regard to gender relations;
· revise operating procedures and programmes to improve the participation of women in development;
· encourage formation of women's interest groups;
· monitor women's access to production inputs including fertilizer, irrigation and credit;
· provide extension and training programmes for women farmers which match women's needs and circumstances;
· carry out agricultural research towards understanding and addressing women's issues; and
· develop technologies that will reduce the drudgery of women's agriculture-related work.
This policy commitment should also carry over into the upcoming Ninth Plan which will incorporate many of the strategies outlined in the APP.
