Appraisal of the Karnalí Employment Programme as a regional social protection scheme

The Karnali Employment Programme (KEP) is a public works based social protection scheme in one of the poorest parts of Nepal attempting to address the regional dimension of poverty and vulnerability

Comparative study on technical efficiency of mechanized and traditional rice farm in Nepal

The study was conducted among 274 mechanized and 220 traditional rice farms using multistage sampling technique to assess the technical efficiency in rice production among mechanized and traditional farmers in Jhapa, Sunsari and Bardiya districts.  The Cobb-Douglas functional form of the stochastic production frontier was employed to obtain the technical efficiency in mechanized and traditional rice farms. The overall technical efficiency of the mechanized and traditional rice farm ranged from 40.31 to 92.23 and 31.21 to 85.02%t with the mean technical efficiency of 80.56 and 70.11% respectively. The scope of increasing output by adopting the technology adopted by the best performer was 19.44% in mechanized and 29.89% in traditional rice farm respectively. Majority of the farmers were operating at an efficiency level 70-80% and 60-70% in mechanized and traditional farms respectively. The average technical efficiency of mechanized rice farm was higher than that of traditional rice farm and the difference was significant. There was scope of increasing output through rational use of existing resources in both farm categories. Manures, chemical fertilizers had significant and positive effect to total yield of rice kg/ha. The effect of machine use to total yield of rice was positive and significant. Rice farms adopting machines were more technically efficient compared to traditional rice farm

Benefit cost analysis of adoption of small farm machineries for rice cultivation in Nepal

A study was conducted in Jhapa, Sunsari and Bardiya district of Nepal to assess the benefit cost (BCA) analysis of small farm machineries (transplanter, reaper and power tiller) used for rice cultivation. Out of total respondents of 274 under mechanized farm category selected using Raosoft Software of sample size determination, 74% (20) reaper owner, 67% (20) power tiller owner and 100%(09) transplanter owner were selected for benefit cost analysis using simple random sampling. Analysis showed that benefit-cost ratio of reaper and power tiller was higher than (2.89) than transplanter (1.61). The investment on reaper and power appeared to be profitable because of their higher Benefit Cost ratio and internal rate of return, and lower payback period. The results of sensitivity analysis showed that investments in reaper and power tiller would be profitable even if decrease in benefit or increase in costis by 20%. However, in case of transplanter, the internal rate of return would be less than the discount rate when benefit decreases by 20% and cost increases by 20%. Due to high investment at the initial stage, the payback period was longer and IRR was also less than 30% per annum in transplanter, which indicated that investment would not be made for transplanter unless price of transplanter is lowered through regulation of price and provision of subsidy. It is suggested to motivate farmers for adoption of small farm machineries in rice cultivation through provision of differentiated rates of subsidy and technical capacity build up

Estimating labor supply of farm households under nonseparability: empirical evidence from Nepal

This paper examines the labor supply of farm households in Nepal using a recently developed methodology that accounts for the simultaneity between production and consumption decisions of the households. Estimates of marginal products of male and female labor or shadow wages are obtained from an agricultural production function. An instrumental variable approach is then used to recover the household's structural labor supply from variations in the shadow wages and income, as well as other household characteristics. The findings reveal that both male and female total labor supply are sensitive to changes in shadow wages and income. Human capital embodied in education is found to exert a significant positive effect on output, but has no statistically significant impact on total labor supply of individuals. The results also rejects the existence of efficient labor markets in rural Nepal. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Investment in Wheat Research in Nepal – An Empirical Analysis

Investment in wheat research in Nepal has been examined through estimation of full time equivalent of researchers on the basis of their time spent on wheat crop research. The information about full time equivalent was collected through questionnaire survey of the researchers involved in various disciplines of wheat research. The research investment has been compared with production share in value-terms using congruency model in the major production domains, such as development regions, eco-zones and environments. The model comparing actual production share with full time equivalent of researchers has revealed a moderately low congruency percentage indicating discrepancies in research investment across production domains. On adjusting the production share with both research progress and equity factors at the same time, the congruency percentage increased in production environments and decreased in ecozones and geographic regions, highlighting the mismatch in research investments. Some policy measures have been suggested to mitigate the mismatch in resource allocations to wheat research in Nepal

Supply chain analysis of Large Cardamom in Eastern Nepal

Abstract. The study was conducted to analyze growth rates and financial profitability of supply chain actors of Large Cardamom based on a sample survey of randomly selected 90 farmers, 10 input suppliers, and 15 traders. Secondary data of area and production were obtained from Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development whereas price information was acquired from the Federation of Large Cardamom Entreprenuers of Nepal. The area, production and productivity of Large Cardamom in Ilam district was found in decreasing trend. Market data analysis showed that the price was drastically fluctuating but the compound annual growth rate was significantly increasing by 4.48%. Financial analysis indicated that the enterprise with a project life of 10 years was viable and highly profitable with benefit cost ratio of 3.14, payback period 4.09 years, internal rate of return 81.4%, and net present value of NPR 3.58 million per hectare. Four major supply chain actors were involved. The profit margin was found the highest for the producers (45.68%) followed by regional level traders (28.42%), district level traders (16.36%) and least for the village level traders (9.54%). Traditional driers were still used for curing the capsules with a compromise to the quality of the product. The producers were not found doing value addition activities, whereas tail removing, grading, and packaging were done by regional level traders. Training the farmers on value addition and providing them market information can help to scale up large cardamom production enterprises

Potential of climate-smart agriculture in reducing women farmers’ drudgery in high climatic risk areas

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has a significant role to play in reducing the gender gap in labor burden for women in agriculture. A targeted approach to address this gap can be useful in developing a women-responsive climatic risk management plan focused on reducing their labor burden in agriculture, especially in areas with high climate risks. The paper therefore presents a top–down approach to identify potential labor-saving CSA technologies for women farmers in areas facing high climate risks. It involves mapping women in agriculture, climate risks, and poverty hotspots and entails understanding the role of women in agricultural activities to identify the suitable CSA options for reducing the levels of labor drudgery. The study is illustrated for Nepal where feminization of agriculture is rapidly increasing, a high level of climatic risks persists, and adaptive capacity to climate change is very low, especially among women in agriculture. Results are presented for two hotspot districts, Rupandehi and Chitwan. Household socioeconomic characteristics were found to play a major role in women’s labor contribution in different crop production activities. Discussions with farmers provided a list of more than 15 CSA interventions with labor reduction as well as yield-improving potential. Accordingly, considering the local crop, agro-climate, and social conditions, and women’s participation in different agricultural activities, CSA technologies and practices such as direct seeded rice (zero tillage and low tillage using machine), green manuring (GM), laser land leveling (LLL), and system of rice intensification (SRI) were found to potentially reduce women’s drudgery in agriculture along with improvement in productivity and farm income

Productivity and profitability of maize-pumpkin mix cropping in Chitwan, Nepal

The study was conducted to determine the productivity, profitability and resource use efficiency of maize-pumpkin mix crop production in Chitwan. The study used 53 maize-pumpkin mix crop adopting farmers from among 300 farmers adopting different pollinator friendly practices. Descriptive and statistical tools including Cobb-Douglas production function were used to analyze data, collected from structured interview schedule. The benefit cost ratio (1.58) indicates that maize-pumpkin mix cropping was profitable with productivity of 2.83 ton per ha on maize main product equivalent basis. The magnitude of regression coefficients of maize-pumpkin mix cropping implied that expenditure on seed and fertilizer and irrigation had significant positive effect on gross return with estimated decreasing return to scale (0.85). According to estimated allocative efficiency indices, it is suggested to increase expenditure on seed and fertilizer cum irrigation by about 90% and 55% respectively. Extension of modern technologies with adjustment on resource use is to be encouraged for increase in productivity and profitability of maize-pumpkin mix crop production which indirectly promotes and ensure forage for pollinator