Peri-Urban Farming Systems in Nepal

8/3/2019 Peri-Urban Farming Systems in Nepal

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Peri-urban farming systems in Nepal: from subsistence to organic agriculture

development

Introduction

Historical background of organic farming

Objectives

Methodology and the data

Key findings

Conclusion

Peri-urbanareas:Variationin

productionmethodologies R

uralareas:Moreorless

s

ubsistenceorientation,veryles

s

ornouseofagro-chemicals

(Organicbyneglect)

Urbanareas:Keymarkets,

hugepopulationdensity


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Introduction

Nepal is an agrarian country with almost 66% engaged on agriculture & contributes

33% of GDP

Smallholders and marginal farms predominate Nepalese agriculture (av. 0.80 ha)

Almost 80% are family farms

Mostly rural farming is organic by default/organic by neglect

Peri-urban areas (PUAs)- huge variation in farming methodologies ranging from some

subsistence to intensive inorganic

Inorganic inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides entered in peri-urban areas of Nepal

in the early 1980s

Vegetables consume huge amount of agro-chemicals in PUAs

Organic production as a means to restore soil and environment started in 1990s

Almost 2% households in the urban areas consume organically grown products and

29% have desire for their availability


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Historical background of organic farming in Nepal

Most of the family farms are still default organic

Widespread use of agro-chemicals in PUAs started in 1980s

Government provided free of cost to encourage farmers but farmers were skeptical

Village extension workers buried bags of urea fertilizer in the farmers field in night time

Once farmers found crop growth robust, extension workers disclosed the mystery

indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals then started and replaced former production systems

Farmers realized negative repercussions of inorganic farming in 1990s

An American Judith Chase felt the need to produce fresh commodities in PUA and

established AAA in 1987 and got twice the normal market price

Farmers around her area got motivated and started organic production for niche markets

Organic certification of tea, coffee and herbals began in 1996

National organic standards hammered out in 2006

Almost 8000 ha is fully converted organic in Nepal and 26 registered organic farms


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Objectives

Comparison of socio-economic and biophysical features of the farming systems in peri-urban

areas of Nepal

Highlight the historical background of organic agriculture development in Nepal

Perception to and preference on organic agriculture (farmers and consumers viewpoint)

Data integration into spatial environment and develop regional models for simulating future

development of the farming systems Farm level modeling to see how organic agriculture could develop over the period of time


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Methodology and the data

Study area: Urban and rural continuum of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Homogeneous farming systems:

Subsistence farming

Conventional farming

Smallholder organic farmingSampling of farm households:

Spatial sampling design using ArcView (95 farm households)

Simple random sampling (35 farm households)

Data collection:

Structured questionnaire for socio-economic & market informationSpatial data from the government source

Soil sampling during transect walk for soil quality profiling


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Research methodology

Data integration and modeling:

Application of farming system approach (living standard analysis)

Integration of socio-economic information into spatial environment

Cost distance modeling

Land quality profiling using nutrient status, available landforms, gross margin of crops

and spatial maps

Farm level modeling and simulation using GAMS

Regional level modeling using spatial explicit analysis

Conjoint modeling for preference analysis

Logistic modeling and willingness to pay (WTP) approach

Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) modeling

Documents

Peri-Urban Farming Systems in Nepal