Agriculture in the Nepalese Economy

Under National Agro-Food Policy, agriculture sector has been identified as a National Key Result Area. Under this initiative, the agriculture sector is targeted to increase the Gross National Income by RM28.9 Billion (USD9.1 billion) to reach RM49.1 billion (USD15.4 billion) by 2020. The agricultural sector is also targeted to create more than 109,000 job opportunities by 2020, primarily in the rural areas.

Agriculture is extremely important to the Bolivian economy, employing two percent of the labor force. Bolivia's agriculture suffers from antiquated farming methods, uneven population distribution, and inadequate transportation. Although now self-sufficient in the production

The rising costs of land and the simultaneous costs of water make it so 30% of farm households have negative income. The cost of sustainability, such a new tilling methods and access to water, also strains farms. This often leads to farmers self-exploiting themselves to try to generate the most crops possible and cultivate their land to the fullest extent.

In the video “Into Nepal – A Journey through the Kathmandu Valley,” there were many concepts that were easily recognizable due to the information that was given during the first semester of the AP Human Geography course.

Throughout time, humans have pushed forward in every aspect in life in order to improve their living standards, wealth and most importantly the agricultural sector which is the base of every human race. Food is the basic requirement for any individual to stay alive and healthy. In an article by Tamsin McMahon, she states that over the past 60 years, the world population has grown from 2.5 billion to 7 billion while world hunger dropped from 40% down to 15% (McMahon T., July 2012). This shows that our agricultural advances through technology have helped control world hunger and decrease it by more than half, but this is a short-term solution if we want to consider the future generations that depend on our current actions toward the three main pillars of agriculture which are: Health and nutrition, Economy and sustainability all while considering the local small farms and corporate farms.

South Asia is one of the most densely populated regions of the world, where despite a slow growth, agriculture remains the backbone of rural economy as it employs one half to over 90 percent of the labor force. Both extensive and intensive policy measures for agriculture

Human societies since the beginning of time have probably committed more land to Agricultural production than for any other purpose. Demand for land especially for Agricultural production in many parts of the globe is on the increase. Studies have revealed that the rise in demand for food to feed the world’s teaming population, the increased demand for agricultural output to produce alternative energy, high agricultural product prices are amount other factors that have caused a surge in the demand for agricultural land globally.

The United States is one of the countries expected to grow at the highest rate (Kochhar). One might think that a simple fix to feeding a growing population would be to produce more food. The answer is not that easy as farm land is rapidly being taken up by urbanization to house people in this population expansion. It is estimated that about 3,000 acres of farmland are lost to development every day in this country (US). This decrease in available farm land has shown a major challenge for famers as they try and feed the world. Therefore, farmers have turned towards new means of production.

In postwar Sierra Leone, and amongst the many developmental challenges, food insecurity has been impeding rural development which continues to pose problems on the livelihood of the rural population which is predominantly peasant farmers. Many observers including those from the western area and foreigners always ask questions that why the rural has sufficient green and arable land which can produce them more food but failing to utilize it to grow them more.? Suspicions have been rife that land tenure might have been the impeding the production of food for food sufficiency and security. Therefore this study will further contribute in investigating the effect of the land tenure in rural Sierra Leone and will proffer recommendations that will

Formerly, the majorly cultivated crop in North Indus and Eastern Indus were wheat and rice respectively (Ladha et al., 2000). The adaptation and expansion of Rice-Wheat farming system occurred in India with the development of short duration varieties of rice and wheat during the Green Revolution (Timsina et al., 2001). The allied farming activity is livestock rearing in IGP. The livestock comprises 10% livelihood of rice-wheat based small farm holders in Indo-Gangetic plain (Erenstein et al., 2007) with an average 3.6 cow/household (Erenstein and Thorpe, 2010, cited in Erenstein 2011) .

Civil wars are conflicts that occur within a country, in which some type of rebel group is at war with the government. Civil wars usually almost always happen in a country in which the government and economy is very poor. Typically a civil war cannot happen if the rebel group is not strong enough to face the government, and if they do not have a willingness and opportunity factor. Civil wars have unfortunately become a reoccurring problem for countries all over the world for the past 70 years (Lagace "High Hills, Deep Poverty: Explaining Civil War in Nepal.").

In light of this, I would like to explore research frontiers in the area of the challenges of managing food and farm businesses in a global setting of the 21st Century. In our society beleaguered by agricultural problems that ranges from economic to environmental problems such as weather and global warming, issues concerning trade and management of agricultural enterprises has been the topic of debate for the past decade. Many developing/poor countries who earn their living from agriculture continuously suffer from poverty and hunger as a result of the increasing pressures on the world's resource base. Policymakers are gripped with finding solutions to problems such as structural and technological constraints, inappropriate domestic policies and an unfavourable external economic environment. As a result, the growth of these economies has been slow, undernourishment has been increasing and the marginalization of these countries in the global economy has continued. This trend has created problems for developing countries over the past decade. Economic and financial

Production and Productivity Trends Labor productivity. Up until the 1970s, the Philippines’ agricultural performance, in terms of both agricultural Gross Value Added (GVA) and agricultural exports, compared well with its neighbors and other Asian countries (Figure 3a). But by the 1980s and 1990s, the country had lagged behind most of the countries in the region (Figures 3b and 3c). This came as agricultural output growth had slowed down dramatically through the decades (Figure 4). Moreover, the sector’s growth had been rather erratic in the 1990s, especially with the periodic occurrence of the El Niño phenomenon that had appreciable impact on weather patterns and, consequently, agricultural performance. Table 1 shows the average annual growth in GVA of major agricultural commodities since 1960. What is clear from the table is that growth rates of all commodities, except for livestock and poultry, have been slowing down over time. Furthermore, growth rates have been below the population growth rate, implying that production has not been able to keep up with increasing population. Erratic and decelerating growth over the past two decades is a major concern, as agriculture continues to employ a large

The overall picture of rising average yields and rising production in Bangladesh has tended to hide the evidence of declining productivity of the sector. Farmers often claim that yields have been declining and that higher fertilizer applications are necessary to maintain yields. Most available data is on the rice production. (Pagiola, 1995)

Political factors impact the agricultural sector in factors relating to regulation, distribution, and consumption of foods in a given country. Government policies and imposed regulations have a direct effect on nutritional choices that a consumer makes, and this, in turn, affects the agriculture market (KPMG, 2012). For example, policies governing food prices or the amount of information that a consumer will receive affects the choice of the consumer. Food regulation and safety measures implemented influence the supply of food products, and ultimately determines the market choice for consumers (KPMG, 2012). Economic factors have a direct effect on the agricultural industry. On one hand, the input cost such as the price of seeds, fertilizers, and cost of labor affect the productivity of the industry. The economic status of a country also affects the industry’s productivity. For example, in developing countries, the agricultural sector is less developed owing to limited resource input and poor infrastructure (KPMG, 2012).