Farmers' land management practices in the hills of Nepal :|ba comparative study of watersheds | |
| Author | Paudel, Giridhari Sharma |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.RD-01-2 |
| Subject(s) | Watersheds--Nepal Land use--Nepal |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Doctor of Philosophy,School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The main objective of this study is to examine farmers' land management practices and determinants so as to make combination to promote environmentally and economically sound land management practices for sustainable agricultural development in Phewatal and YamdiMardi watersheds of western Hills of Nepal. Info1mation were collected through a survey of 300 households, comprising 155 households from the project area and 145 from the nonproject area, institutional survey, key informants interview, group discussion and observation. Analytical tools employed include descriptive and analytical statistics, indexes and logical reasoning. Agriculture being the major source of household food supply, most farmers in both areas have pursued efforts to enhance land productivity to cope with shrinking landholdings size caused by ever increasing population. In this regard, they have intensified the use of gharbari and bari, adopted HYVs and shifted gradually from cereal based to cash crop based cropping system, though the pace of the change is slow and highly localized in accessible areas. Farmers have also made their efforts to improve land management so as to enhance the crop production. In this regard, they have improved terraces, intensified agroforestry practice and participated in gully control, landslide stabilization and waterway construction activities. They also have adopted alley cropping and mulching to control soil erosion and landslide, and applied chemical fertilizers, farmyard manure, compost and green manure to improve land productivity. While the overall change in land management has been positive in both areas, relatively high degree of change has been experienced in the project area due to the external financial and technical support. Some of the changes in the non-project area are spill-over effect of land management implemented in the project area with external assistance. Despite farmers' awareness of conservation measures and continues efforts made for land management, majority of farmlands in both areas are undergoing degradation due to several natural, socio-economic and institutional causes. Specifically tarikhet, constituting two thirds of the total farmlands in the project area and more than two fifths in the non-project area, are facing serious problem, as farmers have not paid much attention to their management. In pursuing their land management activities, farmers have pri01ity to different type of lands depending on their perceived soil erosion and landslide, cropping intensity, distance from farm households, and labor force size. Project farmers have assigned first priority to bari, followed by gharbari, phantkhet and tarikhet. While the non-project farmers have given first priority to gharbari, followed by bari, phantkhet and tarikhet. Different socio-economic and institutional factors have influenced the adoption of land management technologies. The logistic regression found five factors, including economically active labor force involved in agriculture, schooling period of the household heads, tree ownership, grass yield and proportion of land affected by soil erosion, as significant explanatory variables in the project area. Ethnicity, labor input in land management, proportion of land affected by soil erosion, institutional membership, and extension service were significant variables in the non-project area. Formal acts and local rules and regulations evolved over past several decades have direct and indirect influence in land management. Most acts were formulated to improve land administration for increasing land revenue and attention has not been paid to land management. Line agencies and NGOs, with some responsibilities for land management, have iv not been able to meet farmers' expectations especially in the non-project area. User groups are engaged in small scale land management activities in collaboration with line agencies and NGOs. However, their institutional capacity for land management is weak. Conside1ing the on going land degradation and inadequate management practices, there is need to control or even to revert this process through the promotion of locationally suitable land use and management practices. This entails the provision of appropriate enabling policies and programs. The focus of the program should be on improving the status and productivity of tarikhet and bari. |
| Year | 2001 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Rural Development, Gender and Resources (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Thapa, Gopal B. ; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Weber, Karl E. ;Loof, Rainer ;Doppler, Werner ; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of Japan ; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001 |