High hopes: small scale cash cropping in the middle hills of Nepal



Feeding a growing World population is a huge moral concern of our times. Some believe that the only way to achieve this is through the industrialisation of farming.

Increasing productivity demands more technology in particular plant improvement, improved agricultural chemistry and increased mechanisation. By default this paradigm assumes that economies of scale are necessary and as such farm size will increase and the number of people engaged in farming will decrease. Small scale 'traditional' farms are inefficient and must commercialise in order to facilitate global food security.


In contrast, others argue that small-scale farmers can and already do contribute significantly to local (and thus global) food security. The IAASTD report found that small-scale farmers feed more than 70% of the population.

I suggest that in the context of Nepal, rural depopulation and a growing urban population mixed with extremely remote communities a number of approaches are necessary in different contexts to enhance local and global food security in the long term. It is not as simple as increasing productivity.



In February I was lucky to talk to small-scale farmers, agricultural researchers and work alongside a local agricultural cooperative in the Kaski region of Nepal. This has cast a new light on the issues surrounding feeding a growing population.

This case looks at the middle hills in the Pokhara region where there is improving access to local urban markets and cash cropping is growing.

Blessed with a huge diversity of agro-ecological zones due to dramatic topography, Nepal is able to produce a large variety of foodstuffs over a relatively small area. However, once self-sufficient in food Nepal has become increasingly dependent on imports to meet demands, making it ‘exceedingly vulnerable to price shocks” FAO, 2013.

An estimated 3.4 million people in Nepal are highly to severely food insecure as a result (FAO, 2013). A number of factors have been attributed to this including natural disasters such as drought and landslides, rural-urban migration (which reduces the population available to work whilst creating a growing urban population which needs feeding) and inability to compete with imported food prices (often from India) due to high costs of accessing inputs and the market.

In the Gurung village of Bhadaure in the Middle Hill region of Nepal most farmland in the village lies between 1200 and 1800ft and dramatic terraces make steep hillsides productive. Traditional agricultural systems combine the use of rain-fed upper lands around the village (known as Bari) and lower irrigated lands (known as Khet) for the production of staple crops namely finger millet, wheat, oilseed rape, rice and maize. Home gardens compliment this with the production of local fruit, vegetable and pulses such as lentils and beans and the use of wild foods all for home consumption (with excess being sold locally). 

Fields of Tori (Oilseed) in Bhadaure

Bhadaure is a 2 hour walk from the main road along steep mountain tracks. The only way in and out is walking, horseback or on expensive  4WD ‘Jeeps’ that run in the morning and evenings. Many young people have left – to work in Pokhara and Kathmandu,  in the British and Indian Army or even in Qatar, Malaysia and Afghanistan.

I met Raj Kumar Gurung. He lives in Bhadaure with his wife, his two sons have moved away to work. Two years ago he was growing staple food (maize, millet, wheat, oilseed rape and rice) kept a buffalo and a grew vegetables in his home garden.  

Raj Gurung

His main income came from his Indian Army pension. Now he is growing organic vegetables for sale in Pokhara city, 3 hours by jeep. He grows a range of crops year round including potatoes, cucumbers and coriander. He combines  traditional farming techniques  with skills he learned through training from the local PEACE project (Pokhara Ecological Agriculture Community Enterprise, co-funded by CIDA). He collects urine from his buffalo and prepares composted manure to maintain soil fertility. He combines the use of local varieties, such as Bhaktapur Local (a local cucumber variety which grows year round) with imported hybrid seeds provided by PEACE.

Twice a week Raj takes his produce to a collection centre in Bhadaure where it is weighed and transported by jeep along steep mountain tracks to The Bazaar Agricultural Cooperative in Pokhara. 

The Bazaar was established by local social entrepreneurs Tulsi and Tanka. They are aiming organic local and fair trade produce at Pokharas growing middle classes and ex-pats. One of their retail points is in the popular Saleways supermarket where they rent the grocery section.

 Raj explained how this access to market has transformed his life and brought economic growth to the community.

 “Before we started working with The Bazaar we had nowhere to sell our produce. Transport is difficult and we did not have the links to sell at a good price. Now our income has increased"

 
From this standpoint,by providing the rural poor with access to markets projects such as The Bazaar are helping make markets work for the poor. This could be a valuable opportunity to improve livelihoods and reinvigorate rural areas.

Here is an example of how small-scale agriculture is feeding growing populations. And hopefully at minimal cost to the environment and farmers (who don't need to buy expensive chemical inputs). What worried me a little is if moving to cash-cropping could make these individuals and communities more vulnerable. Firstly because in many cases farmers are taking land out of staple food production, this increasing dependency on bought food and reliance on incomes. From a local food security perspective this could be risky.

There is also  a concern about what happens after the PEACE project ends. Farmers currently receive seed, financial and management assistance (including coordinating  collection and transport to Pokhara) through the project. Although many farmers stated they planned to keep going only time will telI if this is possible.

In addition, production in Bhadaure is currently somewhat informal. There is no specific coordination of supply to meet demand and as such there are no contracts at present. There have been cases where overproduction has led to wastage and others when lack of supply has forced The Bazaar to source produce from India to ensure continuity of supply. Such losses could be potentially catastrophic for small scale farmers.

This is an area The Bazaar are very conscious to improve. During my time in Bhadaure we conducted participatory research to map the seasonality of production in a crop calendar and the farmers requested training and support in crop planning for the market. The Bazaar are planning to hold a workshop with representatives of all their producer groups and other local stakeholders to agree contracts and manage supply across the season. In theory with Nepals diverse agroecological zones it should be possible to ensure continuity of supply of most fruit and vegetables from within a 200 mile radius of the city. The complexity lies in the complicated planning and logistics.

Moreover, the move to cash production, particularly using imported hybrid seeds risks eroding local crop genetic diversity - or agricultural biodiversity. This is a huge concern as local varieties although often lower yielding, have evolved over generations to local conditions, pest and disease. Reducing crop varieties to a few imported hybrids will make farmers more vulnerable to disease and climatic shocks in addition to creating the burden of buying new seed.

Increase in income also does no necessarily equate to an improvement in livelihoods per se. It is an indicator of progress out of poverty, but not an end result in itself.  If it is to persued as a way out of poverty attention must be paid to improvements in overall health, nutrition and well being of cash-cropping communities.

But Raj has high hopes. He told us that his vision for the future is to expand his production. The project has opened his eyes to the potential of horticultural production to transform their community. I hope he is right.

The alternative is that small scale producers continue to produce at a subsistence level. This will ensure local food security, but will not necessarily attract young people to stay or return to their communities, and also means that the cities will become increasingly dependent on food imports. 

In summary, the  contribution of small-scale producers to local and even global food security is often over looked. Locally appropriate efforts to sustainably enhance production and improve market access could have the dual impact of improving rural livelihoods and food security.