43 percent of farmers based in Madhesh Province are in sorry state

Published On: November 26, 2023 09:30 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Nov 26: Around 43 percent of farmers’ households in Madhesh Province are found to be unable to meet their annual requirement of foods out of the products they grow.

Although the area is considered the ‘food basket’ of the nation, 317,486 farmers’ households out of 738,340 residing in Madhesh Province have been facing inadequacy of food supply to meet their requirement, shows the National Agriculture Census-2021. Out of 6,114,600 population (1,156,715 households) living in Madhesh Province, 63.8 percent are farmer households.

According to the census, most of the farmers are distributed in eight districts of the province. They cultivate the land area of 492,497 hectares, while only 57 percent of farmers can manage complete expenses for their daily lives out of the yield from their fields.

Around 64.3 percent of the people in the province rely on agriculture for their main earnings. Most of the farmers have been in subsistence farming practices.

Of the 2,174,798 units of land plot distributed to farmers, each farmer family holds 2.9 units of the land plots. Most of the land plots (384,553 units) are used for paddy production, while 247,609 land plots are used to cultivate wheat while corn is produced in 33,719 hectares of land.

A total of 16.2 percent of farmers have taken loans for agriculture productions. Similarly, 3.7 percent have received government grants and only 1.2 percent of farmers have purchased farm insurance policies to insure their products.

The sector incorporates men and women farmers in the ratio of 85.8 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively. Likewise, 30.1 percent farmers are found to have been engaged in non-farm based jobs.

Inadequate irrigation infrastructure, lacking timely supply of chemical fertilizers and unfair distribution of the government subsidies are among the reasons behind the pathetic condition of farm production in the province. In addition, poor mechanization and lack of commercialization of the sector are also setbacks for farmers in Madhesh Province, according to the census.