Abandoned Agricultural Land and its Reutilisation by Adoption of Agroforestry: A Case Study from Kaski and Parbat Districts of Nepal

Abstract

Despite agriculture being a major source of livelihood of more than 65 per cent of rural population in Nepal, the agriculture sector is facing a significant challenge in recent years due to increasing trend of agricultural land abandonment. A number of studies and assessments have indicated that more than 37 percent of arable land in Nepal is abandoned. As a consequence, agricultural production is reduced posing threat to rural livelihoods and food security. Similarly, the Gross Domestic Product contribution of agriculture sector has also gradually declined from 33 per cent in 2011 to 26 per cent in 2018. Against this backdrop, this paper analyses the status of agricultural land abandonment taking the cases of eight villages in Kaski and Parbat districts and
explores potential agroforestry options to reutilise and improve production and productivity of abandoned agricultural land. A total of 476 households were identified covering 200 hectare of land to adopt suitable agroforestry practices in the selected districts. A combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used to collect and analyse the data. Key methods include: household survey with structured questionnaires, focus group discussions (FGD), key informant interviews (KII), meetings with individual farmers (land owners and tenants).The study revealed that 47 per cent of the arable land in the study sites is abandoned. The study also identified multiple factors with proximate and underlying causes behind land abandonment such as: out-migration of farm labor particularly youths causing shortage of labor to cultivate land, decreasing soil productivity, increasing cost of production, increasing urbanisation, reducing government subsidies, declining water sources, damage of crops by wild animals particularly monkey in the mid-hills, unclear and insecure land tenure policy among others. The study also identified a number of suitable agroforestry options to reutilise the abandoned land such as Uttis and cardamom along with lime, banana and fodder species.