AGRICULTURE

Seven of every 10 Nepalese are still engaged in agriculture and it accounts for over 40 percent of the country’s Gross Development Product. The country’s tropical and Himalayan geography with its diverse climatic conditions makes it suitable for a diverse modalities of agronomical development.

Rolling fields and neat terraces can be seen all over the Terai flatlands and the hills of Nepal. Large tracts of land are under cultivation even in heavily populated and urbanised parts of the country, including the including Kathmandu Valley, where large tracts of land are devoted to farming. Rice, being Nepal’s staple food, is the preferred crop.  Around three million tons of different kinds of rice are produced annually.

Other major crops are maize and wheat, which are also used as staple or alternate staple diet in Nepal and produced in regions where these have a market. Millet and barley are also grown. Besides food grains, Nepal also produces different lintels, beans and vegetables besides fruits and cash crops like sugarcane, oil seeds, tobacco, jute, cotton and tea.

Being a predominantly agricultural country with a huge potential for further development, agriculture also sustains other sectors of commerce, while still being the backbone of the country’s economy.