Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: Intensive agricultural activities impose negative environmental impacts such as loss of topsoil nutrition, which in return, reduces productivity of farmland. Hence, a balance between agricultural production and environmental preservation needs to be discovered.

     Meeting information requirements: Since 1975, there has been continuous research and development by the Bagmati Watershed Project (BWP) with the help from local farmers to improve agricultural practices to be more sustainable. Consequently, there has been satisfactory increase in agricultural production while maintaining environmental condition still maintained.

Background:

      Joint cooperation between a Research and development body and local communities for sustainable farming practices

      Nepal is a mountainous country with more than three-fourths of the land area under the hills and mountains. More than fifty percent of the population live in this region. Crop-livestock based farming system is the mainstay of the hill economy. With the limited commercialization of agriculture, the economy continues to be of subsistence nature. Food cereals thus constitute major crops. With upland terraces accounting for three-fourths of the total cultivated area of 0.6 million hectare in this region, terrace farming constitutes an important aspect of Nepalese agriculture. An outsider would not miss the unique scenery of terrace farming as he flies into Nepal.

      Terrace farming accelerates soil erosion leading to fast land degradation. Shifting cultivation is thus a common phenomenon at steep hill slopes. Avoiding agricultural farming in the hills and mountains is the best means to prevent ecological degradation. Nepal however cannot afford this option. Hence improved terrace farming is the answer to minimize environmental degradation in the Nepalese situation.

      The Bagmati Watershed Project (BWP) initiated since 1975 has incorporated terrace improvement as one of its activities. It consists of leveling sloping farmland by making risers and bunds, thus protecting fertile topsoil during the rainy season. The BWP has assisted in improving about 150 ha of sloping terrace.

      A case study of this aspect of the BWP was undertaken in Nallu and Bhardeo areas of Lalitpur district in Kathmandu Valley in 1997. The total population of these areas was 3595 belonging to 630 households. The average farm size in Bhardeo is 0.49 ha and in Nallu 0.71 ha, 28.57 and 31.0 percent of the total cultivated land was improved in Bhardeo and Nallu, respectively. The main crop in both areas is maize occupying 90 percent of the area and constituting 89 percent of the foodstuff consumed there.

Productivity of Major Crops Before and After the Terrace Improvement

      Terrace improvement by reducing soil and nutrient losses contributed to an increase in productivity of maize by 34 and 65 percent in Bardeo and Nallu respectively. The following table shows the yield of crops before and after improvement.

Food Sufficiency Before and After Terrace Improvement

      With the increase in productivity, the period of food sufficiency also registered an increase as shown in the table below.

Benefits from Terrace Improvement

      Apart from increase in food production, terrace improvement also led to an additional vegetable production, fodder tree plantation on terrace bunds and even made possible some paddy cultivation. The project has thus a very beneficial impact on the involved farmers. There is now a demand from adjoining areas for support to undertake similar improvement.

Financial Analysis of Terrace Improvement

      The cost of terrace improvement was about Rs 19,000 per ha; fifty percent of which is borne by the beneficiary. The gross return was Rs. 30,567, generated over the period of 15 years, estimated at a 10% discount rate. While the average annual benefit from terrace improvement was assumed to be Rs. 3,215.67. The discount rates were 10% from the nations point of view and 15% from the farmers. Estimated results from project analysis are in the table below:

      The project financial analysis indicates that the programme is profitable because the financial indicators, Benefit/Cost Ratio, Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value are high, while Pay Back Period is low. Terrace improvement is thus an essential element of watershed management in the hills.