MAIZE SECTOR ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGY
NEPAL AGRICULTURAL MARKET DEVLOPMENT PROGRAMME (NAMDP)
2016
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ...... 1 List of Figures ...... 1 List of Tables ...... 2 Abbreviations ...... 3 Glossary/ terminologies ...... 4 1. Background ...... 6 Sector Description ...... 7 2.1 Basic information ...... 7 2.1.1 International context ...... 7 2.1.2 National context ...... 9 2.2 Sector Dynamics ...... 12 2.2.1 Sector Map ...... 12 2.2.2 Dynamics of the Core Functions ...... 13 2.2.3 Dynamics of the Support Functions ...... 22 2.2.4 Rules, Regulations and Government Programmes ...... 29 Analysis ...... 32 3.1 Problems in the core functions and underlying constraints ...... 32 3.2 Opportunities and sector drivers ...... 36 Rationale for working in the sector: summary analysis ...... 38 Strategy for Change ...... 41 5.1 Prioritisation and selection of constraints to be addressed ...... 41 5.2 Vision of change ...... 42 5.3 Intervention Areas and Pathways to Systemic Change ...... 42 5.4 Sustainability Analysis ...... 53
List of Figures
Figure 1: Sector Map of Maize in Nepal ...... 12 Figure 2: Dynamics of core function in the Ramechhap District ...... 14 Figure 3: Dynamics of the core function in Okhaldhunga ...... 15 Figure 4: Dynamics of the core function in Dailekh ...... 17 Figure 5: Dynamics of the core function in Jajarkot ...... 18 Figure 6: Core function dynamics in Surkhet Distric ...... 19 Figure 7: Demand supply scenario of maize in the national context ...... 21 Figure 8: Flow of maize grain in Nepal ...... 22 Figure 9: Dynamics of maize seed in the project district ...... 23 Figure 10: Constraint Tree ...... 32 Figure 11: The three lens of rationale for working the maize sector ...... 38
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List of Tables
Table 1: World Status of maize harvested hectare, production and yield and their in % ...... 7 Table 2: Production of Maize in 2013 ...... 8 Table 3: Hectares of Maize in 2013 ...... 8 Table 4: Productivity of Maize in 2013 ...... 8 Table 5: Area coverage, production and yield of maize in Nepal ...... 9 Table 7: Maize import and export status for last 53 years at the interval of 5 years’ periods in Nepal...... 11 Table 8: Number of maize varieties released and registered in Nepal and their yield range, including the Nepalese hybrids (SQCC, 2072) ...... 24 Table 9: Fertiliser application by farmers ...... 25 Table 10: Distribution of land ...... 27 Table 11: Trend of Maize production ...... 39
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Abbreviations
AIC Agriculture Input Company Ltd. ADS Agricultural Development Strategy CA Conservation Agriculture DADO District Agriculture Development Office DAG Dis-advantaged group EM Effective Microorganisms FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FYM Farm Yard Manure Ha Hectare IS Improved Seed LLP Low lift pump Msl Mean Sea Level MT Metric Tons NARC National Agriculture Research Council NGOs Non-Government Organisation NSB National Seed Board OP Open pollinated STCL Salt Trading Company Ltd. SQCC Seed Quality Control Centre TLS Truthfully levelled Seed
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Glossary/ terminologies
Bari land: Refers to the un-irrigated rain fed terraces
Conservation Agriculture
Conservation farming is any system or practice which aims to conserve soil and water by using surface cover (mulch) to minimise runoff and erosion and improve the conditions for plant establishment and growth. It involves planting crops and pastures directly into land which is protected by a mulch using minimum or no-tillage techniques. CA is a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the environment. CA is based on enhancing natural biological processes above and below the ground. Interventions such as mechanical soil tillage are reduced to an absolute minimum, and the use of external inputs such as agrochemicals and nutrients of mineral or organic origin are applied at an optimum level and in a way and quantity that does not interfere with, or disrupt, the biological processes. CA is characterized by three principles which are linked to each other, namely: • Continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance. • Permanent organic soil cover. • Diversified crop rotations in the case of annual crops or plant associations in case of perennial crops
Effective Microorganism (EM)
Effective Microorganisms (EM) are mixed cultures of beneficial naturally-occurring organisms that can be applied as inoculants to increase the microbial diversity of soil ecosystem. They consist mainly of the photosynthesizing bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, actinomycetes and fermenting fungi. These microorganisms are physiologically compatible with one another and can coexist in liquid culture. There is evidence that EM inoculation to the soil can improve the quality of soil, plant growth and yield (Kengo and Hui-lian, 2000). EM works by getting the natural processes to function, the way nature intended by stimulating biological activity in the soil and plant. Using EM will improve crop and pasture yields and enhance fertiliser performance.
Good Agricultural Practices
Good Agricultural Practices are "practices that address environmental, economic and social sustainability for on-farm processes, and result in safe and quality food and non-food agricultural products" (FAO COAG 2003 GAP paper)
A multiplicity of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) codes, standards and regulations have been developed in recent years by the food industry and producers’ organizations but also governments and NGOs, aiming to codify agricultural practices at farm level for a range of commodities. Their purpose varies from fulfilment of trade and government regulatory requirements (in particular with regard to food safety and quality), to more specific requirements of specialty or niche markets. The objective of these GAP codes, standards and regulations include, to a varying degree:
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• ensuring safety and quality of produce in the food chain • capturing new market advantages by modifying supply chain governance • improving natural resources use, worker’s health and working conditions, and/or • creating new market opportunities for farmers and exporters in developing countries. These four 'pillars' of GAP (economic viability, environmental sustainability, social acceptability and food safety and quality) are included in most private and public sector standards, but the scope which they actually cover varies widely.
Khet land: Refers to the irrigated flat cultivated land
Productivity
Productivity is commonly defined as a ratio between the output volume and the volume of inputs. In other words, it measures how efficiently production inputs, such as labour and capital, are being used in an economy to produce a given level of output. Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to agricultural inputs (often measured per unit of land for crops)
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1. Background
Nepal Agricultural Market Development Programme (NAMDP) is a bilateral initiative between the Government of Switzerland and the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Nepal. Under the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s (SDC) Nepal Agriculture Growth Initiative (NAGI), NAMDP aims to sustainably improve livelihoods of rural smallholders, especially disadvantaged groups and women-headed households, through participation in commercial agriculture and ‘interconnected markets’. The objective framework of NAMDP is based on a long-term vision of thriving and inclusive agriculture markets that develop the comparative advantages for import substitution and export growth and thus contribute to poverty reduction.
NAMDP- Phase 1 is a three years and ten months (March 2016 - Dec 2019) project being implemented by a consortium of Swisscontact (as the lead) and the Center for Environmental and Agricultural Policy Research, Extension and Development (CEAPRED). NAMDP follows Market System Development (MSD) approach (also known as ‘Making Markets Work for the Poor’/ ‘M4P’ approach). NAMDP is expected to produce tangible, visible and measurable impact in a number of commodity markets/ value chains and cross-sectors. The program, during the 1st half of Phase 1, will be concentrated in two spatial clusters in Nepal; the Eastern cluster including Ramechhap, Okhaldhunga and Khotang districts, and the Western cluster including Surkhet, Jajarkot, Dailekh, Kalikot, and Achham districts. During the 2nd half of Phase 1, the programme will expand to other important and promising road corridors; these may include parts of the Terai region.
NAMDP- Phase 1 covers initial 8 months’ preparation period (March to October 2016) and about three years’ implementation period (November 2016 to December 2019). One of the objectives of the preparation period is to conduct detailed assessments of the sectors and cross sectors identified in the draft Programme Document. The maize sector is one of the sectors assessed.
For the purpose of this study secondary information received from the national statistics yearbook, yearly information booklet from District Agriculture Development offices and from other relevant publications was analysed. Primary information was collected from the different actors like farmers, traders, local agro-vets, agriculture service centres in the project districts and key government agencies through individual surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The primary and secondary information on the demand and supply scenario, actors involved in the sector, relationship between the actors were then analysed to come up with a comprehensive picture of the sector dynamics.
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Sector Description
2.1 Basic information
2.1.1 International context
Maize, also known as corn, is one of the most ancient species cultivated in the world. The history of maize domestication dates back to 10,000 years ago in Mexico.1 Since then, it has been grown in several open pollinated, hybrid and genetically engineered varieties. Maize has become the most important industrial crop in the world. It has been extensively used for food, feed and fodder. FAO estimates that it will be the number one cereal crop by 2020.
Table 1 below shows the world maize data for the last 53 years from 1961 to 2014 at an interval of 5 years. The statistics is based on the FAO database of 15 June 2016. The table indicates that the cultivated area for maize has been experiencing an increasing trend. However, the yield of maize has been experiencing decreasing trend until 1981-85 but has been increasing remarkably at an increasing rate since then.
Table 1: World Status of maize harvested hectare, production and yield and their in %
Duration at 5 Area Production Yield in Trend of Area Trend of Trend of yrs interval harvest in in MT MT/HA Harvested Production Increased Ha Yield
1961-65 2,460,111 4,244,705 1.73 Base Year Base Year Base Year
1966-70 3,065,303 3,962,543 1.29 24.60% -6.65% -25.08%
1971-75 3,144,273 3,968,776 1.26 2.58& 0.16% -2.36%
1976-80 3,400,392 3,599,249 1.06 8.15% -9.31% -16.14%
1981-85 3,939,600 3,924,470 1.00 15.86% 9.04% -5.89%
1986-90 4,244,000 5,273,400 1.24 7.73% 34.37% 24.73%
1991-95 4,422,000 6,280,330 1.42 4.19% 19.09% 14.30%
1995-00 4,728,900 6,775,990 1.43 6.94% 7.89% 0.89%
2001-05 4,848,000 7,870,161 1.62 2.52% 16.15% 13.29%
2006-10 5,030,280 9,218,843 1.83 3.76% 17.14% 12.89%
2011-14 4,445,430 8,529,168 1.92 -11.63% -7.48% 4.69%
1 ASPB (American Society of Plant Biologists). 2008. Maize (corn) may have been domesticated in Mexico as early as 10,000 years ago. Science Daily. Accessed online on June 15, 2016 (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080627163156.htm).
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Table 2: Production of Maize in 2013
World Rank Country’s Name Million Tons % of World Table 2 presents the top 10 1 USA 353.70 34.79 countries based on the quantity 2 China 217.73 21.41 of maize produced per year in 3 Brazil 80.54 7.92 2013. USA is the highest maize 4 Argentina 32.12 3.16 producer, producing 354 million 5 Ukraine 30.95 3.04 tons and contributing 35% of total 6 India 23.29 2.29 maize produced in 2013. USA is 7 Mexico 22.66 2.23 closely followed by China, Brazil, 8 Indonesia 18.51 1.82 Argentina, Ukraine, India, Mexico, 9 France 15.05 1.48 Indonesia, France and Canada 10 Canada 14.19 1.40 producing about 80% of the total Sources: FAOSTAT production of maize in the world.
Table 3: Hectares of Maize in 2013
Table 3 presents the top 10 countries based World Million % of Country on number of hectares involved in maize Rank Hectares (Ha) World cultivation in 2013. USA and China were 1 USA 35.48 19.26 found to be the top two countries in terms 2 China 35.26 19.14 of hectares under maize cultivation (USA 3 Brazil 15.32 8.23 with 35.5 million Ha and China with 35.26 4 India 9.50 5.16 million Ha). They dominate around 39% of 5 Mexico 7.10 3.85 the total hectares under maize cultivation in 6 Nigeria 5.20 2.82 the world as per 2013 statistics. USA and 7 Argentina 4.86 2.64 China is followed by other countries like 8 Ukraine 4.83 2.62 Brazil, India, Mexico, and others as seen in 9 Tanzania 4.12 2.24 Table 3. Together, these countries occupy 10 Indonesia 3.82 2.07 around 70% of the total maize coverage Sources: FAOSTAT area in the world.
Table 4: Productivity of Maize in 2013
World Rank Country MT / Hectares Table 4 shows the top ten countries based on the 1 Saint Vincent 24.86 yield per hectare in tons. The Saint Vincent is the 2 Israel 22.56 highest yield receiving country, producing 24.9 3 Jordan 20.10 tons/hectares followed by Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, 4 Kuwait 20.00 UAE, Tajikistan, Qatar, Netherlands, Greece and 5 UAE 20.00 Belgium. These countries are receiving yield of 11.2 6 Tajikistan 15.08 tons to 24.9 MT per hectare. 7 Qatar 12.00 8 Netherlands 11.52 Interestingly, the top ten countries with the highest 9 Greece 11.50 area coverage for maize production fail to establish 10 Belgium 11.15 themselves among the top ten countries with high Source: FAOSTAT maize yields.
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Another interesting fact observed has been that the gulf countries are able to achieve high yield of maize which may be due to long duration of sunshine, application of optimum dosage of fertilisers and application of proper irrigation with the irrigation facilities developed by the countries.
The major maize consuming countries are USA and China. There has been continuous increase in the consumption of maize mainly owing to increase in demand from the meat and starch sector. There is a growing requirement of maize from the poultry sector, which uses corn as its main feed ingredient. USA is also the first among the major exporters of maize, followed by Argentina and Brazil. It dominates the international trade of maize as an exporter. The recent growth of Chinese middle class has meant a growing demand for meat and poultry with a consequent significant increase in its use of maize by China; according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture. China has transformed into a net maize importing country. India, the primary exporter of maize to Nepal, produced 23.3 million MTs of maize in 2013.
2.1.2 National context
Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second biggest staple food crop after rice in terms of area and production in Nepal and the principal food, feed, fodder, fuel crop and source of energy in the hills. It is widely grown in all the three agro zones of Nepal: Terai and Inner Terai (below 900 msl), the mid-hills (900- 1800 msl) and high hills (above 1800 msl). It is considered a good crop for small landholders and grown for food, feed and fodder. These days it has become one of the most important industrial crop for poultry feed in Nepal. Table 5 below provides information on the cultivated area, production and productivity of maize and their changes from 1961 till 2014 presented in different periods at interval of five years. It excluded the last period (i.e. 2011-14) comprising of only 4 years. The table shows that area under maize cultivation has increased from 0.44 million Ha in 1961-65 to 0.89 million Ha in the period 2011-14, thereby increasing by more than 100 percent. On the other hand, production has increased from 0.85 million tons in 1961-65 to 2.13 million tons during the period of 2011-14, which is 151 percent. However, the yield of maize has not increased in that pace. It has increased by only 24% from 1.94 ton per Ha in 1961-65 to 2.4 ton per Ha during 2011-14. Table 5: Area coverage, production and yield of maize in Nepal
54 Years Annual Maize Average Annual grouped into Seed in Seed Rate Yield Cultivated Area Maize Production periods of five Million Tons Kg/Ha Ton/Ha (Thousand Ha) (Million Tons) years 1961-65 437.0 0.84894 0.00868 19.86 1.94 1966-70 432.4 0.79251 0.00826 19.10 1.83 1971-75 449.6 0.79376 0.01239 27.55 1.77 1976-80 446.9 0.71985 0.00956 21.39 1.61 1981-85 536.7 0.78489 0.01079 20.10 1.47 1986-90 706.3 1.05468 0.01413 20.00 1.49 1991-95 769.9 1.25607 0.01546 20.08 1.63 1996-00 801.6 1.35520 0.01638 20.43 1.69 2001-05 834.2 1.57403 0.01880 22.54 1.89 2006-10 868.5 1.84377 0.02080 23.95 2.12
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2011-14 889.0 2.13229 0.02375 26.72 2.40
Table 6: 5-years trend of maize production in Nepal Fiscal Year Area (Ha) Production (MT)
2067/68 876 1855 Table 6 illustrates that the production in last five years 2068/69 906 2068 experienced slight changes in regards to changes in area of maize production. The productivity has remained 2069/70 871 2179 stagnant in the last few years. 2070/71 859 1999
2071/72 928 2283
Source: MoAD 2014/15
As one of the major cereal crops, maize is being produced in almost every district in Nepal with all the different geographical conditions. In terms of topography, Nepal can be divided into three major geographical zones; Terai, Mid-hills and High mountains. Terai region is located in the southern belt of Nepal featured with plain land and adequate irrigation facilities below 900 msl. The mid hills comprise the middle strip of land which is in the range of 900 to 1800 msl. The high hills or mountain regions are located in the northern part of Nepal which is featured with high mountains above 1800 msl. Maize is produced in all the three regions. However, more than 70% of the total maize, 1.62 million MT, is produced in the Mid-hill region with an area coverage of 676 thousand hectares of land. Around 20.5% maize, 468 thousand MT, is produced in the terai districts with an area coverage of 161 thousand hectares. The remaining 8.5% maize is produced in the high mountain region in more than 90 thousand hectares of land. Maize is mostly being grown with subsistence farming. The major season for growing maize in Nepal is the summer season. As irrigation is not available in the majority of the cultivable land so farmer grows maize with rain-fed condition. Where irrigation facilities are available, there farmer also grow maize in the spring season. This is a recent trend in the Terai region to grow maize in the winter season with hybrid seed and proper irrigation facility.
The yield of maize in Nepal is very low compared to the neighbouring maize producing countries. As per the statistical year book of 2013-14, the highest yield has been found in the Terai region, 2.9 MT per hectare, whereas, the yield in the mid-hill region was found to be 2.39 mt/ha. The yield has been found lowest in the high mountain region, 2.16 mt/ha.
Nepal had a good history of exporting agricultural products including maize to other countries until few decades ago. However, the trend has changed with the emergence of growing poultry feed industry.
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Table 6: Maize import and export status for last 53 years at the interval of 5 years’ periods in Nepal
Duration in 5yrs Annual Imported Annual Exported The table besides provide the Interval Quantity in Tons Quantity in Tons information on export and import of 1966-70 - 1,587 maize in Nepal for the five-year 1971-75 - - average since 1966. Maize import has 1976-80 - 2,967 started in early 90s and since than the 1981-85 359 9,051 export has started diminishing. The 1986-90 2,782 3,670 volume of maize import is increasing 1991-95 164 360 1996-00 3,565 60 over the years as the poultry feed 2001-05 9,127 46 industry is growing at a pace of 11% 2006-10 56,309 210 per annum. Key informant interview 2011-13 195,630 8 with the feed mills and large Total 38,277 1,633 importer, it has been revealed that Nepal imported around 254,000 metric tons of maize from India in the last year, 2015.
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2.2 Sector Dynamics
2.2.1 Sector Map
Crop Extension Financial Post harvest Seed Fertilizer
Irrigation Service service related service
Functions Supporting
Farmer in Rural areas
Farmer in Mid-hill Local Trader Local Market in districts Mid-hills
Farmer in Terai Poultry Feed Districts Local Trader Wholesaler
Mills Core FunctionsCore
Importer imports maize from India
Research and Certification Industrial Quality Trade and Custom Seed & Fertilizer Feed mills Development (NSC) Standard excise Policy association
(NARC)
Rules & & Rules Regulations
Figure 1: Sector Map of Maize in Nepal
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2.2.2 Dynamics of the Core Functions
To understand the dynamics of the core functions of maize sector, the secondary information has been received from the national statistics yearbook, yearly information booklet from District Agriculture Development office and from other literature. Primary information has also been collected from the different actors like farmers, traders, local agro-vets, agriculture service centre in the field specially in the project districts through individual survey, key informant interview and focus group discussion. Analysing both primary and secondary information on the demand and supply scenario, actors involved in the sector, relationship between the actors; the project has tried to draw the comprehensive picture of the sector dynamics.
2.2.2.1 Dynamics of the Core Functions in the Eastern Cluster
In the first half of Phase 1 the project is mandated to work in the three districts in the eastern cluster, namely Ramechhap, Okhaldhunga and Khotaang in the first half of Phase 1. Primary information has been collected for the two districts, Ramechhap and Okhaldhunga and the core function dynamics of maize sector for the eastern cluster has been drawn based on the information from these two districts. a. Core Functions in Ramechhap District
In terms of area under maize cultivation, the district is quite advance compared to other neighbouring districts. Maize is the number one crop in Ramechhap which is grown in 22,780 ha of land which comprises 48% of the total cultivable land with an annual production of 57405 MT. (Source: DADO Report 2070/71). It is grown in all the different kinds of available cultivable land. The major category of cultivable land in Ramechhap is Bari land which comprises 38,000 ha, 80% of the cultivable land. This Bari land is completely dependent on the rain, so only one crop can be grown here in a year. Maize is the major crop grown in Bari land during rainy season due to its suitability.
There are 9408 ha of Khet land available in Ramechhap with irrigation facilities which occupies 20% of the total cultivable land (Source: DADO Report 2070/71). Out of total Khet land, year round irrigation is available only in 3,100 ha of land where farmers are growing mainly rice Source: DADO Report 2070/71) Besides rice, some other crops like wheat, potato and maize are also being grown by the farmers. In the remaining 6,400 ha of khet land, where irrigation is available during rainy season accessing water from neighbouring seasonal falls and canals, rice and maize are being grown (Source: DADO Report 2070/71). As irrigation is partially available in khet land, so farmers are currently growing maize in spring season in Khet land.
A small patch of land on the bank of the Tama-koshi river has year round irrigation facility which comprises only 523 ha of land. During the field visit, it has been revealed that farmers have started growing hybrid maize recently during spring season in those land which is unique for the district. There is an interesting story of how hybrid maize cultivation has been started in that village. One of the farmers from that locality went to visit his relatives in Terai district and saw them growing Hybrid maize. Looking at the yield of hybrid he got very interested and collected hybrid seed from there and grew it in his village. He also took advise on input dosage and other cultivation technique from his relatives and cultivated accordingly.
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Copying his practice, in the following year other neighbouring farmers have also started cultivating hybrid maize in that locality. Last year, they have got a yield of up to 14 metric tons per hectare which is very high compared to that of the local varieties in Ramechhap.
Figure 2: Dynamics of core function in the Ramechhap District
In the year 2070/71, farmers grew maize in 22,800 ha of land, however it was difficult to differentiate how much land was khet and bari under maize production all across Ramechhap (DADO). With an average yield of 2.6 MT/ha, a total of 60,000 MT maize was produced in the last year (DADO). All the produced maize was used for homestead consumption, either as feed for the animal or as food for human consumption. Farmer predominantly use their produced maize as feed for their animals (70-80%). Only a small portion, 10-20% of their total production, are being used as food for their own consumption.
Some farmers who have surplus volume of maize sell those to the neighbouring farmers or to the local market by themselves. There are some small traders available in the district who collect maize either from the farmers’ house or from the local weekly market. The local traders usually trade this maize in different weekly market within the district to meet the unmet demand of the farmers for their household purposes. From the field investigation, it has been confirmed that all the locally traded maize are being consumed locally for homestead purposes.
During the field survey, it has also been found that price of maize in the local market was higher than that in the Terai region and neighbouring districts, which confirms that maize produced in Ramechhap does not go out of the district.
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DADO statistics show that Ramechhap is importing a huge volume of maize either from the neighbouring Terai districts to meet its unmet demand of maize for homestead purpose (food and feed). A total of 40,000 MT maize was brought in from other districts.
There are three local feed mills located in Manthali, which were established recently to cater to the increasing demand of feed from the rising poultry industry. They mainly produce smash feed for layer poultry farm, goat farm and pig farm. As the major ingredient in the feed is maize, so they require a good volume of maize year round. The current demand of maize from these feed mills are 400 MT per year. Though their requirement is negligible compared to the volume of local production but they source entire volume of 400 MT from the Terai region or from India through suppliers as because they don’t get it locally available. b. Core Function in Okhaldhunga District:
Compared to Ramechhap, acreage of maize in Okhaldhunga is less due to the nature of the district. Maize was grown in 13226 ha of land that comprises 51.5% of the total cultivable land, 23870 ha. (Source: DADO report 20170/71). Due to its high adaptability, maize is grown in all the different kinds of arable land.
Similar to other hill district, the major category of cultivable land in Okhaldhunga is Bari land which comprises 17,200 ha, 71% of the cultivable land. As the Bari land is completely dependent on rain, so only one crop can be grown here. Farmers mostly grow maize in Bari land during rainy season due to its suitability.
Figure 3: Dynamics of the core function in Okhaldhunga
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Considerable area of khet land is also available in Okhaldhunga, 6,900 ha, which occupies 29% of the total cultivable land. Out of total Khet land, year round irrigation is available only in 2,300 ha of land where farmers are growing mainly rice. Besides rice, some other crops like wheat, potato and maize are also being grown by the farmers in the year round irrigated land. In the remaining 4,600 ha of khet land farmers grow rice and maize, where irrigation is available during rainy season accessing water from neighbouring seasonal falls and canals (Source: DADO Report 2071/71). Farmers are growing maize in spring season in Khet land with seasonal irrigation facilities.
With an average yield of 2.1 MT/ha, a total of 26,000 MT maize was produced in the year 2070/71 (Source: DADO Report 2070/71). Almost all the produced maize was used for homestead consumption, either as feed for the animal or as food for human consumption. Farmer predominantly use their produced maize as feed for their animals (70-80%). Only a small portion, 10-20% of their total production, they are using as food for their own consumption.
Some farmers who have surplus volume of maize sell those to the neighbouring farmers or to the local market. Some small traders have also been found in the district who collect and trade maize locally in the weekly market. However, it has been found that only a small volume of maize is being supplied to the neighbouring Solukhumbu district by the traders. During the field survey, it has also been found that price of maize in the local market is even higher than that in the Terai region and neighbouring districts, which confirms that maize produced in Okhulduna is not sufficient to meet its demand.
DADO statistics show that similar to Ramechhap, Okhaldhunga is also importing substantial volume of maize from the neighbouring Terai districts to meet its unmet demand of maize for homestead purpose (food and feed). A total of 14,600 MT of maize was brought in from other districts.
2.2.2.2 Dynamics of the Core Functions in the Western Cluster
In the first half of Phase 1 the project has a mandate to work in the five districts in the Western cluster, namely Dailekh, Kalikot, Jajarkot, Surkhet and Aacham. Primary information has been collected for the three districts during the subsector assessment, Dailekh, Sukhet and Jajrkot. The dynamics of the core function in the Western cluster has been drawn analysing the information from these three districts. a. Core Function in Dailekh district
In terms of area under maize cultivation, the district is least developed compared to the neighbouring districts in the Western cluster. The major category of cultivable land in Dailekh is Bari land which comprises 25,766 ha, 74.69 % of the cultivable land (DADO, 2071/72). Maize is grown in Bari (upland) during summer season only which completely depends on rain. Beside maize the farmer also grows wheat, millet, buckwheat, barley and some winter vegetables.
Khet comprises of 8,731 ha, 25.30 % of the total cultivable land in Dailekh with irrigation facilities. However, year round irrigation is available in 2,511 ha of land where farmers grow mainly rice (DADO, 2071/72). Besides rice the farmers also grows wheat, barley and gram. Farmers do not grow maize where year round irrigation is available.
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During the field visit, it was revealed that majority of the farmers are using the local varieties and improved varieties of seed (Manakamana-1,3,5, Arun-2, Deuti, Poshilo). None of the farmers were found growing hybrid maize. They don’t have any idea about the commercial growing of hybrid maize.
Figure 4: Dynamics of the core function in Dailekh
In the last year, farmers grew maize in 20,150 ha of land (DADO, 2071/72) all across Dailekh district. With an average yield of 1.9 MT/ha, a total of 39,292 MT maize was produced in the year 2071/72. All the produced maize was used for homestead consumption, either as feed for the animal or as food for human consumption. Farmers predominantly use their produced maize as feed for their animals (80-90%). Only a few portion, 10-20% of their total production, are used as food for their own consumption. Some farmers sell the produced maize in the local market and buy rice. Farmers usually sell to the neighbouring farmers. Maize is also used to feed the mule in high mountains. From the field investigation, it has been observed that only a small percentage of maize is being supplied to the wholesaler in Surkhet, which is a trading hub, from where maize goes to the feed mills in Dailekh. b. Core Function Dynamics in Jajarkot district
The major category of cultivable land in Jajarkot is Bari land which comprises 14,136 ha, 85% of the cultivable land (DADO, 2070/71). Maize is grown in Bari (upland) during summer season only which
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completely depends on rain-fed. Beside maize the farmer also grows wheat, millet, buckwheat, barley, etc in Bari land.
Khet comprises of 2,562 ha, 15% of the total cultivable land in Jajarkot where irrigation facilities are available to some extent. The land where there is year round irrigation is available, farmers grow mainly rice (DADO, 2070/71). Besides rice the farmers also grows wheat, vegetables, potatoes and spring maize.
During the field visit, it was revealed that majority of the farmers are using the local varieties and improved varieties of seed to grow maize (Deuti, Manakamana). Only few farmers were found growing hybrid variety of maize for the taste and all season availability. They don’t have any information on commercial growing of hybrid maize. Even if few were aware of hybrid then they had problems on irrigation facilities for growing hybrid maize.
In the last year, farmers grow maize in 8,266 ha of land (MoAD, 2070/71) all across Jajarkot district. With an average yield of 1.2 MT/ha, total of 10,539 MT maize was produced in the year 2070/71. All the produced maize was used for homestead consumption, either as feed for the animal or as food for human consumption. Farmers predominantly use their produced maize as feed for their animals (80-90%). Only a few portion, 10% of their total production, are being used for their own consumption.
Figure 5: Dynamics of the core function in Jajarkot
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Some farmers sell maize in the local market on demand for feeding to mule and buy rice. Farmers usually sell to the neighbouring farmers. There are some local traders who buy maize from the farmers to sell in the local weekly market. A small volume of maize has been found to be supplied to the traders or wholesaler in Surkhet, from where the wholesaler supply maize to the feed mills in Terai district. c. Dynamics of Core Function in Surkhet District
Surkhet has three distinct geography (Topography) viz, Mahabharat Range, middle plains valleys & hills and Churia range. Mahabharat Range being high mountains is not at all suitable for agricultural activities. Churia range is completely occupies by forest. So, crops are grown mainly in middle plain valleys and hills with a total cultivable land of 37,444 ha.
In terms of area under maize cultivation, the district is quite advance compared to other neighbouring districts. Maize is the third largest crop in Surkhet after rice and wheat. Maize is the major crop grown in Bari land. Beside maize, mustard and potatoes are grown and sometimes the land is left fallow.
Figure 6: Core function dynamics in Surkhet Distric
Khet land with year round irrigation occupies 10,479 ha land (DADO, 2070/71). The major crop grown in Khet land is rice. Besides rice, some other crops like wheat, potato and spring maize are also being grown by the farmers. Khet land with seasonal irrigation facility is 12,288 ha. Total keht land is 14600 ha. Bari land is 22,844 ha.
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During the field visit, it was revealed that majority of the farmers are using improved varieties (Arun-2, Rampur Composite, Deuti, Poshilo-1, Manakamana-3).
In 2071 farmers grew maize in 16,100 ha of land all across Surkhet (DADO, 2070/71). With an average yield of 2.38 MT/ha, a total of 38,243 MT maize was produced in the year 2071. The produced maize was used for homestead consumption, either as feed for the animal or as food for human consumption. The surplus volume of maize is sold to the local traders.
The maize traders collect maize from Jajarkot, Dailekh Sylan, and Rukum and sells to feed industry in eastern part (Narayanghat, Bhairahawa, Nepaljung, Chitwan) of Nepal. Around 2-4 quintals of maize is sold to local consumers for animal consumption. Demand of white colored hybrid maize is high in Pokhara and Narayanghat for mule feeding.
2.2.2.3 Dynamics of the Core Functions in the National Context
Maize is one of the most important crop in Nepal. Maize is grown almost everywhere in Nepal, in all the topographic regions; Terai region, mid-hills and high mountains region. In the last year a total of 2.28 million MT maize was produced in Nepal, of which 70% was produced in the mid-hill region. Terai region contributed to 20% of the total supply of maize nationally while in high mountains only 8.6% maize was produced in the last year. Yield is very low compared to the other maize producing countries in the region. The national average yield is 2.45 MT per ha, which is highest in the Terai region with an average yield of 2.9 Mt/ha. Yield in the mid-hill region is 2.39 Mt/ha.
Maize is a traditional crop grown for food, feed and fodder. Maize demand has been constantly growing by about 5% annually in the last decades (Sapkota and Pokhrel, 2010). The demand for maize as food is has decreased over the years because of the changing food habit. Inhabitants in the mid-hills, in general, are leaning towards rice. Young generation in that locality prefer rice over maize as staple food. Currently, the per capita maize consumption in Nepal is 98 g/person/day (Ranum et al., 2014). Therefore, total quantity of maize required as food for human consumption is around 1 million mt per year.
The locally produced maize is mostly being used to feed the cattle, buffalo, goat, pig, country chicken etc. in rural areas of Nepal. From the field investigation, it has been found that around 70-80% of produced maize is used for animal consumption while only 20-30% is being used for human consumption. So, comparing the field investigation with the secondary information, even being very conservative, it can be roughly estimated that around 2 million MT maize is required to feed the animals as raw or grinding maize in the rural areas.
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Farmer in Mountains Farmer in Rural areas (197,286 MT/ 8.64%) (1 million MT as Food 2 million Mt to feed animals) Farmer in Mid-hills Local Trader Local Market in (1,617,911 MT Mid-hills /70.1%)
Farmer in Terai Poultry Feed Mills Local Trader Wholesaler (468,025 MT /20.5%) (480,000 MT)
Importer imports maize from India (254,000 MT)
Figure 7: Demand supply scenario of maize in the national context
The major industrial use of maize in Nepal is in the poultry feed mill industry. Key informant interviews with the poultry feed mills owner and the member of the feed mill association revealed that about 0.8 million mt. of feed is produced annually by the feed industries in Nepal (114, registered in NFEA). Maize being the major ingredients of feed, which comprises 60% of the total ingredient by volume, the current requirement of maize from the feed mill industry alone is 0.48 million MT. However, to run the existing poultry industries in Nepal at full capacity, there is a need of about 6.46 million mt. feed (Govind et al., 2015), which stands for about 3.88 million MT of maize required annually from the feed industry. Current production of feed is not sufficient for the industry. Nepal imports around 10-20% of ready feed as well. Moreover, the demand for ready feed for the poultry and cattle industry is increasing at the rate of 11% per annum. The increasing demand of poultry feed is evident from the fact that in the last two years, 4 new feed mills have been established and two more are now under construction only in Biratnagar. Thus, the demand for maize is shifting from food to feed for livestock and poultry. For food, new types of maize- based products such as soups, vegetables, edible oils are in demand but at a very low scale.
Maize supplied from the local sources to the feed mills are not sufficient for its total requirement. Hence, a substantial volume of maize is also being imported from India. Findings from the key informant interviews with the feed milers and maize suppliers revealed that around 50% of the total requirement of maize from the poultry feed mill industry is met from the import.
Accumulating demand from all the different segments, the current national demand of maize stands for about 3.3 million MT. On the other hand, the production during 2014 was 2.283million mt. Hence, the deficit is around 1 million mt which is mostly being met by importing from India. According to the official import records of 2014/15, a total of 0.29 million MT maize has been imported in the last year, which indicates that a significant volume of maize is also being imported informally. The figure below shows the flow of maize grain in the national context of Nepal. In the mid-hill and high mountains region, maize is used mainly for homestead purposes; human consumption and animal feed. There is hardly any use of maize for industrial purposes in those regions. Though maize is produced, as a major crop, in large area of land in the mid-hills and high mountains but the production is not sufficient to meet, even, their own
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demand. Hence, these regions import maize from Terai region. The mid-hill districts also supply a small quantity of maize to the high mountain region.
Figure 8: Flow of maize grain in Nepal
Field investigation shows that the eastern cluster of Terai supplies maize to the western cluster of Terai, and mid-hills and high mountains of eastern cluster after meeting their own demand. Import from India through eastern cluster, throughout the year, fulfils the local deficit. From the western cluster of Terai, maize is moving to the mid-hills and high mountains of western cluster. A very low volume of maize is coming from mid-hill district in the west, like Surkhet, to the Terai region in western cluster. It is needful to mention that major usage of maize for industrial purposes is taking place in the eastern, western and central cluster of Terai region as well as in the valley of Katahmandu-Patan-Bhaktapur. In the western side as well import of maize from India fills the gap between domestic supply and demand.
2.2.3 Dynamics of the Support Functions
Seed
In both the eastern and western cluster, farmers are using open pollinated local variety or improved variety of seed. Majority of the farmers in the project location use improved variety of seeds. However, around 10% farmers are still using local variety of seed. Those who are using local variety of seed, use the
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retained seed from previous year’s production year after year. The farmers who use improved variety of seed, they also use retain seed from previous years’ production. Once in 5 to 10 years, farmers buy Improved variety of Truthfully labelled seed from DADO and Agro-vet. It has been found that only some progressive farmers replace seed once in 3 years. DADO sell maize seed to the farmers at 50% subsidized rate.
Private Company Improved Variety of Maize seed Agrovet
DADO Foundation seed Seed Producing 50% subsidy Farmer Group
Retain seed TLS/IS Maize seed Maize Farmer 50% subsidy
Private seed companies producing hybrid Hybrid seed seed
Distributor Agrovet Importer imports hybrid seed
Intrusion of hybrid seed informally through indian border
Figure 9: Dynamics of maize seed in the project district
Figure 9 above shows how the maize seed is being produced and supplied to the farmers. DADO has agreement with some of the enlisted trained seed producer groups in the districts. DADO provides foundation seed to the seed producing farmer group at 50% subsidised price to produce maize seed. Using the foundation seed, farmer get a total yield of 2 tons per ha from which they can screen only 0.2 to 0.3 ton of seed, i.e., only 10-15% of the total production becomes seed. Farmer group sell the seed to DADO at Rs 60 -70 per kg.
DADO then supply the improved variety of seed to the individual farmers or farmer groups at 50 to 70% subsidized rate. In the western cluster, it has been found that farmers also sell seed to the agro-vet or private company besides DADO to get quick money. However, the private company or agro-vet cannot
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sell the seed to the farmers directly because of the subsidy that the farmers are receiving on price when purchasing seed from DADO. Hence, eventually all the seed supplied to the farmers is channelled through the DADO.
Improved seed has become popular among farmers as its yield is relatively higher (1.67 times more) than the local seeds. About 91.5 % of the total cultivated area was covered by improved OP variety seed contributing 94.7% of total maize production of the country (APSD, 2014). The improved variety of maize seed production was found to be increased from 163mt in 2001 to 2,627mt in 2015.
Farmers hardly use any hybrid variety of seed in the mid hill districts. Only in few cases, it has been found that farmers are using hybrid seed buying it from distant market. Though a good number of hybrid variety of seed is available and becoming popular in the Terai region but most of the farmers in the mid-hill region do not know about hybrid maize. Local private seed companies are producing hybrid variety of seed. Besides, importers are also importing hybrid varieties of seed. All the hybrid variety of seeds are commercially channelled to the farmers through distributors and agro-vets. The maize seed import has been increased from 225mt in 2010/11 to 787mt in 2013/14.2 Currently, there are around 100 seed importers in Nepal who import cereals, vegetables and other crop seeds. A high volume of hybrid maize seed is also being imported into the Nepal market from the nearby markets in India through improper channel.
The table below shows the number of OP and Hybrid seed variety available in Nepal. A total of 59 varieties of maize seed are available currently.
Table 7: Number of maize varieties released and registered in Nepal and their yield range, including the Nepalese hybrids (SQCC, 2072)
SN Description Open pollinated varieties Hybrid varieties 1 Released by NSB 21 3 2 Registered by NSB 1 34 Total 22 37 Productivity range (mt/ha) 1.5-6.08 5.14-12
In the table above, the yield potential of OP variety and Hybrid varieties are given. Though the table shows the yield potential of OP varieties range from 1.5 to 6.08 MT/ha but during the field investigation, the highest yield found was 3 MT/ha. Only farmers in some parts of Ramechhap were found using hybrid seed who got yield in the range of 5 to 14 MT/ha.
2 A paper on Cereals Seed Value Chain Study in a Validation Workshop presented by MountDigit Technology P. Ltd., Dhobidhara, Lalitpur on 14 July 2016.
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Fertiliser
Historically, Nepal has had a low level of fertiliser application. Fertiliser application in maize farming specially in hill districts are even poorer. The practice of chemical fertiliser application in maize farming by the farmers in eastern and western cluster are given below.
Fertiliser application by farmers:
Table 8: Fertiliser application by farmers
Fertiliser Eastern Cluster Western Cluster
Average (Kg/ha) Average (Kg/ha) Urea 77 50 DAP 38 0 Potash 8 0 FYM 20,000 18,000 Source: NAMDP Field Survey June/July 2016
During the field investigation, information on fertiliser application has been collected from few farmers in both the clusters. The field findings indicate that the practice of fertiliser application seems better in the Eastern cluster than in the Western cluster. Poor application of nitrogen is the principal limiting factor to maize production, but other nutrient deficits, especially phosphorus and potassium, are also important.
Century long traditional farming practice, limited knowledge about fertiliser application and nutrient management, and unavailability or timely availability of chemical fertiliser are contributing to the poor application of chemical fertiliser in maize farming. The Agriculture Input Company Ltd. has been supporting farmers in providing fertiliser at subsidy, however, farmers in the hills have been facing problems in availing the fertilisers on time. Previously, fertilisers were supplied by Agriculture Input Company Ltd, Salt Trading Company Ltd. and private sector, however, the role of private sector since 2009/10 was found to be unrecorded.3
Farmers are heavily relying on farm Yard Manure (FYM) to cultivate maize in mid hill regions. It has been found during the field investigation that volume of FYM applied in maize farm ranges from 18000 to 20000 KG. The quality of FYM is a concern. Due to improper management of manures and FYM, most of the nutrients are lost through the direct sunlight, and leaching. On an average 50 million MT manure (dung and urine) is produced from cattle each year, which should be enough for the available cultivated land in Nepal if used at the rate of about 20 MT per ha.4 In addition, an equal amount of manure can be available from goat, pigs, sheep, and poultry. Moreover, farm yard manure (FYM) can also be produced. Limited technical knowledge of farmers and weak extension services provided by DADO and other stakeholders is
3 MoAD. 2013/14. Statistical Information of Nepalese Agriculture. Government of Nepal, Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD), Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal. 4 Information taken from the Facebook of a retired Senior Agri. Expert of the Government of Nepal. Accessed on https://www.facebook.com/madan.rai.39750 on July 21, 2016.
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preventing the best us if FYM. If manures and FYM can be properly utilised, poor and improper use of chemical fertiliser can be compensated.
Crop Protection
Crop protection is required to reduce the losses due to biotic factors such as insect-pest, rodents, snails, diseases, etc. Mostly, Agrovets and DADO are responsible to supply agrochemicals to protect crop plants in the districts. Agrochemicals used as pesticide in Nepal are imported from India, China and other countries. Among imported agrochemicals in Nepal, around 80% is used in vegetable production.5 Farmers use pesticides only if they see any disease or pest attack in their crops. In case of pest attack, farmers take advice from agricultural service centre or from agro-vet on issues like what to apply, how much to apply etc.
Incidence of biotic factors: Incidence of biotic (field cricket/stem borer/white grubs/ear rot/loose smut/grey leaf spot/Downey mildew/leaf blight/stalk rot/weeds) is a problem in maize cultivation in these clusters though not affected very frequently. Due to lack of technical knowledge on how to deal with pests and diseases and susceptible varieties to biotic problems can be particularly destructive in reducing yield. These problems are slightly different with particular districts.6
Incidence of abiotic factors: Incidence of abiotic (drought/hailstorm/wind/soil acidity/soil erosion/lodging/declining soil fertility) is a great problem in maize cultivation. Moreover, soil exhaustion is also critical in reducing farm income. Hence, use of limited quantity of fertilisers, lack of proper crop rotation practices with legumes, soil erosion/sliding/surface run off during rainy season, deforestation, are some factors which loss soil fertility in hills and mountains. Lack of soil fertility leads to decrease in the yield of maize.
Pesticides are sold by the local agro-vets, who source it from the distributor in neighbouring market hubs. Sometimes the company also supplied pesticides directly to the agro-vets shop. Pesticide Registered Office under the Department of Agriculture is the sole organisation to control quality of agrochemicals in Nepal. Each agro-vet has to take the certificate to trade agrochemicals in Nepal. Currently, there are more than 150 agrovets in the NAMDP target districts.
Irrigation
Irrigation is crucial for successful maize cultivation. Based on the available database of different districts, it showed that irrigation facilities play a great role to increase the cropping intensity and yield. Based on the availability of irrigation, the cultivated land can be categorized into different types shown in the table below. Distribution of land category as per the irrigation facilities in the different NAMDP target districts are shown in Table 10.
5 Kathmandupost. 2014. Govt monitoring use of pesticides in veggie, fruits. Accessed on http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2014-07-10/govt-monitoring-use-of-pesticides-in-veggie-fruits.html on July 19, 2016.
6 DADOs. 2070/71. Annual Agricultural Development Programme and Statistical Book. District Agricultural Development Offices (DADOs), Okhaldhunga, Khotang, Surkhet, Jajarkot, Dailekh and Kalikot, Nepal.
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Table 9: Distribution of land Districts Bari land % of total land Khet Land (With Khet Land (with Year (Rainfed) Ha. irrigated Seasonal irrigation round irrigation facility) facility) Ha. Ha. Ramechhap 37994 18.48% 6299 3109 Okhaldhunga 17265 36.82% 6479 2312 Khotang N/A 26.45% 4886 3230 Dailekh 25766 27.67% 6766 2412 Jajarkot 14136 10.09% 2562 4966 Kalikot N/A 13.39% 2845 2409 Aachham N/A 18.06% 6535 3660 Surkhet N/A 32.78% 12276 10449 Source: DADO Reports 2070/71
Bari land is located in hilly slope and depends completely on rain. Due to sloppy surface, water cannot stand in bari land. Only one crop can be grown in Bari land in a year. As can be seen from the table above, it occupies almost 80% of the cultivable land in the project districts.
Khet land can be located both in hilly slope or in the valley. In the hilly slope, with terrace based surface, irrigation water can stand in the khet land. In this kind of khet land irrigation is provided from the spring or nearby canal which remains available only during and immediately after the rainy season.
Khet land with year round irrigation facilities are mostly located in valley closer to rivers, khola, irrigation canal or reservoir. Farmers irrigate those land using Low lift pump (LLP) or traditional methods. Few farmers borrow or rent irrigation pump from the neighbouring farmers. There is hardly any commercial irrigation service provider or pump supplier available in the project location.
Extension Service
Farmers require information on cultivation technique, seed variety, seed rate, dosage of fertiliser, frequency of irrigation, pest or disease control, dosage of pesticide etc. to grow maize properly. They also in need information on shelling, drying and other post-harvest related issues to reduce the post-harvest loss. Farmer also needs market and price related information to plan his production and selling.
Farmers in the project districts hardly Agricultural get these information as access to the Service Centre information source is either missing or insufficient. Agriculture service centres which can provide credible Neighbouring information to the farmers on Agro-vet farmer cultivation technique related issue lack the capacity and are in limited number to cater to a large number of farmers.
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Farmers receives information on pest and disease control as well as on dosage of pesticides from the neighbouring agro-vets. Farmers also receives information from the neighbouring farmers. However, the quality of information is questionable as they do not have sufficient technical capacity to provide the farmers with right advice on all occasions.
Some on-going projects and local NGOs are also providing extension service to the farmers but on an ad- hoc basis.
Post-harvest
Proper post-harvest handling of maize is crucial to minimise losses of maize. The poor post-harvest handling of maize is affecting farmers in Nepal, particularly in hilly regions. There are three major post- harvest related functions; namely, shelling, drying and storing.
Shelling: Farmers shell grains from maize cob mostly using hands. It requires huge labour involvement to de-shell maize using hands. Some manual Sheller model is available in the targeted location but it also requires as much labour as it requires shelling with hand. There are no mechanical Shellers available in the project location. Currently, with their subsistence farming, as they are dealing with small volume of maize at a time, it is manageable shelling with hands. But once farmers get involve in commercial farming of maize and sell bulk volume of maize at a time, it will be very difficult to shell maize without mechanical shelling.
Drying: the major harvesting season of maize coincides with the rainy season, hence it becomes a crucial issue to dry maize during the rainy season. High moisture content of maize increases the risk of aflatoxin and other fungal attack. Majority of the farmers rely on sun for drying maize and they dry out their maize/seed on bare grounds, dirty surface exposing it to dust and stones. Sun drying of maize on the open ground also increases the chance of pest attack and quality deterioration.
Storing: Farmers usually store their maize inside their house either on the floor or hang maize cobs in the ceiling. The farmers store their maize in their living rooms which are not aerated. Those who produce substantial volume of maize do not have sufficient space inside their house to store maize. So they keep the maize outside hanging on bamboo bar under the open sky. Due to improper storage, the attack of rat, other pest and fungal attack might incur loss to the farmers.
Trading
In Nepal, both formal and informal traders participate in maize (seed/food/feed) trading, but most are informal, unregistered and unregulated. The trade has many different facets. Mainly in maize trading, there are collectors, wholesalers and retailers in Nepal.
Most of the small farmers in the rural areas take some part of their surplus maize either to barter with other commodity at their community or directly sell to the local market or the agents/brokers of the wholesalers. The sale of maize at this level is often triggered by a specific family cash requirement (school fees, a funeral, a wedding, or a land dispute) rather than being part of a longer-term commercial strategy.
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The agents/brokers work to connect external large-scale buyers/wholesalers to local farmers. They utilise knowledge of their local region to locate maize, negotiate price with farmers, and assemble sufficient quantities of maize for the principal buyers. They don't need any type of storage facility. They only help to reduce the burden of buyers and farmers in terms of time and cost.
No broker for maize trading outside the districts were found during the field study in the project districts in the Eastern and western clusters. Due to the limited quantity of maize production, all the collection of maize grain and seed is managed by the local traders and/or cooperatives. The collected maize in the Eastern cluster was completely sold at the local market, whereas in the Western cluster, some of it was also sold to the wholesalers in Nepalgunj. The cooperatives perform the role of agents. They sell maize grain and seed either to large millers or process it and sell to the retailers. They also sell to the local end users. They have strong facilities own/rented and credit facilities.
Finance
Farmers need money to purchase seed, chemical fertilisers, agrochemicals, and labour. Usually farmers invest in a crop from the savings from the previous crop. In most cases, savings are not sufficient enough to invest in the crop properly. Hence they need additional financing which they cannot access currently. There is no formal financial institute providing loan to the farmers with simple terms and condition. However, cooperatives provide finance to the farmers though in limited scale.
2.2.4 Rules, Regulations and Government Programmes
Research and Development
National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) is a government research council with a network of research stations to conduct research on agriculture related issues. NARC conducts research on different aspects of agriculture. It identifies the existing problem in the agriculture and find tries to identify possible solutions. A wing of NARC conducts research to develop new varieties of maize seed and to identify good agriculture practices appropriate for specific variety in specific agro-ecological/climatic condition. Successful research findings of NARC are then promoted to the farmers to improve their cultivation practices through extension service provided by DADO. However, the needs, priorities and demands of the farmers for improved farming thus remain unmet by the available extension work force in the country.
Registration of seed
The National Seed Board (NSB) and Seed Quality Control Centre (SQCC) are the responsible authority for the release and registration of seed for all kind of agricultural crops. The National Seed Policy, 2056 has given permission to the public and private sector to develop new varieties of seed for any crop, which is also highlighted in the Seed Vision 2013-2025. NSB certifies and registers any new variety of seed developed, multiplied or imported either through public or private sector, upon testing the quality and performance of the variety in the local agro-climatic condition. In maize, NSB has released 23 open pollinated (OP) varieties and 3 hybrids, and registered 32 hybrids and 1 OP maize varieties developed in other countries. It also denotes any existing varieties if it does not perform well in the field condition.
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Industrial Quality Standard
There is no quality standard defined for the maize traded in the local market. However, the poultry feed mill industry which is the major industry for maize has some quality parameters defined. As they prefer high protein content in maize so they prefer protein enriched yellow maize. The feed mill industry only buy maize with less than 14% moisture. The quality parameter also defines the maximum percentage of broken kernels, minimum percentage of inert material, colour etc. Maize affected with aflatoxin or other fungus is also not accepted by the feed mill industry.
Import and custom excise
As the required volume of maize for the poultry feed mill industry is not available in the national market, a good volume of maize is being imported to Nepal every year. The feed mill enjoys preferential import and custom duty from the government of Nepal to import maize. The trader has to give 5% import duty to import maize whereas, the feed mill can import maize with only 1.6% import duty.
Agricultural Development Strategy (ADS) 20147
The government of Nepal has drafted an overarching policy framework in 2014, Agricultural Development Strategy (ADS) 2014, for the overall development of agriculture sector with a vision for next 20 years and, action plan and roadmap for next 10 years. The key objectives of ADS are to increase income of farmers, improve access and market, and reduce post-harvest losses. Maize is one of the priority crops listed in ADS. The ADS encourages public private partnership, private sector investment and holistic value chain approach to develop the agricultural subsector with an objective to benefit the poor.
Maize Mission Programme
Maize Mission Program was started in 2064/65 with the objective of substituting maize import from India, increase income of the farmers and supply raw materials for feed industries through integrated supply of seeds, machineries and other inputs in some terai districts of Nepal. As per government reports, this program has been successful in increasing production of maize in these districts. Since the start of the project the total area under maize production has increased from 2,050 hectares to 10, 000 hectares and the total annual production of maize has increased from 10,000 MT to 72,000 MT in the project districts.
Mid Hill Mega Maize programme
GoN started Mid Hill Mega Maize Program in 42 hill and mountain districts from 2013/14 to enhance production and productivity of maize crop and to support for enhancing food security status of hilly districts. NAMDP target districts in the Western cluster are covered by this programme. The main activities under this programme are: distribution of subsidised seed, training of farmers, subsidy on seed transport, subsidy on purchase of machinery (e.g. Mini/Power tiller, Accessories, Corn Sheller, Grading Machine, Tarpaulin, Super Grain bag etc.).
7 MoAD. Agricultural Development Strategy (ADS). Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD), Singha Durbar, Kathmandu.
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Other relevant policies
There are many other policies such as National Cooperative policy, National fertiliser policy, agribusiness policy, national seed policy, plant protection act, pesticide act, national agricultural policy etc. which influence the production of maize and performance of the maize farmers.
Informal Norms in the Farmers’ Group
Majority of the farmer in Nepal are associated with farmer groups or cooperatives. Each of the cooperatives and farmer groups has its own written constitution following which the operational procedures of the group take place. However, there are informal norms and rules as well which the farmers also abide by.
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Analysis
3.1 Problems in the core functions and underlying constraints
Farmers income from Maize arming is low
Productivity of maize Quality of the maize is Farmers do not consider is very low not good maize as a cash crop
Use poor quality retain Do not have proper Do not follow Natural calamities like Improper post harvest seed application of proper cultivation late rain, temperature handling Current production Commercial trade of is not sufficient for maize is not available fertilizer technique fall etc. affect the own demand due to scale quality of maize
Farmers do Inconsistent Farmers do not Unavailabilit Farmers lack the Access to quality Farmers do not Unavailability Lack of proper not practice quality of have idea about y of quality knowledge informatoin on have knowledge of mechanical drying and appropriat improved hybrid maize and hybrid seed about proper cultivation about post- sheller storage facility seed variety of seed its potential cultivation technique is not harvest handling replacement produced by technique readily available rate farmer group Unavailability of Farmers do not apply Applied FYM is low temperature sufficient quantity of inadequate in terms of resistant or chemical fertilizer both quantity and drought resistant quality variety
Farmers lack the Chemical Do not have Raw materials Do not have knowledge on fertilizer is financial ability are not knowledge about appropriate not available to apply proper sufficiently proper composting fertilizer dosage on time dosage of available method fertilizer Figure 10: Constraint Tree
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Though farmers in the mid-hill districts have been producing maize for centuries as one of their major crop they grow maize through subsistence farming which does not allow them to get good income from maize farming. So, considering ‘low income of farmer from maize farming’ as the key problem statement in the maize sector in mid-hill districts, the constraint analysis has been performed to identify the underlying problem or root causes. Poor income of farmers is leading mainly due to three broad constraint areas which are described below: a. Farmers do not consider maize as a cash crop b. Productivity of maize is very low in the mid-hill districts c. Quality of the maize that they produce is not good a. Farmers do not consider maize as a cash crop
Production is not sufficient to meet own demand. As mentioned earlier, farmers in the mid-hill districts use maize for their own consumption as food and as feed to feed their animals. Though, they grow maize in almost all the available and suitable cultivable land the total production, in most cases, is not sufficient for their own homestead consumption. So, they usually do not have surplus maize to trade in the commercial market.
Maize market in the mid-hill is not connected with the commercial market of maize in Nepal. The maize market in the high mountain and mid-hill region is more of subsistence nature which is disjointed with the commercial maize market concentrated in the Terai region. Due to the lack of availability of maize in scale in the mid-hill region, the traders from the commercial market are not sourcing maize from this region.
Price of maize is often higher in the mid-hill region than that in the commercial maize market where price is with import parity. Besides the maize from the Terai region, imported maize from India plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the commercial maize market. The feed mill industry prefers to import maize from India instead of procuring it from the mid-hill region due to the closeness to the Indian cluster of maize production, cheaper transportation cost and low import duty. As the price of maize in the mid- hill region is not influenced, by and large, by the maize supply in the commercial market, hence often the price is higher in the hill districts than that of the commercial market. This is mainly due to the lack of connection between these two markets. b. Productivity of maize is very low in the mid-hill districts
There are a number of reasons for the low productivity of maize in the project districts.
Farmer use poor quality of retain seed to grow maize. In both the eastern and western cluster, farmers use either local variety or improved variety of open pollinated seed. Majority of the farmers in the project location use improved variety of seeds. However, around 10% farmers are still using local variety of seed. Those who are using local variety of seed, use the retained seed from previous year’s production year after year which gives significantly lower yield. The farmers who use improved variety of seed, they also use retained seed from previous year’s production. Once in 5 to 10 years, farmer buy Improved variety of
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Truthfully labelled seed from DADO. Though the yield potential is moderately acceptable but as the farmers use the retained seed from their previous year’s production consecutively for quite a few years they get much lower yield than is potentially attainable. Underlying reasons for using poor quality retain seeds are given below.
Farmers are not aware about the frequent replacement of OP variety of seed. As mentioned earlier, the seed replacement ratio is very poor in the project location due to the low level of understanding and awareness of the farmers. Majority of the farmers replace seed buying improved variety of seed from DADO or other sources once in 8 to 10 years. Only some of the progressive farmers replace seed frequently, once in every 3 years.
Poor quality of improved variety of seed production. Improved variety of seed are produced by seed producing farmer groups. Though they are trained but due to lack of regular monitoring and proper supervision from DADO and AIC, the farmer group cannot ensure the quality of the seed they produce.
Farmers are not aware about the hybrid seed. Farmers in the mid hill region mostly have no or very low awareness about the hybrid variety of seed. They do not know that hybrid seed could give more than double the yield that they are currently getting. Though, there are 35 hybrid varieties of maize seed registered in the national seed board and it is widely being used in the terai regions, farmers in the mid-hill districts are still unaware about the potential of hybrid seed.
Private companies, importer or the distributor of hybrid seed do not supply hybrid varieties of maize seed to the markets in mid-hill districts as they do not see a demand. There is no initiative from the private seed companies to promote hybrid maize in the project districts. The dearth of demand of hybrid maize in the mid-hill region and lack of motivation of the private company has created prevented the introduction of hybrid maize in the project location.
Farmers in the mid-hills do not practice proper application of fertiliser. Both the application of chemical fertiliser as well as farm yard manure is not sufficient for proper nutrient management of the soil and to get optimum yield. Underlying reasons for improper application of chemical fertiliser are:
Farmers lack the knowledge on appropriate dosage of chemical fertiliser. With the century long experience of maize farming, farmers follow traditional practices of fertiliser application. They hardly apply any chemical fertiliser because of their lack of understanding about the necessity and appropriate dosage of different chemical fertiliser. Even if some of the farmers apply chemical fertiliser, they apply only one spoon of urea per plant which is far less than what is required.
Chemical fertiliser is not available on time. Import and distribution of chemical fertiliser is governed by the government mechanism. Due to the bureaucratic nature of fertiliser distribution where AIC, DADO and private sector is involved in different roles, fertiliser is often not available in the field when farmer requires it to apply in the crop.
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Often farmers do not have the financial capability to purchase fertiliser in required volume. To apply chemical fertiliser in appropriate volume it requires substantial investment which the farmer often lacks. Farmer also do not have the access to finance to purchase and apply appropriate dosage of fertiliser.
The applied FYM is inadequate both in terms of quantity and quality. Though farmers are relying heavily on Farm Yard Manure (FYM) to maintain the soil fertility and to get better yield but they cannot produce adequate volume of FYM as they do not get sufficient volume of raw materials to produce their required volume of FYM.
Moreover, farmers do not have knowledge about the proper composting method which results in poor quality of FYM produced in the farmer’s backyard. Some techniques of composting methods with proper combination of raw materials could improve the quality of the compost significantly. It might also reduce the overall lead time for composting. Farmers in the mid-hill are not aware about the technology.
Farmers do not follow proper cultivation method in terms of land preparation, weeding, irrigation and crop protection which is also significantly contributing to the poor yield of maize. Underlying reasons are:
Farmers lack the knowledge on proper cultivation technique. Access to the quality information on proper cultivation technique is also not easily accessible for farmers. As mentioned earlier farmers receive information on cultivation technique from agriculture service centres, agro-vet and neighbouring farmers. Agriculture service centres which can provide credible information to the farmer on cultivation technique related issue lack the capacity due to the limited number of human resources to cater to a large number of farmers. Quality of the information received from Agro-vet and neighbouring farmers is questionable as they do not have sufficient technical capacity to provide the farmers with the right advice. c. Quality of the maize is not good
The following underlying reasons are responsible for low quality of maize produced by the farmers in the mid hills.
Natural calamities like late rain or temperature fall either delaying the sowing time or affecting the flowering and tillering of maize which eventually affect the yield and quality of maize cob and grains. Drought resistant and low temperature resistant varieties of seed which could address the issue to some extent are not available in the mid hill regions.
Improper handling of maize during post-harvest also deteriorates the quality of maize significantly. The following reasons are responsible for this.
Farmers often do not have proper knowledge on post-harvest handling. Farmers do not know how to shell maize efficiently and effectively, how to dry maize keeping the quality consistent and how to store it to avoid the risk of quality deterioration due to pest or fungal attack.
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Proper shelling technology is not available in the hill districts. Farmers use hand to shell their maize which is time consuming and requires substantial involvement of labour. With their current practice of shelling they cannot shell large volume of maize at a time. Mechanical Sheller which can efficiently shell a large volume of maize in just an hour is not available in the mid hill region. This is also a contributing factor for maize not being a commercial product in the mid-hill region.
Farmers do not have alternative drying method or technology other than sun-drying. As the major harvesting season of maize in the md-hill region coincides with the rainy season, so sun drying is not always a feasible option for the farmer. Maize with high moisture content, especially during consecutive days of rain, are prone to get affected by aflatoxin and fungal attack which deteriorates the quality of maize significantly. There is no alternative drying technology available in the project location. Sun drying of maize on the open ground also increases the chance of pest attack and quality deterioration. Simple technology like use of polythene sheet can reduce the loss which farmers are not aware of.
Improper storage is another issue which reduces the quality of maize significantly. Farmer usually store their maize inside their house either on the floor or hang maize cobs in the ceiling. Those who produce substantial volume of maize do not have sufficient space inside their house to store maize. So they keep the maize outside hanging on bamboo bar under the open sky. There is no community level storage facility available at the village level to support farmers with storage service.
3.2 Opportunities and sector drivers
There are number of opportunities prevailing in the maize sector in Nepal to stimulate the growth in the sector by improving productivity and income of the poor farmers, given the current scenario of the maize sector in Nepal. The opportunities and potential of the sector are described as follows:
1. More than 70% of the total maize is produced in the mid-hill district. Around 10800 Ha of land is cultivated under maize and 35184 HHs are already involved in maize cultivation in the NAMDP targeted eight districts. Improving the sector in this region has a huge potential to improve the livelihood of large number of farmers.
There is a huge demand for maize both nationally and within the regions. The demand can work as the major driving force to carry the sector forward.
2. Local production of maize is not sufficient to meet the demand of local farmers. The unmet demand is pushing the sector to grow further. Because of the lack of sufficient supporting services and functions the growth is not taking place at the desired pace.
3. There is a huge demand of maize from the poultry feed mill industry which is pulling the production of maize up nationally. The poultry industry in Nepal is growing very fast and hence, the feed mill industry is also growing at a high rate which is recorded as 11% per annum.,This can provide an excellent growth potential for the maize sector.
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4. Few feed mills are locally available in the mid-hill districts which are currently sourcing maize from outside the project districts. Once connected with the local market, these can play an important role to support the growth of the sector.
Good quality seeds and other supporting services are available in the market.
5. A number of hybrid varieties and improved varieties of open pollinated seed are available in the market. A total of 37 hybrid varieties and 22 OP varieties are registered in the national seed board and are being marketed and distributed to the farmers. The number of varieties are increasing every year.
6. Private seed companies, importer and distributor of seed are available in the national market who are interested to promote their variety of maize seed in the mid-hill regions.
7. There is an increasing number of service providers such as agrovets available in the project districts who are selling seed, fertiliser and pesticide. This can provide incentive to the seed company as well as pesticide company to strengthen their distribution channel by creating a provision for embedded service of information for the farmers.
8. New technology of shelling and mechanical sheller machine is available in the terai region, which allows the potential for easy technology transfer to address the issue of post-harvest handling.
Farmers are operated in groups.
9. Farmer groups and co-operatives are readily available in the mid hill districts and almost all the farmers are somehow connected to farmer groups which gives the opportunity to tag service providers with the farmers easily resulting in greater outreach.
Government priority
As one of the staple food in the mid-hill and high mountain regions the Government of Nepal promotes the cultivation of maize to reduce food deficiency. The government is providing support in many ways to increase the production of maize. However, subsidy given by the government may poses a threat to involve private sector stakeholder to ensure sustainable growth of the sector. Under maize mission and mid-hill mega maize programme GoN provides seed support in 75% subsidy, training/tours, seed transport subsidy, equipment Support in 50 % subsidy (Mini/Power tiller, Accessories, Corn Sheller, Grading Machine, Tarpaulin, Super Grain bag etc., improved maize area expansion, participatory variety selection, linkages between stakeholders.
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Rationale for working in the sector: summary analysis
This section examines the maize sector through three lenses of pro-poor relevance, growth potential and intervention feasibility to assess whether or not the project should work in Growth this sector. Potential
Pro-poor Relevance Intervention Pro-Poor Maize, being the second most important crop in Nepal, occupies relevance Feasibility
928,000 hectares of land which is almost 30% of the total cultivable land. According to MoAD, maize occupies 70% area in the mid hills followed by the Tarai (19%) and the high hills (11%). Figure 11: The three lens of rationale for This shows that the mid-hill is the main part of Nepal where working the maize sector maize based farming system is found. The high-hills on the other hand have food deficit zone due to lower cereal production and productivity. Around 24,14,428 number of HHs are involved in maize cultivation. There are about 36247 of farm household involved in maize production in the eastern three districts where as there are about 34546 farm household involved in maize production in the western five districts. More than 72% of the maize farmers have less than 1 ha of land i.e., majority of the maize farmers are small in-terms of their land holding size. Around 90% the maize farmers in the western cluster are small farmers who have less than 1 ha of land on an average.
A total of 905286 number of women are living in the NAMDP targeted districts. Survey finding reveals that a higher percentage of women as compared to men are working in maize farming. Due to the high rate of out-migration, farming is being taken care by the women in many households. About 60- 80% of women are involved in maize cultivation in the Eastern and Western cluster. Another interesting fact is that a significant number of women are involved in the maize sector as labour in sowing, harvesting and post-harvest related activities. It is necessary to mention that maize requires around 130-140 labour days per hectare of which 70% was family supplied and 30% was hired labour (Source: Field survey June 2016)
For most poor rural families’ access to land is extremely limited. Many depend on plots that are too small to meet their subsistence requirements. For many poor farmers having landholdings of a half a hectare or less productivity levels remain low as a result of limited access to new farming technologies, inputs and extension services.
As a huge number of farmers and labourers, both men and women, are involved in the maize sector, so its development holds the prospect of raising income of numerous rural households and create opportunities for additional employment.
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Growth potential
Overall the sector is growing which is evident from the Table 10: Trend of Maize production last five-year trend of area coverage, yield and Fiscal Year Area (Ha) Production (MT) production of maize nationally in Nepal. The 2067/68 876 1855 production of maize has increased from 1.85 million 2068/69 906 2068 Mt in 2011 to 2.3 million MT which is 23% increase in 2069/70 871 2179 5 years. Whereas, the area under maize coverage 2070/71 859 1999 2071/72 928 2283 looks almost stagnant in the last five years, with 5% deviation over the period.
In the three districts of the eastern cluster, a total of 153,206 MT maize was produced in 2013/14. From the field investigation and secondary research, it has been found that there is still 40% deficit in the eastern cluster. On the other hand, 101,464 MT of maize was produced in the five districts of western cluster in the same year.
Maize is mainly used as food for human consumption, feed for the domestic animals and ingredients for poultry feed mill industry. From the analysis of core function dynamics, it has been found that total demand of maize in Nepal is 3.5 million Mt. So, the total domestic production is not sufficient to meet the national demand. The demand for Maize to be used as food for human consumption is around 1 million MT per year, while to feed the domestic animals it is estimated that 2 million Mt maize is required annually. The major industrial use of maize is taking place in the poultry feed mills which has a demand of 0.5 million MT per year. As the poultry industry is increasing very fast, hence to feed the commercial poultry industry, the feed industry is also growing at a pace of 11% per annum. Thus, the demand for maize is also shifting from food to feed for livestock and poultry. Around 60% of the total requirement of maize from the poultry feed mill industry is being met by importing maize from India.
Looking at the demand-supply situation in the targeted districts as well as in the national market, it is evident that there is a huge growth potential of maize in the mid-hill regions. With the increased production of maize in the mid-hill region, the current demand supply gap within the districts can be reduced over the years. If the variety of seed and cultivation practice of maize can be improved in large scale in the targeted districts of eastern and western clusters, eventually, it can also supply maize to the Kathmandu valley and Terai regions to meet the unmet demand of maize from the feed mill industry and hence, can substitute import after meeting its own demand.
Intervention Feasibility
The systemic constraints or underlying reasons, that have been identified from the constraint analysis, responsible for the underperformance of the maize sector in the project districts seem feasible to address sustainably with the given resource and expertise of NAMDP. Key constraints identified for the maize sector in the project districts are unavailability of quality seed which can give higher yield, inappropriate application of fertiliser for growing maize, improper post-harvest handling and lack of linkage with the commercial maize market.
A number of good quality maize seeds including hybrid variety of maize are available in the market. Open pollinated varieties of seeds are produced and distributed through government channels and a
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number of private sector stakeholders are involved in supplying hybrid variety of maize. Some of the world renowned hybrid varieties are also being imported and distributed in the market. Private seed companies, importer and distributor of seed are interested to promote maize in the mid hill regions to expand their business though their presence is not visible at this moment.
There are also a number of pesticide companies available in Nepal. As farmers lack the knowledge regarding appropriate usage of fertiliser their awareness has to be raised in this regard. Both the private seed company and pesticide company can play significant role in addressing the knowledge gap of the farmers. New composting technology which has become successful in the neighbouring countries, can be introduced in the project location to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of FYM which farmer mostly use for agriculture production.
Improved shelling technology and commercial supplier of mechanical sheller is also available in the terai region. To address the post-harvest related issues, mechanical sheller can be made available in the mid-hill region with the support from manufacturers and suppliers in Terai region.
There are more than 200 feed mills in Nepal located in the clusters of Kathmandu-Bhaktapur-Lalitpur valley and the Terai region. The number of feed mill is increasing due to the increasing demand of poultry feed. The feed mills require a huge volume of maize and they currently import more than half of their total requirement from India. They are interested to increase the supply of maize from the local sources if the quality and price is competitive with the Indian market. The feed millers can be used as leverage agent to open up the forward market linkage for the maize farmers in the mid-hill region.
Maize being the priority sector for the Government of Nepal, the project will find the government supportive in promoting maize in the mid-hill districts.
So, looking through all the three lenses, it makes sense for the NAMDP project to work on to develop the maize sector in the mid-hill regions.
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Strategy for Change
The strategy is designed to strengthen the weaknesses prevailing in the current support service functions and the enabling environment to address the issues responsible for the underperformance of the core functions, especially for the smallholder farmers. The strategy starts with the prioritisation and selection of constraints to be addressed by the project with the given resource, expertise and scope. The strategy is then followed by (1) a vision of change, to envisage how the value chain or market system would operate if identified problems are resolved; (2) a set of interventions which can be targeted at specific market actors or group of market actors which can be engaged to drive change in the system.
5.1 Prioritisation and selection of constraints to be addressed
From the constraint analysis above, it has been found that there are number of underlying constraints in the maize sector in the project districts. First and the most important constraint is the poor yield of maize which on the hand does not meet the demand of the farmers in the regions and on the other hand does not allow the farmers to link with the major commercial maize market due to the lack of scale. Absence of linkage with the commercial maize market also does not allow farmers to consider maize as a cash crop. Both of these inter-related issues have created a vicious circle which hinders the maize sector to grow in the mid-hill districts. Underlying reasons responsible for this situation are prioritised below in order:
• Seed replacement rate by the farmers, in case of improved variety of seed, is very poor due to the lack of their understanding and weak distribution system those seeds.
• Improved Variety of seed produced by the seed producer group is often not of good quality due to lack of technical support and quality assurance
• Farmers are not aware about the hybrid variety of maize which can give more than double the yield they are currently getting
• Suitable variety of hybrid maize is not available in the mid-hill region
• Farmers do not have the knowledge to produce quality compost using the raw materials available locally
• Farmers lack the knowledge on proper usage of chemical fertiliser for maize cultivation
• Farmer do not have knowledge about proper cultivation technique and post-harvest handling and access to quality information/advice is not available
• Appropriate post-harvest technologies (shelling, drying etc.) are not available
• Farmers are not connected with the commercial market of maize in Nepal
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5.2 Vision of change
Focusing on achieving the growth potential portrayed for maize sector in the previous section, a vision of change can be outlined for the maize sector in the mid hill region. The vision of change is: to increase the income of the farmers, including women and farmers from the disadvantaged groups, in the mid- hill region through commercialising the maize farming with increased production and better linkage with the commercial market.
The vison has two clear-cut objectives. One is to increase the production of maize in the mid hill region and the other is to commercialise the maize farming in mid-hill region through linking the maize farmers with the mainstream commercial market of maize in Nepal. As the current production of maize in the targeted location is not sufficient compared to its total requirement, hence, the first and foremost priority will be given to increase the production of maize mainly through improving productivity. Development of linkage with the mainstream commercial market has to be established in parallel so that the surplus production can be channelled to the mainstream market immediately to avoid the risk of farmers’ disappointment.
The ultimate aim is to benefit a large number of smallholder maize farmers by achieving improved yields and incomes through the proposed interventions.
5.3 Intervention Areas and Pathways to Systemic Change
The ultimate aim is to benefit all maize smallholder farmers by achieving improved yields and incomes through the proposed interventions.
It is crucial that interventions are designed which are systemic so that outcomes are not dependent upon the project or development partner for sustainability. This means that NAMDP should not seek to provide services but rather enter the market system in a catalytic manner to tackle the service weaknesses in existing market actors. Based on the analysis the following four intervention areas are necessary to develop the maize sector in the mid-hill region in Nepal:
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Intervention Area 1: Promote the provision and usage of quality seed to improve the productivity of maize.
Background Description Potential partners Potential limitation Potential opportunities
Intervention Idea 1: Raise awareness of farmers to replace local seed with improved variety of seed Some farmers are using AIC and DADO being the AIC, DADO DADO could not supply maize to all the Identify the opportunities to local variety of maize major responsible private seed farmers with subsidy because of the raise awareness of farmers which is giving less yield. authorities to produce and companies, Agro- limited capacity, so a large number of regarding replacement of Raising farmers’ distribute improved varieties vet farmers have to buy seed from the local seed with improved awareness to change of maize seed to the farmer market at market price which is being variety. their local seed with are supposed to raise supplied the agro-vets or other improved variety of seed awareness of the farmers stakeholders. is necessary to improve regarding improved variety the productivity of maize of seed. Because of the subsidy provided on improved variety of maize seed, private sector, i.e., private seed companies or Agro-vet does not have any incentive to get involve in the business of improved variety of seed or to promote the usage of improved variety of seed among the farmers.
Intervention Idea 2: Facilitate to improve the quality of improved variety of seed produced by the seed producer group/cooperatives
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Background Description Potential partners Potential limitation Potential opportunities
Seed producer groups are DADO technicians are DADO, private seed Current modality of seed production and Involvement of private formed and supported by supposed to monitor and companies distribution does not allow the private sector could improve the DADO or AIC, in some supervise the farmer group sector to get involve in ensuring quality of situation of monitoring and districts. The members of on a regular basis to ensure the seed production. supervision, hence could the seed producing the quality of the seed. With improve the quality of seed. groups are trained by the limited human resources DADO’s long term objectives DADO and AIC on proper DADO cannot ensure regular and strategies need to be cultivation technique, supervision and monitoring. clarified to design feasible sorting, grading and intervention to address this screening to build their issue seed quality. capacity to produce better quality improved variety of seed. Intervention Idea 3: Facilitate seed companies to encourage farmers using hybrid variety of maize alongside making the hybrid seed available in the targeted location: Although a number of Those who are using local DADO, There is high resistance by civil society Establish and strengthen composite varieties have variety of seed, use the NGOs/INGOs, Seed organisations in hybrid seeds. distribution networks, been released for retain seed from previous companies, ensuring both availability cultivation, their larger year’s production year after Finding right marketing enterprises and and access to quality seed in spread is impeded by year. DADO sell maize seed their commitment is difficult. new prospective areas. non-accessibility of seeds to few farmers at subsidized Embed other essential to the farmers. Some of rate. Large private seed information (for example, the farmers in remote companies or importers about improved cultivation areas either using local need to understand their technologies, application of seed or improved seeds business regarding hybrid appropriate dosage of but in most of the terai maize seed in the mid-hill fertilizer etc.) with their hybrid seeds are used regions. Upon products for farmers.
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Background Description Potential partners Potential limitation Potential opportunities seeds coming through understanding the existing Increase Public investment informal channel from business model and for breeding and varietal India. incentives, they have to development and seed The existing varieties develop win-win business related infrastructure and does not perform well in model to promote hybrid creation of additional the field condition. The maize cultivation in the support services such as productivity of maize in region. Farmers are more laboratories and education Nepal is less as compared demanding high yielding and developing strong to other countries. variety of maize seed. regulatory mechanism. Community based maize seed production program needs to be implemented in inaccessible areas and minimum support price should be declared for maize seed/grain growers before planting season.
Intervention Area 2: Promote the provision of information on cultivation technique and proper application of inputs.
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Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners Intervention Idea 1: Raise awareness of farmers on cultivation technique and proper application of inputs Many farmers in rural areas do not AIC and DADO being the major DADO DADO could not Private investment could be have the most up-to-date responsible authorities to produce and private seed provide technical increased for additional information on how to grow maize distribute improved varieties of maize companies, Agro- services to all the support services such as efficiently and economically. seed to the farmer are supposed to vet farmers because of invest in correct application Improving their knowledge of new raise awareness of the farmers the limited resources, technologies that improve the techniques and technologies, in regarding improved variety of seed. so a large number of use of inputs, adopt increased addition to providing them with Because of the subsidy provided on farmers have to be crop diversification and more any physical resources necessary improved variety of maize seed, private connected from the extensive integrated crop for implementation, can sector, i.e., private seed companies or market at market rotation cycles, implement dramatically increase the farmers’ Agro-vet does not have any incentive to players which reduced tillage and no-till level of productivity. get involve in the business of improved provides agriculture cultivation techniques to There are many challenges facing variety of seed or to promote the usage inputs together with improve soil conditions and today’s farmers. The nature and of improved variety of seed among the other embedded invest in more efficient scale of these farmers. services. irrigation technology etc. challenges vary according to farm Support smallholder’s small land areas with hand tools farmers on increased and without the use of any knowledge and access to petrochemical inputs that results improved maize varieties, in degraded soil fertility. farm machinery, and equipment.
Intervention Idea 2: Promoting growth of maize and soya bean
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Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners There is great variability in There are substantial opportunities for Food and Feed Support farmers to fully agronomic practices, and in increased maize and soya utilization Industry benefit from adopting particular, farmers' maize for feed mills. Currently, less than 10% Agro-vet agronomic practices such as husbandry differed markedly from of maize supplies go into the poultry Seed Suppliers crop rotation, intercropping, national recommendations for feed industry, although demand is crop protection, soil and plant population, agronomic much greater than this supply. Limited water management inputs and genotypes used. supply of both maize and soya for feed conservation farming, etc. Farmers regularly employed production has led to constraints in Increase awareness of practices that were not even the growth of the poultry industry, recommended input and officially recognised by the resulting in significant growth in agronomic management national research and extension imports of poultry and other meats for methods, promote services, such as thinning of maize consumption. Estimated demand for sustainable cropping systems for livestock fodder, growing the maize for poultry feed is projected to to reduce the prevalence of crop in association with trees for grow from 73,000 metric tons in 2010 mono-cropping, increase fodder, and relay cropping with to 118,100 metric tons by 2015. focus on integrated crop and finger millet, their priority being to pest management methods optimize overall output of the and make appropriate farming system rather than chemical inputs available for maximizing maize productivity. weed & pest management. Intervention Idea 3: Raise awareness of farmers to use organic matter to increase organic biomass in the soil The cultivation of maize resulted Soil health is the key to producing a Organic fertiliser Producers of compost Promoting compost, cover decline of soil fertility since maize good yield. Farmers have shown producing fertilisers lack crops/green manure crops, is heavy feeder. Various types of increased concern about the companies, AIC, capacity to produce crop rotation human activity decrease soil environmental and economic impacts Salt Trading more compost perennial forage crops organic matter contents and of traditional crop production that has Company, Agro- fertilisers and train zero or reduced tillage, biological activity. Severe soil stimulated interest in alternative vets farmers. agroforestry, the production erosion takes out the potential systems. There is a need to promote of high yielding varieties and
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Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners energy source for soil microbes, and maintain soil biological processes There are difficulties the return of crop residues resulting in the death of and minimize fossil fuel inputs in the in producing compost will help to maintain soil the microbial population and thus form of fertilizers, pesticides and fertiliser at mass scale organic matter at a of the soil itself. mechanical cultivation. because of fighting to satisfactory level. Promoting get more subsidies the use of effective Increasing the organic matter The demand for organic food has been from the government. microorganism (EM) is also content of soils or maintaining increasing by the day but the country’s Government may not necessary. good levels requires a sustained total commercial production of organic be able to provide effort that includes returning fertilisers is below one per cent. subsidy on compost organic materials to soils and Organic fertiliser producers have been fertilisers being sold rotations with high-residue crops producing just 0.73 per cent of the in the market. and deep- or dense-rooting crops. current requirement of around three It is especially difficult to raise the million metric tonnes. organic matter content of soils that are well aerated, such as coarse sands, and soils in warm- hot and arid regions because the added materials decompose rapidly. Soil organic matter levels can be maintained with less organic residue in fine textured soils in cold temperate and moist- wet regions with restricted aeration.
Intervention Idea 4: Promoting private soil testing services
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Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners Declining soil fertility especially in Appropriate use of composts (organic Organic fertiliser Supporting the introduction hills is a problem that affects or chemical) requires that farmers first producing of soil testing facilities by new agriculture as a whole in Nepal, know the existing levels of soil fertility. companies, AIC, private providers in specific not just maize. Indeed, because Government soil testing facilities have Salt Trading areas. maize is a relatively heavy user of limited access but the emergence of Company, Agro- soil nutrients, compared to other new soil testing kits offers the vets cereals, encouraging maize opportunity for quick and relatively production potentially runs the cheap testing services. These, however, risk of aggravating this issue. are almost unknown in the area.
Intervention Area 3: Promote the practice of appropriate post-harvest handling.
Background Description Potential Potential Potential opportunities partners limitation Intervention Idea 1: Promoting short-term storage arrangements for maize Most smallholder farmers lack Proper storage of maize is important for two DADO, Investment by private entrepreneurs of adequate post-harvest storage reasons. First, maize grain absorbs moisture Private storage bag produces, metal bin and handling capabilities that from air, which stimulates the growth of fungi Seed producers, Silos producers helps farmers result in substantial levels of and moulds, which in turn release toxins that Company getting better prices for their crops over a spoilage and loss of harvested make it unfit for consumption. Secondly, if longer period of time, which stimulates produce. farmers can store their excess produce for a production increases. Increase farmer short time of period, when the market is most awareness of and access to effective on- saturated, they can get a better price later on, farm storage, when there is more room in the market. While long-term storing of maize is expensive and
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Background Description Potential Potential Potential opportunities partners limitation requires special management, short-term storage is less demanding and more affordable. Intervention Idea 2: Increase access to post-harvest processing technologies Postharvest losses vary greatly A number of technologies in post-harvest Support to increase access to post- among production areas and mechanization (e.g. threshers, millers, etc.) have harvest processing equipment and seasons. As a product moves in been developed over the past decades. Many of technologies, increase farmer access to the postharvest chain, post- these have great potential to increase community-level storage facilities with harvest loss may occur from a productivity, reduce losses and improve income skilled personnel. number of causes, such of farmers. But the technologies are not scaled as improper handling or bio- up and remain in the hands of technology deterioration by originators and research centres. The microorganisms, insects, government should incentivize and motivate rodents or birds etc. entrepreneurs to produce, disseminate and popularize those technologies which can measurably improve the income of smallholder farmers.
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Intervention Area 4: Establish linkage between the maize producer in the mid hill region and the mainstream commercial market of maize.
Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners Intervention Idea 1: Promoting trade and marketing arrangements The trade of maize in Nepal is Trade in maize is largely localized Food and Lack of Food and feed industries are major user of relatively unimportant for within the districts in western Feed mills, marketing maize. Food and feed industry will have to human consumption, but districts and even imported in Agro-vets information, meet new and different needs from their important only for feeds for eastern districts. In the terai and inability to frame consumers. The food industry will require poultry and livestock. There is no highly accessible areas in the proper marketing support to meet the new challenges and any restriction importing maize central plans, not having opportunities. Food industry will demand from India. and western mid-hills, farmers proper that agriculture produces a wider range of with larger quantities of maize sell technical know- qualities in its products. The AIC, the government to traders at the farm gate while how, inability to Cost of production, fair trade concept, undertaking to trade agricultural those with smaller quantities adapt to the inputs, has not completely transport it to traders’ shops in changes in the withdrawn itself from the seed nearby trading centres. Most of business industry nor it has been the feed mills were imported environment supplying maize seeds maize from India. effectively.
There are many trade barriers, those includes import/export ban SPS requirements, duties imposed on boarder, changes in trade requirements which are ad-hoc and often not communicated on time.
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Intervention Area 5: Promote diversified uses of maize for commercial market.
Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners Intervention Idea 1: Raise awareness of consumers on the use of maize products Maize is the second major food staple Maize became more important TV, FM Radio, A strong public awareness in Nepal mostly eaten in different when Food and campaign to inform preparations. This proportion is higher demand for food by non-farming Feed Industry consumers is needed, in low-income groups. However, the groups increased. based on a sensory trend is changing and growing eating evaluation and the mass maize in urban areas in diverse One of the reasons maize is in high media, in particular on preparations. Raising awareness on demand as a food crop is its high radio in the local language. different varieties of maize in a real energy and nutritional value. It is circumstance is an issue, because of the rich in Vitamins A, C and E, several consumer preferences. essential minerals, and contains up to 9 percent protein. It is also rich in dietary fibre and carbohydrates which are a good source of energy. It has high demand on feed as well. Many of our daily diets contain maize either directly or indirectly. Production of meat, eggs and dairy products (like milk and yoghurt) would be difficult without maize, which is a hugely important ingredient in animal feed.
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Background Description Potential Potential limitation Potential opportunities partners
Intervention Idea 2: Facilitate to grow different variety of maize produced by the seed producer group/cooperatives Maize has different uses. There are There are a number of different Private seed There is a difficulty to Need of adequate different products of maize. Corn types of maize like field corn, companies, manage seed supply. demonstrations of new flakes, grit, maize rice, flour for bread popcorn, sweet corn, baby corn Food and Feed Production is affected by varieties and extension (roti and bakery), maize brew (beer, etc. Companies of abiotic and biotic support to increase local beer, roasted maize, green cob, stresses, poor soil fertility, farmers’ awareness. steamed maize, thickening agent, oil, Hybrids have played a very lack of access to key starch, glucose, syrup, ethanol etc. important role in the development inputs, low levels of Maize plant is also used as fodder for of private seed industries in the mechanization and poor livestock. country. post-harvest management.
5.4 Sustainability Analysis
For the future vision of a functional market system, who will do what function, and who will pay for it is a major consideration. The framework looks at the existing and potential future incentives and the capabilities of market actors. Based on the who does and who pays viewpoints, the sustainability analysis of the sector is given below.
Programme scenario Future Scenario Activities Who does? Who pays? Who will do? Who will pay? Seed suppliers support the provision and usage of quality seed to improve the productivity of maize Raising awareness to • Private seed companies and • NAMDP may • Private seed companies • Private seed companies and seed suppliers; and seed suppliers; replace local seed with seed suppliers; Farmers bear the cost Farmers groups and Farmers groups and improved variety of seed. groups and cooperatives partly. cooperatives cooperatives
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Programme scenario Future Scenario Activities Who does? Who pays? Who will do? Who will pay? Facilitation to improve the • NAMDP may • Private seed companies and • Private seed companies and • Private seed companies and quality of improved variety bear the cost seed suppliers. seed suppliers. seed suppliers. of seed. partly. • NAMDP may Encouraging farmers using • Private seed companies and • Private seed companies and • Private seed companies bear the cost hybrid variety of maize. seed suppliers. seed suppliers. partly. Promote the provision of information on cultivation technique and proper application of inputs Raising awareness on • Private sector (Food and feed • Private sector (Food and • NAMDP may • Private sector (Food and feed cultivation technique and industry, input companies and feed industry, input bear the cost industry, input companies and proper application of suppliers) companies and suppliers) partly. suppliers) inputs. • Farmers • NAMDP may • Private sector (Food and feed Promoting growth of maize • Private sector (Food and • Private sector (Food and feed bear the cost industry). and soya bean. feed industry). industry). partly. • Farmers • Agro-vets. Raising awareness to use • NAMDP may • Agro-vets. • Organic fertiliser production • Organic fertiliser production organic matter to increase bear the cost • Organic fertiliser production company. company. organic biomass. partly. company. • Farmers Field Schools (FFS). • Organic fertiliser production companies. • Local Resource Persons. • NAMDP may Promoting private soil • Private soil testing service • Farmers, Farmers groups and • Private soil testing service bear the cost testing services. providers. cooperatives. providers. partly.
Promote the practice of appropriate post-harvest handling
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Programme scenario Future Scenario Activities Who does? Who pays? Who will do? Who will pay? • Private sector metal bin Promoting short-term • NAMDP may producers, Improved Crop • Farmers, Farmers groups and storage arrangements for bear the cost • Private sector. Storage (PICS) bag selling cooperatives. maize. partly. company. Increasing access to post- • Agro machinery sells • NAMDP may • Agro machinery sells company. • Farmers, Farmers groups and harvest processing company. bear the cost • Food and feed industry cooperatives. technologies. • Food and feed industry. partly. Establish linkage between the maize producer in the mid hill region and the mainstream commercial market of maize • NAMDP may Promoting trade and • Food and feed industry. bear the cost • Food and feed industry. • Food and feed industry. marketing arrangements. partly. Promote diversified uses of maize for commercial market • NAMDP may Raising awareness on the • Food and feed industry. bear the cost • Food and feed industry. • Food and feed industry. use of maize products. partly. • NAMDP may • Food and feed industry Facilitating to grow • Food and feed industry. bear the cost • Food and feed industry. • Farmers, Farmers groups and different variety of maize. partly. cooperatives.
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Annexes
Annex 1. Released and registered open pollinated (OP) and hybrid (HB) varieties of maize in Nepal8
SN Varieties Year OP/HB Duration Yield Hills/Mountain Additional (days) (mt/ha s (H/M) recommended ) areas A Released 1 Khumal Pahelo 1965 OP 120-130 4.9 H 2 Rampur 1975 OP 110-115 4.4 H Terai, Inner Terai Composite and Besi 3 Arun 2 1981 OP 80-90 2.2 H Terai 4 Manakamana 1 1987 OP 120-130 4.0 H Terai: WS 5 Ganesh 2 1989 OP 150-180 3.5 M Terai and Inner Terai: WS 6 Rampur 2 1989 OP 105-110 4.0 Besi & Taar Terai and Inner Terai 7 Arun 1 1995 OP 90-100 4.0 H Western Terai 8 Ganesh 1 1997 OP 175 5.0 M 9 Manakamana 3 2002 OP 142 5.5 H ER, CR and WR: 1000-1700m 10 Deuti 2006 OP 130-135 5.7 H 11 Sitala 2006 OP 130-135 6.08 H 12 Manakamana 4 2008 OP 117 5.3 H East-West: less than 1600 m. 13 Posilo Makai 1 2008 OP 145-155 5.3 H East-West: less than 1600 m. 14 Manakamana 5 2010 OP 140-145 5.27 H East of Karnali 15 Manakamana 6 2010 OP 140-145 5.34 H East to Mid- Western 16 Khumal Hybrid 2014 HB 152 (WS) 9.08 H Rainy season (RS) 2 138 (SS) 8.5 17 KYM 23 2014 OP 68 (days to 2.5 H RS silking) 18 KYM 35 2014 OP 66 (days to 1.5 H CR or WR: 700- silking) 1400m 19 Resunga 2014 OP 127 5.2 H CR & WR: RS Composite 20 Arun 3 2015 OP 100 3.9 H MWR: SS 21 Arun 4 2015 OP 113-115 4.2 H MWR: SS 22 Arun 6 2015 OP 90 3.5 H MWR: SS B Registered
8 SQCC. 2072. http://sqcc.gov.np/en/
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1 Bayo 9681 2010 HB 90-110 6.5-8 H WR: RS 2 Rajkumar 2010 HB 100-110 8-9 H WR: RS and ET: WS 3 Nutan (KH 101) 2010 HB 90-92 6.5-8 H CR: RS and ET: WS 4 DKC 7074 2011 HB 85-95 6-8 H CH: RS and CT: WS 5 30 P 30 2011 HB 100-155 6-7 H CH: RS and CT: WS 6 30 B 30 2011 HB 105-120 8-9 H CH: RS and CT: WS 7 Bisko 940 2011 HB 135-140 7.13 H CT 8 C-1921 2011 HB 140-167 (WS) 5.14- H 105-110 (RS) 7.5 9 Godawari 989 2011 HB 105 7.36 H (Besi &Tar) ER or CR 10 Early 2 2011 HB 105 5.69 H (Besi &Tar) ER or CR 11 Gulmi 2 2014 OP 125 5.4 H Gulmi & Arghakhachi: 700- 1400 m Note: ER, Eastern Region; CR, Central-Region; WR, Western Region; SS, Summer Season; WS, Winter Season, and CT, Central Terai
Annex 2. List of seed importers in Nepal (SEAN, May 11, 2016)
SN Name Company District, Place 1. Upendra Sah Green Land Traders Jhapa, Birtamod 2. Kedar Baral Subani Krishi Bhandar Jhapa, Birtamod 3. Kamal Baral Mechi Agrovet Jhapa, Birtamod 4. Kishore Parajuli Purbeli Agro Trader Jhapa, Birtamod 5. Bilas Yadav PL Krishi Bhandar Jhapa, Damak 6. Basanta Neupane Babin Krishi Bhandar Jhapa, Damak 7. Padam Budhathoki Shekhara Krishi Bhandar Jhapa, Damak 8. Punya Prasad Bhattarai Bhattarai Agrovet Pharma Jhapa, Damak 9. Hari Prasad Bhattarai Dipika Krishi Kendra Morang, Biratnagar 10. Binod Shrestha Sai Ram Agro Traders Morang, Biratnagar 11. Manoj Goel Manoj International Morang, Biratnagar 12. Om Thapa Purbanchal Agro Traders Morang, Biratnagar 13. Yesonta Singh Koshi Agro Centre Morang, Biratnagar 14. Jaya Narayan Adhikari Munu Krishi Bhandar Morang 15. Gopal Basnet GH Agrovet Trader Morang 16. Dilip Karki Sagarmatha Agro International Morang 17. Kumar Nepal Semi Selli Agrovet Morang 18. Askar Ali Rosan Agro Trader Morang 19. Jhamak Rayamajhi Om Shanti Agro Trader Morang 20. Shushil Santhaliya Aananda Agro Traders Morang 21. Shushil Santhaliya Isha Agro Traders Morang 22. Mana Kumari Adhikari Birat Agricultural Business House Morang 23. Ram Pratap Yadav Bajaranja Agro Trader Sunsari, Duhabi 24. Surya Narayan Yadav Sagarmatha Agro Saptari
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25. Bal Govinda Das Pradip Beej Bhandar Saptari, Rajbiraj 26. Ram Krishna Das Khadhya Beej Bhandar Saptari-7 27. Turanti Das Turanti Beej Bhandar Saptari-9 28. Prabhu Shah Prabhu Khad Beej Bhandar Saptari-9 29. Sonai Dash Sonai Beej Bhandar Saptari-9 30. Surya Narayan Yadav New Sagarmatha Agrovet Saptari-9 31. Raj Kumar Mahato Daya Ram Agrovet Siraha, Golbazzar 32. Ramendra Yadav Sampad Biu Utpadan tatha Bikri Siraha Kendra 33. Arabinda Subedi Nepal Agro Centre Dhanusha, Janakpur 34. Ram Naresh Gupta Ankit Enterprises Sarlahi, Barhathawa 35. Manoj Shah Manoj Beej Bhandar Rautahat, Garuda 36. Bijaya Shah Kisan Beej Bhandar Rautahat, Garuda 37. Yogendra Ray Yadav Agrovet Concern Rautahat, Gaur 38. Ram Naresh Gupta Gupta Malkhad Pasal Rautahat, Gaur 39. Ram Naresh Gupta Gupta Beej Bhandar Rautahat, Gaur 40. Bidhyananda Jha Neha Agro Traders Bara, Kalaiya 41. Sunil Kumar Sah Arabinda Agro Bara, Kalaiya 42. Raja Sah Raj Beej Bhandar Bara, Kalaiya 43. Suman Kushahawa Kushwaha Beej Bhandar Bara, Jeetpur 44. Nanhen Khan Sahin Seed Centre Bara, Jeetpur 45. Rajeshwor Prasad New Nepal Beej Bhandar Bara, Kalaiya 46. Abadhesh Kumar Jha Neha Agro Traders Bara, Kalaiya 47. Chhote Lal Prasad Krishak Beej Bhandar Parsa, Birganj 48. Kedar Khadka East-West Nepal Parsa, Birganj 49. Vijaya Gupta Jaya Laxmi Seed Centre Parsa, Birganj 50. Bijaya Kumar Gupta Om Beej Bhandar Parsa, Birganj 51. Birendra Prasad Kalwar Shubha Beej Bhandar Parsa, Birganj 52. Bishwa Raj Baniya Pashupanchhi tatha Kheti Sewa Makawanpur, Hetauda 53. Mitra Raj Dawadi Dawadi Agrovet Centre Chitwan, Narayanghad 54. Saroj Sapkota Panchkhel Beej Bhandar Kavre, Panchkhal 55. Arun Lal Shrestha Annapurna Beej Bhandar Kathmandu, Kalimati 56. Basanta Chandra Gorkha Seeds Kathmandu, Kalanki Marahatta 57. Kiran Nimbus Kathmandu, Kalimati 58. Madhusudan Shrestha Kasthamandap Trade Point Kathmandu, Kalimati 59. Prahlad Prasad Timilsena Timilsena Seeds Kathmandu, Kalimati 60. Ram Krishna Tulsayan Jay Kisan Seed Kathmandu, Teku 61. Suresh Gurung Karma Groups Kathmandu, Swoyambhu 62. Nem Maharjan Nepal Seed Company Lalitpur, Nakkhu Dobato 63. Tanka Chaudhary National Agro Centre Lalitpur, Lagankhel 64. Birendra Yadav Universal Seed Company Rupandehi, Bhairahawa 65. Lalajee Siddhartha Agrovet Rupandehi, Bhairahawa
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Ek Narayan Paudel Siddhartha Agri Centre Dang 66. Babu Ram Baral Prithivi Agro Centre Dang, Tulsipur 67. Ek Narayan Paudel Siddhartha Agri Centre Dang, Ghorahi 68. Kamal Subedi Global Agro Trade Banke, Nepalganj 69. Umanath Dawadi Chitwan Agrovet Banke, Nepalganj 70. Radheshyam Gupta, Shashi Agrovet Banke, Nepalganj 71. Shreedhar Gyawali Trimurti Agro Centre Banke, Nepalganj Umanath Dawadi Chitawan Agrovet Centre Banke, Nepalganj 72. Tara Thapa Shining Star Agrovet Banke, Nepalganj 73. Lamsal Agro Traders Banke, Nepalganj 74. Ramesh Bahadur Shah Munal Agrovet Centre Banke, Nepalganj 75. Binod Tiwari Tiwari Krihi Bikas Farm Banke, Nepalganj 76. Ram Prasad Acharya Acharya Agrovet Centre Bardiya, Gulariya 77. Puni Ram Chaudhari Debit Agrovet Centre Kanchanpur, Krishnapur 78. Laxmi Kant Dhakal Krishak Sahayog Kendra Kailali, Dhangadhi 79. Bishnu Raj Burlakoti Kisan Agrovet Centre Kailali, Dhangadhi 80. Bhupendra Thapa Pet Vet Centre Kailali, Dhangadhi 81. Kabi Raj Bhatta Basuling Agrovet Centre Kailali, Attariya 82. Hari Lal Sapkota Dinesh Brother's Agrovet Centre Kailali, Sukhad 83. Tulsi Ram Paudel Bageshowri Agro Farm Kailali, Tikapur 84. Puni Ram Chaudhari Debit Agrovet Centre Kanchanpur, Krishnapur 85. Pushpa Raj Bhatta Kisan Agro Centre Kanchanpur,Mahendranagar 86. Kamal Thapa Pragati Agrovet Kanchanpur, Mahendranagar 87. Sundar Gautam Sammi Agrovet Centre Kanchanpur, Mahendranagar 88. Dhani Ram Rana Rana Agro Centre Kanchanpur, Tribhuvan Basti 89. Sarita Gautam New Sarita Gautam Kanchanpur, Belauri
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Annex 3. List of Agro-vets for seed and/or pesticide trading in different NAMDP districts9
SN Name of the traders Address License Contact No. No. A Khotang 1 Himalaya Agrovet Centre Khotang Bazar-9 036-420233 2 Bajimaya Agrovet & Seed Centre Diktel-4 3 Saiju Krishi Samagri Bhandar Diktel-2 4 Saurabh Agrovet Centre Diktel-1 5 Krishi Samagri Bhandar Diktel-1 6 Joshi Agrovet Centre Diktel-1 7 Ganga Agrovet Centre Diktel-1 8 Kisan Agrovet Centre Khotang Bazar-9 B Okhaldhunga 1 Shrestha Agrovet Centre Okhaldhunga-6 4514 2 Bebisar Agrovet Centre Okhaldhunga-5 4515 3 Gurung Agrovet Centre Salleri-1 4161 4 Karki Agrovet Concern Okhaldhunga-7 4162 5 Shrestha Agrovet Taluwa-6 7736 6 Karki Agrovet Concern Baruneshwor-3 7635 7 Sharada Agrovet Pokhare-8 9954 8 Pariwartan Agrovet Ragaji-2 9952 9 Shangrila Agrovet 9950 10 Sagarmatha Agrovet Centre Ketuke-4 9951 11 Shrestha Agrovet Si. Na. Pa.-5 9953 12 Krishi Agrovet Manebhyanjyang-4 9158 13 Baniya Agrovet Kuntadevi-4 8132* 14 Dhamala Agrovet Mulkharka-8 8423 15 Sagarmatha Agrovet Fetiguth-3 8135 16 Kabita Agrovet Moli-1 7934 17 Anjana Agrovet Pokhare-1 7933 18 Ghising Agrovet Khijiphalate-3 7932 19 Rumja Agrovet Rumjatar-12 7926 * = Certificate No. (without License) C Surkhet 1 Bijaya Agrovet Centre Birendranagar -6 5128 083-521323 2 Pariwartan Agrovet Centre Birendranagar -6 3095 3 Bulbule Agrovet Centre Birendranagar -6 4003 083-521138 4 Sris Agrovet Centre Birendranagar -6 5303, 083-522484 5851 5 Shital Agrovet Trading Centre Birendranagar -6 5132 083-520778
9 DADOs. 2070/71. Annual Agricultural Development Programme and Statistical Book. District Agricultural Development Offices (DADOs), Okhaldhunga, Khotang, Surkhet, Jajarkot, Dailekh and Kalikot, Nepal.
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6 Prahlad Pangali Agrovet Centre Birendranagar -6 5302 083-523936 7 Kiran Agrovet Centre Maintada -3 8 Bihani Agrovet Centre Maintada-3 083- 9 Jaya Krishna Agrovet Centre Maintada-3 10 Gnwali Agropharma Ramghat-5 5131 11 Gnwali Agrovet Centre Ramghat-5 5130 12 Krishak Agrovet Centre Chhinchu-7 5129 9848015668 13 Bishal Agrovet Centre Chhinchu-7 5339 083-540137 14 Paudel Agrovet Centre Chhinchu-7 5338 083-540121 15 Bhattarai Agrovet Centre Birendranagar-6 3592 083-521008 16 Paudel Agrovet Centre Malarani-7 1942 17 Govinda Agrovet Centre Malarani-7 2961 18 Amrit Agovet Centre Sahare-8 2962 19 Om Agrovet Centre Uttarganga-8 5526 083-524118 20 Birendra Agrovet Centre Bi.Na.Na.Pa.-1 21 Usha Agrovet Bi.Na.Na.Pa.-6 5132 083-520778 22 Pradip Agrovet Centre Dhumkhare-9 23 Om Agrovet Centre Satakhani-3 24 Samjhana Agrovet Centre Mehalkuna-9 2963 25 Dipak Agrovet Centre Kunathari-1 26 Aryal Agrovet Centre Bi.Na.Na.Pa.-9 27 Dilip Agrovet Centre Satakhani-7 28 Giri Agrovet Centre Babiyachour-2 29 Milan Vet Centre Gumi-2 30 Bastola Krishi Bikas Pharma Bidhyapur-4 31 Dipak Agrovet Centre Kunathari-4 32 Birendra Agrovet Centre Gutu-8 33 Lakhan Agrovet Centre Gutu-8 34 Dibya Agrovet Centre Malarani-7 35 Srijana Agrovet Centre Bi.Na.Na.Pa.-2 36 Srijana Agrovet Centre Garpan-1 37 Saraj Agrovet Centre Jarbuta-4 38 Adhikari Agrovet Centre Salkot-1 39 Tiwari Agrovet Centre Bi.Na.Na.Pa.-3 40 Shahi Krishi Beej Bhandar Babiyachour-2 41 Om Agrovet Centre Latikoili-2 42 Giri Agrovet Centre Matela 43 Basanta Agrovet Centre Sahare-8 44 Ashish Agrovet Centre Guto-5 D Jajarkot 1 Ganesh Agrovet Jagatipur-9 2 Prime and Prince Agrovet Centre Vur-7, Fera 3 Kisan Agrovet Khalanga-2, Thanti
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4 KP Agrovet Khalanga-3, Gairekhali 5 Kalimati Agrovet Lahan-6, Kalimati 6 Bheri Rapti Agrovet Centre Dhime-4, Gharanga Note: In Jajarkot only two Agrovets are registered officially, however, they have not mentioned their names in the report. E Dailekh (Chemical Fertilizer Traders) 1 Devendra Bahadur Budha Na.Na.Pa.-1, Dailekh Bazar 2 Narayan Pd. Sharma Na.Na.Pa.-6, Ganesh Chowk 3 Ram Pd. Sharma Na.Na.Pa.-6, Dailekh Bazar 4 Ganesh Pd. Sharma Na.Na.Pa.-6, Dailekh Bazar 5 Surya Bdr. Thapa Na.Na.Pa.-6, Ganesh Chowk 6 Shobha Thapa Dullu-6, Dullu Bazar 7 Bhakta Bdr. Shahi Jambakandh-2, Lainchour 8 Thir Bahadur Khadka Lyatibindrasaini-6 9 Nawajyoti Krishi Upaj Bazar Baraha-1 Byabasthapan Samiti 10 Kalika Suppliers Lakandra-6 11 Prabal Khadhya tatha Khudra Pasal Jambhukandh-4 12 Bhawani Store and Order Suppliers Bisala-3
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Annex 4 Annex 4.1. Area (ha) and production (mt) of maize in Cluster 1 under Mid-Hill Mega Maize Production Programme in 2070/71 and 2071/72 (CDD, 2070/71 and 2071/72) Khotang Okhaldhunga Ramechhap Production Production Production S Area (ha) (mt) Area (ha) (mt) Area (ha) (mt) N Variety 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 1 Manakamana-3 375 375 835 835 390 390 975 975 2 Ganesh -1 125 125 250 250 20 20 50 50 155.2 155.2 388 388 3 Arun 2 4 4 10 10 143.4 143.4 286.8 286.8 4 Rampur Composite 66 66 165 165 5 Manakamana-4 123 123 307 307 Deuti/Manakamana 6 -3 230.6 230.6 577.3 577.3 7 Ganesh-1/ Arun-2 10 10 17.5 17.5 1269. 1269. Total 500 500 1085 1085 603 603 1507 1507 539.2 539.2 6 6
Annex 4.2. Area (ha) and production (mt) of maize in Cluster 2 under Mid-Hill Mega Maize Production Programme in 2070/71 and 2071/72 (CDD, 2070/71 and 2071/72) Jajarkot Dailekh Surkhet Aachham Production Production Production Production S Area (ha) (mt) Area (ha) (mt) Area (ha) (mt) Area (ha) (mt) N Variety 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 2070/71 2071/72 Manakaman 1 a-3 115 115 270 270 209 209 627 627 300 300 750 750 2 Arun-2 32 32 79 79 5 5 10 10 Rampur 3 Composite 15 15 30 30 86 86 258 258 4 Posilo 80 80 165 165 18 18 54 54
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5 Deuti 530 530 1030 1030 121 121 363 363 400 400 1000 1000 6 Arun-1 10 10 15 15 7 Unknown-1 400 600 1000 0 Total 400 600 1000 0 750 750 1510 1510 466 466 1381 1381 705 705 1760 1760
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