Main farming systems

• Farming systems are the combination of different farm enterprises to which the farmer allocates his resources according to his desire preference and resources available.
• In Nepal, farming system has been crafted by factors like physiographic, climatic, social, cultural, economic and landholding size.
• Mixed farming system is the most dominant one owing to subsistence nature of agriculture.
• It blends all basic enterprises of farming system such as cereals, legumes, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, flowers, bee keeping, sericulture, fishery, poultry, livestock etc.
• The average landholding size is 0.8 ha. These are fragmented and widely scattered.
• In general, crop production dominates farming systems and contributes about 75% of the agricultural output.

Major components of farming system are:

a) Crops

b) Livestock

c) Forestry

d) Other enterprises (poultry, livestock, fishery, bee keeping etc.)

e) Farm Household

f) Farms (environment including climatic, edaphic, physiographic and biotic components)

In all, there are three types of farming systems in Nepal as described below:

1. Hill and valley farming system:

Hills occupy 42 percent of the land area of the country. This region includes valleys and terraced slopes in hills. It has low land to man ratio as compared to Terai. It has poor and difficult to access. The soils are very fertile with high organic matter content. Broadly, the hill comprises two land types, Khet and Bari (un-irrigated upland) lands.

Khet land refers to lowland which is bonded and can be flooded to grow rice. Khet land has better production potential than Bari land. In Bari land, maize based cropping pattern is popular. Finger millet is often relayed with maize. In khet land, rice-based pattern dominates. Many types of vegetable and fruits can be grown together with cereals and pulses. Livestock and forestry are the important components of crop husbandry mainly for obtaining milk, draft power, manure and fodder. It has high scope for agricultural development specially those of fruits and vegetables.

2. Terai farming system:

This region is a fertile Gangetic plain land. It has easy access. It occupies 14 percent of total land area of the country. It has the most potential land where the staple food crops such as rice, wheat and maize are grown. Cereals are also staple foods of Nepalese people. Hence, this region is considered the “bread basket” of Nepal. The important cash crops grown in this area include vegetables, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane, tobacco, jute and potato.

In addition, several tropical fruits such as mango, litchi, jack fruit, pineapple, guava, banana etc are also grown. Buffalo, cow, goat, pig, poultry, fishery and vegetables are also integrated with cereal crop cultivation. Forests are also a very important component of the farming system.

3. Mountain farming system:

This region is infertile and has a poor assess. The farming here is very difficult. The buckwheat, potato is commonly grown with some wild grains like chino as well. The yak, nak, sheep can be seen.