Constraints of Horticulture Development in Nepal

1. Poverty

• Majority of the people belongs to rural community with low economic status
• Comparatively horticultural crops needs intensive care and management involving heavy investment
• High initial investment cannot be afford by the poor people
• Agriculture development bank and other local cooperatives provide loan to the farmers but such credit investment and interest is not adequate

2. Small land holding and fragmentation of land

• The average land holding size per family is only 1.84 ha
• Fruit trees require high spacing as compare to other crops, there fore majority of people cannot show interest
• Agricultural land is fragmented for residental purposes randomly in terai, inner terai of the country
• Parents owned land is fragmented and distributed to their sons and daughter which also become problems in commercial horticulture

3. Infrastructure problems

• Majority of highway are seasonal in rural areas and are muddy in condition

• Lack storage facilities (cold storage)
• Market problems
• Lack of advancement in farm mechanization

4. Policy constraints

• Problems in price fixation mechanism of horticulture produce
• Low subsidy in inputs of horticulture crops
• Lack of appropriate insurance policy
• Complex and unnecessary procedure to obtain loan and credits from banking institutions and cooperatives

5. Timely unavailability of labors
6. Geographical situations
7. Climatic misfortunes
8. Low numbers of technical manpower
9. Lack of proper and timely availability of inputs and plant protection measures
10. Less attraction of people especially young people towards horticulture crop farming
11. Problems in teaching research and extension