Boosting Cash Crop Production
More Emphasis Needed

By Khilendra Basnyat

THE highest percentage of the people is still engaged in agriculture in Nepal. This sector comprises about sixty-one per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The low GDP growth or poor agricultural product is the outcome of poor agricultural performance.

The agricultural development programme and its implementation, which have so much to do with Nepal’s overall development process, suffer even today from diverse disadvantages.

In Nepal agriculture is practiced mostly in terraced slopes, valleys and riverbanks. The production on terraces is mainly based on rain-fed conditions and is on a declining trend due to the loss of topsoil every year. This has jeopardised the country to maintain environmentally sustainable agricultural productivity from limited land resources. In addition, this has led to the expansion of cultivation on steep slopes and marginal land including forestland.

In fact, large-scale agricultural productions are essential to compete in the international market. However, Nepal does not possess vast agricultural land for such a production. Despite, this, nature has favoured Nepal for producing cash crops. For this purpose, it is necessary to exploit various climatic conditions at different altitudes bestowed by nature.

The share of cash crops in Nepal’s agricultural production is about twenty-five per cent. The cash crops occupy about ten per cent of the cropped area. The area under cash crop increased at an annual rate of 2.23 per cent from 1961-1962 to 1980-1981.

The tarai constitutes different agricultural systems. Because of the comparatively heavy rainfall, double and sometimes triple cropping is possible. In the eastern tarai, the combination of rich alluvial soil and rainfall, which exceed two hundred millimeter, makes possible the cultivation of jute, sugarcane and tobacco. These are the main cash crops which are cultivated in about twenty-seven thousand, seven thousand and two thousand hectares, respectively. Good access to transportation and market in Nepal enables the export of cash crops.

About half of the jute produced in Nepal is processed in our jute mills, the rest being exported to India.

Most of the sugarcane produced is transported to Indian sugar mills located along the border. Before the establishment of the Janakpur Cigarette Factory, the lion’s share of the tobacco crop was also sold to Indian cigarette factories.

Oilseed, with an estimated area of ninety thousand hectares, is also an important commercial crop in the tarai and to some extent in the inner tarai as well. Some sugarcane and oilseed are also grown in the inner tarai, chiefly for local consumption.

In the past few years, the tobacco and potato yields declined, and the jute yield remained almost constant. In general, the yield of cash crops was better than for cereal crops.

In Nepal, tea plantation is also gaining popularity over the years. This is because the tea industry showed a positive performance during all the plans under consideration. On the eastern tarai, there are bright prospects for tea plantation.

Expansion of tea plantation in feasible areas and naked hills of the Eastern Development Region under the guidance of the Tea Development Corporation took place only after the mid-1970s. The private sector came into this business about four decades ago when private parties were provided loans at a low rate of interest of eight per cent. The small landholders took part in this business only in the 1980s.

Pondering over the bright prospects of tea plantation in Nepal, perhaps, the government in 2056 B.S. brought the National Tea Policy which aims at extending tea plantation to over forty thousand hectares within five years and increasing the annual production to more than sixteen million kilograms within a decade. Although the target appears ambitious, it is natural to be hopeful for getting substantial achievement within the specified time.

Since the past few years coffee cultivation has also been gaining ground in our country. Apart from Gulmi and Arghakhanchi districts, Sindhupalchowk district is being planted with coffee plants. It is obvious for the concerned authorities to identify more districts and areas where coffee cultivation can be done. By doing so, not only would the farmers be enabled to raise their social and economic status by taking to coffee cultivation but the nation can ever export this product to strengthen the economy.

In addition, to the above-mentioned cash crops, cotton, mustard, linseed, ginger large cardamom and spices are also cultivated in Nepal. These crops cultivation, if expanded well, can contribute to the nation’s economy.

In reality, Nepal has a comparative advantage in the production of these crops, and the input has increased during the past few years. Our oilseed, jute, tea etc, are exported. The changes in cropping pattern depict a shift in favour of high value cash crops.

Notwithstanding the fact that Nepal is an agrarian country with the highest percentage of people relying on agriculture for their survival, the sector has not delivered the products as desired. It is because farmers mostly grow cereal crops.

It is generally believed that investment on adequate money in agricultural development is not justifiable. However, this illogical notion can be changed by producing high value cash crops for domestic or international market.

In order to benefit from agriculture, Nepal’s agricultural system should undergo a palpable change in future. The main motivating factor for this change can be a good marketing system for a number of consumers within and outside the country.

Any increase in the income level of urban residents coupled with better transportation facilities can provide the producers with various opportunities. Consequently, small farms previously operating on subsistence scale will be converted into commercial entities and function with the demand and supply mechanism of the market.

It is evident that Nepalese cash crops entreprenuers are unable to export to a large number of foreign markets because of high costs of production, inadequate credit facilities, tariff barrier, transportation problems and absence of knowledge of market requirements. Actually, these problems should be reduced gradually.

The government will implement the twenty-year Agricultural Plan which will promote high value cash crops and small agricultural enterprises in the coming years.

No doubt, boosting the export of cash crops is essential to earn foreign exchange that is needed by the country to implement national development plans and programmes. Therefore, it is indispensable to place more emphasis on cash crops production in the years to come.

Pioneer Social Leader Of Nepal

By Asha Ram Shakya

IT was on this very day 23rd Magh 2057 B.S. last year that Daya Bir Singh Kansakar left this world after an era of selfless services for the people of Nepal suffering from physical illness and other social problems like education for the females, taking care of the orphans and poor, and destitute.

We have to remember that the life of a man is a very rare gift of nature or to be precise with the spiritual consciousness, it is the gift for us from the good deeds that we had done in our previous lives.

The life of a man is best utilised, as Lord Buddha says, when we realise the importance and value of our life. Life as such, is a source of the assets to oneself and to the world if we could realise as to how we must use it for the good of oneself and others. Late Daya Bir Singh Kansakar had presented his own life to the people of Nepal as a life of dedication for the poor people, the orphans, the women in labour troubles and to the general people in times of serious epidemics of disease which were very frequent in those days some sixty years ago.

During the family rule of the Ranas in Nepal there were no adequate hospital facilities and medical services in times of need. The epidemics of cholera, small pox, measles and typhoid were very frequent specially during summer, and lots of people used to die due to the lack of medical facilities even in hospitals.

A man educated only up to the eighth standard and born in the Buddhist family of the Kansakars had set up records in establishing a social, philanthropic and non-profit making organisation like the Paropakar Organisation with its exemplary services in the fields of providing free and voluntary medical services to the patients poor and rich alike.

In 2000 B.S. there was a very serious widespread cholera epidemic in the Kathmandu Valley affecting almost all the towns and its adjoining villages and claiming thousands of lives. It so happened that in a family of Kathmandu the entire members except one six year old boy had died of cholera. Some kind local people brought the surviving boy to Daya Bir Singh Kansakar for saving his life. Kansakar accepted the boy and put best possible effort to save the life of the boy ad he was successful too. This incident led him to undertake the starting of a voluntary organisation to provide medical and other required facilities to the people during the time of epidemics. In co-operation with his friends he sought the permission from the government to run this Paropakar Organisation. The Ranas though hesitant to give permission to run such private social organisations were compelled to give permission as it was purely a voluntary and philanthropic organisation.

The Paropakar Organisation, later with its various wings of service like the Paropakar Ambulance Services, the Paropakar maternity Services, the Paropakar Orphanage Services, the educational services with its Paropakar Adarsha High School has been rendering services to the people. It has also opened 175 free medical centres and Paropakar Dispensaries in different districts of Nepal thus catering the most important medical services to the people.

Besides, it was Daya Bir Singh Kansakar who had donated blood to a patient through direct transfusion who otherwise, according to the then Superintendent of Bir Hospital Dr. Dev Brata Das Gupta, would have no chance of survival. Thus Daya Bir Singh Kansakar was the first blood donor of Nepal. In those days people were not prepared to donate blood even to the near the dear ones by the members of the family concerned. It was in the year 2000 B.S.

Daya Bir Singh Kansakar had dedicated the whole of his life to the services of the poor and the needy people. The opening of free medical centres and dispensaries and the establishment of the Paropakar Orphanage with a capacity of keeping 50 orphans and the establishment of the Paropakar Shree Panch Indra Rajya Laxmi Devi Maternity Hospital are the most notable milestones and landmarks of social services in Nepal run purely on voluntary basis during the century old Rana regime. The bold and untiring effort of Daya Bir Singh Kansakar in initiating the historical and humanitarian services led to open the floodgate of the democratic consciousness on the part of the Nepalese people and finally led to the opening of a new era of democracy.

Daya Bir Singh and his close friends and the volunteers of the Paropakar Organisation deserve kudos and the services rendered to the people must be recorded in the golden letters in the annals of the social, political and the spiritual history of Nepal. As a result of the most notable initiatives taken by Daya Bir Singh Kansakar the vista for hundreds of non-governmental social organisations in Nepal, some with foreign aid and some without it as the Paropakar Organisation have been opened.

Today we appreciate with hearty feelings of gratitude that we are remembership the invaluable services rendered by the Paropakar Organisation under the stewardship of Late Daya Bir Singh Kansakar.

Our memory is very short but those personalities who had dedicated their life in the services of the country and it’s people are always remembered. Their selfless services have inspired us to do something by way of continuing the works started by them and it is our duty to give continuity to their good deeds.

At the moment the Paropakar Organisation is struggling to continue these services as times have changed and the numbers of such social organisations too have been growing rapidly but Paropakar through it’s very hard struggle will keep continuing it’s services as usual.

Finally, on this memorable day of the passing away of the renowned pioneer social leader like Daya Bir Singh Kansakar we have to make a solemn pledge to move on the foot steps of the eternally shining personality in rendering the best of services we have for the poor and the needy. The merit thus earned will help the departed soul to rest in peace.

Marriage Affairs Of The "Red"

BY RRS

MARRIAGE is a legal prostitution, says a renowned thinker. However, our ethical values can hardly comply with this controversial view of marriage. The perception of sex and marriage differs from culture to culture. The West and the East may agree on many issues but not on this.

Here what strikes this scribe is an interesting or odd act of a Nepalese Left group in handling marriage affairs. The whole scene reveals only one thing: Love, sex and marriage are not restricted to any rigid ethical value. Comrade ultimately followed the Cupid not Marx. He dragged Marx to justify Freud.

Mohan Bikram Singh, general secretary of CPN-Masal recently knotted nuptial ties with Durga Paudel, his long time sweetheart within the party. The issue raised an uproar in the party. The point of disagreement was the vast age difference between the couple: Singh, over 60 and Durga, 30. So the disgruntled comrades united to unseat him and did what they intended.

For a moment Singh remained silence and did not want to strike back at his outraged fellows. However, Singh was not silent for a long time. As a pundit of Marxism theory, he interpreted the matter in such way that he succeeded in the number game to overturn the decision. In a surprise move, the party, with a majority of vote re-instated him as general secretary.

The whole affair appears interesting because the communists, who demand austere moral values in the matter of sex and marriage came out to the open, to challenge them. Going back to the marriage and love affairs of the world communist leaders, a mixed picture is found.

Communist theoretician Vladimir Lenin was very harsh in the matter. He told his Bolshevik cadres to suppress their sexual urge for the cause of revolution in Russia. Stalin was blamed to be hard-hearted and unemotional towards women. Never-theless, subsequent historians indicated that Stalin had fallen in love with a woman adding bitterness to his conjugal life. Contrary to the expectation of many, his wife committed suicide.

Chairman Mao had three wives. His first wife was killed by the then government for her active involvement in Chinese Communist Party. The third was a famous Chinese actress towards whom old Mao was attracted after watching her impressive theatre performance. She was beautiful and won Mao’s heart. But later she led an infamous gang of four in the party and was jailed for her role in Cultural Revolution. Regretfully, Mao’s sweetheart faced pitiable death in jail.

Coming back to the marriage affair of the Nepalese communist, there are some other pictures. They have used love and marriage to extend their party influences in the nook and corner of the country. This is the reason that many top level UML leaders prefered inter caste marriage. They opted for the Newar girls of Kathmandu Valley as their life partners who provided them with shelters at their homes in the rainy days of underground period.

This all shows the changing attitude among Nepalese red guys towards marriage. However, you may be perplexed when you discover more radical (grotesque?) news of the Maoist camp. The reports have it that they were told to marry their respective counterparts within the party. One report that hit the newsstand some months ago was that the police recovered many bags of condoms in the raid. So what do you deduce from this? Have comrades a made a big leap in matrimony?