Basic Issues of Mountain Agriculture

a) Population dynamics:

• Demand has been increasing rapidly due to the unprecedented growth in mountain population and that is a threat to all efforts that render mountain agriculture sustainable.
• If the current growth rate continues, most of the areas of the Hindu-Kush region will easily double the population in the next few years which will lead to an increase in the pressure on natural resources and the result is that the sustainability of mountain agriculture breaks.

b) Macro-economic policies:

• These refer to the policies particularly relating to investment and resource transfer dynamics.
• It is further described under the following two headings:

I)Use of resources:

• The goal of microeconomic policies in the mountain areas has been directed towards the extraction of mountain resources largely for use in non-mountain hinterland in urban areas.
• The additional shorter consideration has been revenue maximization.
• The phenomenal growth in demand for mountain resources induced by distant marketsignalsl with the complete disregard for resource use intensification questions in the fragile mountain ecosystem can be attributed to the above policies.

II) Investment level: The structure of investment and level of resource allocation are the two factors that determine the pace and process of transformation in mountain areas.

• Overhead costs of operation are too high in the mountains.
• The implications of this factor are more serious for mountain areas that do not have a reach in non-hinter land for resource mobilization as in the case of Nepal.

c) Infrastructural development:

• Investment should be made in infrastructure development like roads, energy, irrigation, etc. The mountain agriculture situation in Nepal is lagging miles behind that of developed countries due to inadequate infrastructure.
• Moreover, the Nepalese landscape is more aggressive than any other mountain. So construction works are not so easy.
• Fragile mountain ecology and steepness of the slope hinder the infrastructure development process of the country. Such geographical obstacles also make infrastructure development very costly.

d) Institutional imperatives for mountain resource management:

• The involvement of local people in identifying the components of local development projects and the means and mechanisms to implement them is efficient.
• The people’s better understanding of their resource base and environment institutional strength and self-help devices are responsible for this.
• Local involvement would also facilitate the people’s access to and command over local resources.
• Advocacy for mountain people and mountain causes like local concerns, resource security equity, and gender perspectives can be more effective through the use of local institutions.

e) Science and technology:

• The central focus of science and technology for mountains has to be on mountain specificities as a source of constraints and opportunities that can be managed or harnessed through modern science and technology.

Approaches would involve:

• Combining resource-centered and crop-centered technology to achieve higher productivity without degradation of resources.
• The blending of a traditional system to a modern system.
• Reformulating global issues concerning science and technology.
• Protecting and harnessing the mountain resources.
• Focus on wider adaptability of technology.

Mountain specificities/ inter-linkage/ imperatives

The important conditions characterizing mountain areas which are operational purposes, and separate, mountain habitats from other areas are called mountain specificities.