- Natural obstacles
a) Over-dependence of weather conditions: Cultivators still depend on the flow of monsoon.
b) Geographical situation: Fragile hills and mountains result in excessive soil erosion which causes low productivity.
2. Technical obstacles
a) Irrigation facility
- Only 32% (973722ha) of the total cultivated land is under irrigation up to 2001/2002. Rest of the land has to depend upon the monsoon. There in no insured and regular supply of water in the field.
- Lack of good water management and distribution system.
b) Use of chemical fertilizers: Consumption of fertilizer is low (31 kg/ha) in Nepal compared to other countries. i.e. china 282 kg/ha, India 73 kg/ha (Source APP 1995).
Problems of supply side
- Unable to distribute fertilizer in time
- Limited research
- Removal of subsidy in fertilizer
- Limited import than requirement
- High level of corruption
- Poor quality of fertilizers
Problems in demand side
- Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizer
- High cost
- Poor information system
- Small size of land holding, substance farming
- Unavailability of fertilizers in required place and time.
c) Ineffective plant protection measures: Heavy loss of cereal as well as Horticulture crops due to pest(15-20 %) (Mainly due to insects and diseases)
Problem in supply side
- Unavailability (poor supply) of plant protection materials
- Ineffective and uneven distribution systems
- Poor extension system
Problems of demand side
- Indiscriminate use
- Indiscriminate use
- Poor information
d) Use of improved verities of seeds:
Problem in supply side
- Short supply of improved verities of seeds
- Uneven distribution system
- Poor extension system
- Poor quality of seeds having low germinating percentage
Problems in demand side
- Reluctant to use high yielding verities
- Unavailability in right time in right place
- Higher price of the seeds
- Poor information system
- Low use because of the problems of getting irrigation facilities, fertilizers and other inputs.
- 83 varieties of different crops have been released after the establishment of NARC
e) Use of improved tools and Equipment or farm mechanization: In Nepal level of use of improved machines/equipment/ implements is very low.
Problems in supply side
- Different to supply and use of improved tools due to geographical situation
- Because of labor-intensive farming there is low demand for improved equipment ad machines
- Small size of economy and high cost of production
Problems in demand side
- Expensive tools and low purchasing power of the farmers
- Unavailability in time and place
- Small size of land holding to use improved machines
- Low quality of tools
- Economic obstacles
a) Labour force participation in agriculture: Due to limited cultivable land and low industrialization more labour is increasing in this sector comparatively.
b) Agricultural credit: Medium and small sized farmers have lagged behind in investment on capital. Also, Nepalese farmers have low purchasing capacity.
Problem in supply side
- Very difficult to collect loan from the farmers in time. It has resulted into very low recovery rate rather investing it in the demanded scheme/
- Lack of sufficient financial resources
Problems in demand side
- Difficult and time-consuming official procedure to borrow even a small amount of loan from the institutional sources.
- In many cases, require informal/ officials processes
- Ultimately availability of loan
- Through the interest rate is lower the corruption charge makes it higher cost utilizing institutional loan.
- Structural and institutional obstacles
a) small size of land holding: More than 2/3 of the farmers have less than one hectare i.e. 0.96 ha is average holding size (in 1991/92) Population pressure on land is increasing and land suitable for agriculture is very limited.
b) Fragmentation of holdings: It ultimately causes decrease in size of holding in which there is problems is use of labor inputs such as fertilizers, irrigation facilities, use of improved tools etc.
c) Land tenure system (Raikar, Guthi & Kipat): Lack of ownership on land in many places has tended to limit the scope for expansion and wide spread use of improved techniques as well as progressive development of rural credit and marketing institutions.
d) Increased use of marginal land under cultivation: Despite having very limited land suitable for agriculture, the land under crop cultivation is increasing mainly in the marginal land which is unproductive.
- Administrative or bureaucratic obstacles
a) Experience of the administration in agriculture development planning: In spite of planned efforts there is dismal performance of agricultural sector in Nepal due to ineffective implementation and monitoring evaluation mechanism.
b) Ineffective management of capital resources: Although large investment has made for the development of agricultural sector in the past, ineffective management and improver utilization of government resources has turned into low level of productivity in the country.
c) Ineffective mobilization of technical manpower: Due course of time, the number of qualified manpower in the country has been increasing. Despite this fact, the extension of improved packages of practices still facing problems and hasn’t been able to induce agricultural productivity as expanded.
- Socio-cultural obstacles
a) Conservative outlook of the farmers: Low level of education and illiterate farmers in rural areas have conservation outlook for the adoption of new technology and they are reluctant to change their conventional farming system.
b) b) Ineffectiveness of the farmers group and organization: Although there are many farmers groups or associations for creating the welfare of the farmers, they haven’t been successful in making farmers realize their roles in for increasing agricultural production.
c) Complexity in farming system: Although diversification in activities in very god for minimization the risks, it is difficult to practice commercialized agriculture.
d) Inadequate focus on role of gender in Agriculture: Although the gender role has been emphasized recently, females were not recognized in the past.
