Nepal is richly endowed with numerous agricultural crops and plants. The variation in temporal, altitudinal, topographical and aspects has made agricultural such biodiversity possible (Shrestha, 2007). Hence, Nepal is a safe heaven on earth for many plant and crop species even in the events of disasters of global warming in this planet. The agro-biodiversity in the country is so immense that this needs a time series study of ten to twenty years to enumerate all the variations causal element and assessments of results. It is mainly because the cultivation, gathering from the forests, food habits and consumption vary not only by ecological belts, hamlets and ethnicity but is also due to variations with events of disasters especially during the droughts. People found to have invented and adopted consuming and growing several kinds of food items to cope with such events which are cyclical (Shrestha, 2004). About 21% (3.2 million hectares) of the total land area of Nepal is used for cultivation and the principal crops are rice (45%), maize (20%), wheat (18%),millet (5%) and potatoes (3%), followed by sugarcane, jute, cotton, tea, barley, legumes, vegetables and fruits. Crops such as rice, rice bean, egg plant, buckwheat, soybean, foxtail millet, citrus, and mango have high genetic diversity relative to other food crops. Crop species in Nepal owe their variability to the presence of about 120 wild relatives of the commonly cultivated food plants and their proximity to cultivated areas that have been listed 60 food species (fruit, vegetables, legumes) and 54 wild relatives of food plants. Major crops and underutilized species are grown all over the nation. Diversity exists in variety and species levels. The list of underutilized species is quite large. Available information indicates among its 60 reported species of amaranth in the world at least 11 species have been reported with cultivated types for grain, green vegetables, wild and weedy types.
Nepal, being proximal to the original and secondary sources of origin of different cultivated plants, has harbored numerous wild relatives of cultivated agricultural crop plants like rice, wheat, barley, buckwheat, citrus and other fruit crops, several vegetable crops, etc. It is reported that 83 different wild relatives of 46 genera under 18 families of 36 agricultural crops exists. The present national,regional and global food price rise and food security concerns have shaken the stakeholders involvement in agriculture development and technology generation.Agriculture constitutes the major share of GDP(36.1%) and support livelihood to 65% in rural areas.Increasing agriculture productivity is critical to overall growth of the Nepalese economy and to reduction of the poverty.
#AgriculturalCrop #AgreeculturalDevelopment #GrowthOfNepaleseEconomy
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Publisher:
FAO
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(2008
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Type / Script:
Progress Report
in English
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Keywords:
FOOD, FOOD AND NUTRITION, AGRICULTURE, SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, AGRICULTURAL PLANNING, AGRICULTURAL POLICY, CROP MANAGEMENT, AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT, FOOD SECURITY, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, IRRIGATION FARMING, CULTIVATION SYSTEMS, AGROFORESTRY, FORESTRY, POVERTY, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, PRODUCTIVITY, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, CLIMATE, REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY, ECOLOGY
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Thematic Group: FAO
:
Food and Agriculture Organization
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Thesaurus:
04.02.01
- Crop Management
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Reference Link:
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