Status of farm mechanization in mid-hill Region of Surkhet, Nepal

In Nepal, agriculture is the main source of livelihood, employing two-thirds of the population and contributing one-third of the gross domestic product. However, agricultural production is insufficient to meet the food demand of the growing population. Agricultural mechanization is crucial in enhancing farm productivity and profitability by enabling the timeliness of farm operations, optimizing resources, and increasing the precision of farming operations. Although mechanization is gradually increasing, 46% of farmers still rely on animal power, 26% on manual labor, and only 28% on mechanical power (Gauchan & Shrestha, 2017). Nepal has diverse landscapes with mountains covering an area of 35%, hills (42%), and terai (23%) (GoN, 2024). The adoption of machinery is highly heterogeneous across these regions. Despite the highest area coverage of the hills, machinery usage is far lower than in Terai. Takeshima (2017) reported that less than 8% of the farms in hills and mountains regularly use mechanical tillage, compared to 46% in Terai. National Agricultural Census, 2022 indicates a significant increase in households using different machinery in Nepal over a decade, including livestock-related equipment such as milking machines as shown in Error! Reference source not found.. However, overall adoption remains low. Surkhet, one of the districts in Karnali province of Nepal, like other hilly regions, faces numerous challenges for farm machinery usage due to small terraces, lack of farm roads, scattered fields, and difficulty in transporting machinery between farms. These geographical constraints significantly hinder the adoption of farm machinery in hilly areas. These challenges are further compounded by limited knowledge of machinery troubleshooting, scarcity of mechanics during peak operational periods, unavailability of spare parts, and inadequate after-sales service, all of which reduce the machinery’s effective working period, adversely affecting the income generation from it. Additionally, youth migration abroad for employment opportunities, declining youth involvement in the agriculture sector driven by low profitability and high risk, and out-migration from the hills to the terai are leading to labor shortages, increasing land abandonment, and high wage rates that necessitate the adoption of suitable machinery. To identify gaps in mechanization and devise suitable interventions, it is essential to understand the characteristics of households between machinery adopters and non-adopters. In 2023, a household survey was conducted in Surkhet, Gurbakot, under the CGIAR Initiative on Mixed Farming Systems (MFS) aimed to characterize the households and devise suitable interventions (Zepeda et al., 2023). This report summarizes the information provided by the household survey conducted in Surkhet regarding the status of agricultural machinery. For data visualization, information from sub-module 6b under Module 2 of the farm characterization survey is utilized. This data provides insights into mechanization levels across farm types in Surkhet, including details on machinery usage during different seasons, and crops, across various farm operations such as land preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, and threshing. Additionally, the report highlights the intensity of the labor shortage situation in different farm types and identifies the major constraints of mechanization in the Surkhet district.