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2.5.2 Land Holding
In rural Nepal, the amount of land holding is the main indicator to assess the economic condition of any family.
In this case, while calculating the land holding, only operational land holdings were taken into account. The land
use and cultivation pattern were observed to be very similar to that of the traditional Nepalese practice. It was
found in most of the cases that land was cultivated by the owner himself. There were very few instances of land
being rented. The average land holding size per family was 23.52 ropani (1.23 ha), which was above the
national land holding size per family being 19.2 ropani or 0.96 ha (source: CBS, National Sample Census of
Agriculture). The figures are shown in table-5(a) and the distribution of land holdings among the sample
household are shown in table-5(b) below. The table shows the distribution of land holdings among sampled
households which is categorized into different groups according to fanners' land holding and the farm size for
different ecological belts are also grouped because of differentiation of land holding ratio as defined by the
HMG/N. The maximum land holding of the visited household was 87 ropanis (4.5 ha) and the minimum was 1.0
ropani (0.05 ha). It illustrates that medium to large land holdings, as reported in previous similar studies, are
associated with most of the plant owners.
Table - 5(a):
Figures On Land Holdings
Particulars Minim um Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Upland (ropani) 0 60 935 11.32
Lowland (ropani) 0 60 11.96 9.93
Marginal (ropani) 0 30 2.20 4.44
Total (ropani) 1.0 87 23.52 17.67
Total(hectares) 0.052 4.5 1.23 0.92
Table - 5(b):
Total Land Holding* Pattern Of The Households Under Study
Group Hills No. Terai No. Total Percentage Nepal
Marginal Up to 0.20 ha 4 Up to I ha 1 5 5 37
Small 0.2-0.5 ha 9 1 - 3 ha 6 15 15 28
Medium 0.5-1.0 ha 35 3 - 5 ha 0 35 35 20
Large 1 ha and over 45 5 ha & over 0 45 45 15
*Land holding includes lowland, upland and marginal land (if any)
2.5.3 Agricultural Production
This Users' Survey indicated that the production and consumption of paddy, maize, millet and wheat are
balanced in 43, 90, 94 and 95 households respectively. It also suggested that 20% had surplus product of paddy
and 7% had surplus maize production that was sold in the local market. Similarly, millet and wheat production
was told to be surplus in 4% of the total households. The maximum deficit production was that of paddy. Table-
6 (a) and (b) summarizes die findings.
Table - 6 (a):
Surplus And Deficit Of Major Agricultural Cereals
Production Surplus Deficit HH Balance HH Max. Surplus Max. Deficit muri
HH
muri
Paddy 20 37 43 60 36
Maize 7 3 90 30 5
Millet 4 2 94 18 3
Wheat 4 1 95 10 1.5
Mustard 2 0 98 15 0
Soybean 0 2 98 0 0.25
Black gram 0 0 100 0 0
Potato 2 2 96 30 2
Lentils 1 4 95 4 1