Potato yields in Nepal are among the lowest in the world but the tuber is making a difference. According to Bhim Banhadur Khatri, a senior scientist with the country’s Potato Research Program, modest improvements in potato yields and the rising potato acreage, is one way to address hunger and malnutrition in Nepal.
The potato is one of Nepal’s four main crops, Khatri explains. It’s estimated around six to tonnes per hectare were harvested in 1980. There’s been significant yield gains since then. Today, an average yield of 10 tonnes or better is a realistic goal in the country.
At the same time, the potato acreage has increased at an even faster rate. There were an estimated 84,000 hectares cultivated in 1990/91 and more than 1.3 million hectares in 2000/01 – a 15-fold increase.
This is welcome news in one of the world’s poorest countries.
"Only the potato crop shows yield improvement, although it is among the lowest yields in the world," says Khatri, quoting statistics from the International Potato Center.
"The increased use of chemical fertilizers, improved cultivars and plant protection measures have helped improve productivity. Cereal grain food production is not enough to meet the country's food requirement. Only the potato crop fits well in food supply, income and employment generation – continuously contributing in the national economy."
There’s been an acreage increase in Nepal’s other main crops – rice, maize and wheat. The acreage of wheat and maize has doubled in the past decade, to about 1.2 and 1.4 million acres respectively. The acreage devoted to rice has increased from around 1.4 million to more than four million hectares.
Other agriculture land is devoted to pulse crops, barley, oilseeds, pasture and forages, fruit, and vegetables. About 26 per cent of Nepal is cultivated, according to NepalNet, a website sponsored by more than 30 Nepalese organizations. Khatri says 37 per cent of the land is forested.
The country has a total land mass of more than 147,000 square kilometers and about 23 million people. In comparison, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are 244,000 square kilometers in size and has a population about 60 million.
Nepal’s effort to feed her people hasn’t come without a cost.
Deforestation in the country is a serious concern, Khatri says. It’s been estimated that 1.3 per cent of the country’s forests have been cut down annually in recent years. Nepal relies on its forests for more than two-thirds of its energy needs, litter from the forest is used to fertilize farmland, and one study estimates that the forest provides more than 40 per cent of the livestock nutrition.
That deforestation trend is slowing, Khatri says. Much of the deforestation has taken place in the plains which are less vulnerable to erosion. There’s less pressure to cut down trees in the hills and mountains where the soil is poorer, he adds.
The situation has given the potato added significance. More than four per cent of Nepal’s agricultural land is devoted to potato production. However, potatoes are one of the most nutritionally complete foods and the food value from an acre of potatoes is far greater than the food value from an acre of rice, wheat or maize.
Production gains are a testament to the effectiveness of the potato research and development effort in Nepal. Potato research received official support beginning in 1962 and 10 years later the National Potato Development Program (NPDP) was launched. The NPDP has since been split into two branches in 1990 ago – the Potato Development Section and the Potato Research Program that Khatri is involved with.
Nepal’s researchers and extension people work with an agricultural community that’s dramatically different those in the United States, Canada, Europe and other 'developed' nations.
More than 80 per cent of Nepal’s population are employed through agriculture and agriculture is responsible for more than 40 per cent of the country’s gross domestic production.
Even the larger farmers in Nepal – those with more than five hectares on the plains and with more than a hectare in the hills and valleys – are small by western standards. About 10 per cent of the farmers are categorized as landless ones.
Most farmers in Nepal operate with few or no off-farm inputs and women provide the larger part of the labor. The potato is a crop grown primarily by smaller farmers.
In the high hills, the potato is a food staple. In other parts of the country they’re used as a side dish. The average, yearly potato consumption rate in Nepal is estimated at 28 kilograms per person.
Most potatoes in Nepal are destined for the table market or are consumed by the people who grow them. There are some small potato processors in the growing urban areas of Nepal.
"With 45 per cent of the population below the poverty level and with insufficient food, the potato is capable of enhancing food security and generating a source of income for small farmers," Khatri says.
"The majority of the hill and mountain districts of Nepal are deficient in food. Food insecurity is the most serious problem of the poor and malnutrition is mostly a consequence of poverty."
About 50 per cent of the potatoes grown in Nepal are grown in what’s known as the mid-hills geographic region. About 30 per cent are grown on the plains and the remainder in the high hills.
The altitude of Nepal ranges from 70 to 8,850 meters above sea level. Potatoes are grown in all parts of the country, with successful production as high as 4,400 meters.
There are two main potato crops. The winter crop is grown on the plains and in the lower valleys. The summer crop is grown in the mid and high hills, the monsoon planting.
Many farmers rely on traditional varieties that have been developed since the potato was first introduced to Nepal more than 200 years ago. Other varieties have been introduced and a small scale breeding program was launched just last year with main objectives of increasing yields and building resistance to late blight, for both the A1 and A2 strains.
Late blight is a big problem in the high hills and occurs periodically on the plains. Other pest problems in Nepal include Bacterial Wilt, Black Scurf, Wart, several potato viruses, aphids, the potato tuber moth and red ants.
Khatri says the PRP is helping by recommending better cultural strategies, the use of seed treatment for scurf and improved varieties, and other strategies.
"PRP also manages a tissue culture laboratory and glasshouse complex for the production of pre-basic seed (PBS). Up to 200,000 tuberlets of different varieties are produced each year in the glass-house and are distributed to seed producer groups, District Agricultural Development Offices and a number of Government Farms for further multiplication," Khatri says.
