TECHNOLOGY USE IN AGRICULTURE AND OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY OF FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN NEPAL: DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIOECONOMIC CORRELATES
Open Access
- Author:
- Bhandari, Prem Bahadur
- Graduate Program:
- Rural Sociology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 07, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Leif Jensen, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
C Shannon Stokes, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Diane K Mc Laughlin, Committee Member
Stephen Matthews, Committee Member
Richard C Stedman, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Technology use
agriculture
occupational mobility (farm exit)
demographic
socioeconomic
Nepal - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT Motivated by two major problems facing Nepal – the need to increase food production per unit of land and lessen population pressure in agriculture – the objectives of this research are twofold. The first is to examine the effects of household demographic, socioeconomic and neighborhood characteristics on the use of modern bio-chemical (chemical fertilizers and pesticides) and mechanical (tractors, pumpsets, and farm implements) inputs in agriculture. Despite the efforts by the government, the use of inputs in agriculture is very low. Studies suggest that no or low use of modern inputs is one of the major reasons for low and stagnant agricultural productivity in the country. This thesis seeks to provide new knowledge about the possible reasons behind the limited use of inputs in Nepalese agriculture. The second objective is to explore a recent phenomenon in Nepal, namely, the rapid change of occupation by farm households toward non-farm activities, in other words, exit from farming. I explore possible routes out of farming using household demographic, socioeconomic and neighborhood contextual characteristics as determinants of farm exit. No other study has examined these issues in Nepal. To achieve these objectives, I analyze household- and neighborhood-level data collected from farm households in the western Chitwan Valley of Nepal. The evidence shows that presence of working-age family members is one of the important determinants limiting adoption of labor-saving technologies in farming. Moreover, although presence of both working-age men and women family members matter, the presence of women is more important than men in technology adoption decisions. Socioeconomic characteristics such as land ownership, education, exposure to communication media, and ethnicity also were important in the adoption of these technologies. Further, the availability of services such as banks, cooperatives, and bus service in the community were not associated with the adoption of modern inputs. The findings question the relevance of the government’s policy to increase adequate and timely distribution of modern inputs, at least in this setting of Chitwan Valley. On occupational transition, the findings revealed that the availability of working-age individuals in a household particularly children, the access to cultivated land, and the keeping of livestock hindered farm exit decisions. The access to community services, the effect of which was mediated by the proportion of non-farm households in the community, was found to be an important route out of farming, perhaps suggesting that greater off-farm employment opportunities were influential in households’ decisions to leave farming. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that in addition to other socioeconomic and neighborhood characteristics, the presence of family labor is one of the obstacles to adoption of modern inputs. This could be an important explanation for the no or low use of modern inputs, and subsequently, the persistently low and stagnant productivity of Nepalese agriculture. This study also suggests that the development of community services particularly suitable for small holder farmers with no livestock may facilitate farm exit, which could relieve population pressure in agriculture. Since the primary focus of the Nepalese government is to increase food production per unit of land and to divert the farm population toward off-farm sectors, the policy implications and suggested avenues for further research stemming from this research are especially salient.