November 21: Jute production has been declining continuously in Nepal in recent years, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

As per the data, the production decreased by 6000 metric tons in the last seven years. The farmers producing jute are now abandoning its cultivation after they stopped getting equitable returns according to their investment.

According to the data of the ministry, 16,530 metric tons of jute was produced in Nepal in the fiscal year (FY 2014/15). By the end of the year 2020/21, jute production decreased by 6,079 metric tons to 10,451 metric tons.

During this period, the area of ​​land where jute is produced also decreased by about 4000 hectares. The data shows that jute farming was done on 11,400 hectares of land in FY 2014/15, which decreased to 7,415 hectares in FY 2020/21.

Binod Gupta of Jute Research Programme, Itahari informed that the farmers are not getting the price according to the cost of production and the production is decreasing every year due to unstable prices. However, when farmers sell jute, they do not get the price according to the cost of production. He said that the jute industry sets the price much lower than the production cost of the farmers. Also, the government does not set the support price of jute.

Gupta says Nepali jute producing farmers have been hurt by the practice of setting prices by the Nepali jute industry under the guidance of the jute industry of Kolkata.

About 12 years ago, jute was cultivated on an area of ​​more than 20,000 hectares in the districts of Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Siraha, Saptari, Udayapur alone. Now the area under jute farming has decreased. Other crops are grown on the land where jute farming used to be done. The ironic reality is that 70 percent of the raw jute required for Nepali industry is being imported from India and Bangladesh, according to stakeholders.