October 31: The use of tools and equipment is increasing in the agricultural sector of Nepal. According to the National Agricultural Census 2078, the number of farmers who use tractors for agricultural work is 40 per cent. During the agricultural census in 2068, it was found that only 22 per cent of the 845,000 farmer families used tractors for farming. According to the latest count, 1.63 million farmers use tractors.

The data shows that the number of tractors owned by farmers has also increased during this period. In the agricultural census of 2068, the farmer families had 37,000 tractors. In 2078, this number increased to 58,000.

The use of power tillers/mini tillers is also increasing. In 2068, there were 76,000 farmers using power tillers/mini tillers across Nepal. Currently, the number of farmers using the machine has reached 471,000. The number of power tillers/mini tillers has also increased from 10,000 to 118,000 units.

According to Khojraj Katuwal, the outgoing president of the Nepal Agricultural Machinery Traders Association, when the government gives concessions on agricultural equipment, its use increases widely. The government has been giving subsidies to farmers to buy agricultural equipment for almost a decade. He said that due to the increase in awareness among farmers about modern agriculture and the expansion of commercial farming, the use of agricultural equipment is increasing day by day.

“It is a good thing to increase production by increasing the use of agricultural machinery, but most of the machines we use have to be imported from abroad. A large amount of money is spent on the import of machinery and equipment,'' he told New Business Age. To prevent this, the government should create an environment to produce such equipment in Nepal, he added.

The number of farmer families using threshers and crop pruning tools has increased from 0.83 million in 2068 to 1.17 million in 2078. During this period, the number of threshers owned by farmer families increased from 52,000 to 1,15,000.

Likewise, the number of farmer families using pumping sets/motors has increased from 548,000 to 691,000. Meanwhile, the number of farmers using sprayers has also increased from 574,000 to 1.15 million. According to the Agricultural Census 2078, 30,000 farmer families in Nepal use milking machines.

With the increase in the use of tractors, power tillers/mini tillers, it has been observed that the number of farmers using the ploughs has decreased. In the previous agricultural census, there were 1.07 million farmers using modern iron ploughs. According to the calculation of 2078, the number of farmers using ploughs has decreased to 733,000.