Tales from an Itinerant Agronomist by David Gibbon

Author:David Gibbon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

Houses and Terraces in Mid-Hills of Eastern Nepal.

The climate is monsoonal with 70% of the rain falling between June and September. Average rainfall here was about 3000mm (range from 900mm to 2000mm), whereas in the mid-west where Lumle is located, the rainfall can be 5000mm falling in the same time period. The climate varied from hot, dry subtropical, through warm, moist, temperate, to alpine and arctic in the extreme north. The population density in the hills at the time was about eighty-five people per sq.km. Leeches are an important hazard whilst trekking in these areas during the monsoon period. Not particularly dangerous, but messy (they put an anti-coagulant into the blood) if you fail to spot them early.

The interaction of climate, topography, aspect, altitude, social organisation, religious beliefs and taboos, access to and ownership of different classes of land, and access to markets has given rise to very different types of farming system. In general the Indo-Aryan ethnic groups (Brahmin and Chhetri) predominate in the lower altitudes, where there is more intensive irrigated rice production. In mid-altitudes the Tibeto-Burman groups (Rai, Limbu, Tamang, Gurung and Magar) concentrate on rainfed maize and potato cultivation with some rice. At higher elevations, less intensive cultivation gives way to migratory livestock-based production systems. Here are Sherpas and other Tibetan groups.

Landholdings are small, with 43% of the population with less than 0.5ha. Typically farms are mixed enterprises with livestock and trees as important elements, not only for livestock products and power, but also to produce manure and maintain soil fertility. Seasonal food deficits were common and off farm work such as portering was used to overcome this. The environment is inherently unstable49 with steep slopes, regular landslides and a constant effort by farmers to restore fertility on the upper slopes as it moves downhill. Earthquakes are common and we suffered a bad one during our time at Pakhribas when 15km of the road below Dhankuta was washed away overnight. Many people were killed and people were being carried out of the inner hills for weeks afterwards. For reasons which were not clear at the time, the Nepali government refused the offer of a British Army helicopter to airlift casualties to local hospitals. There has since been a much more serious earthquake in 2015 during which many more people were affected. It was heartening to see the huge support that immediately came from the Nepali diaspora (some of whom were our former colleagues at Pakhribas), to alleviate this crisis.

The research programme at Pakhribas

Pakhribas Agricultural Centre is located 4km west of Hile, a small town on the road from Dhankuta and the road head north. It is a thin strip of land lying between 1100m and 2000m altitude and is about 92ha in size. The land had been terraced throughout with flat terraces on which the crops of the area are grown. The land is mainly used for the growing of rice, maize, millet, legumes and vegetables. The plots are mainly for the multiplication of seeds for future distribution to farmers and for the multilocation testing of new germplasm.

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