Nabin Sishir BK

Baglung, Oct. 12: Over a third of cultivable land in Baglung has remained barren as agriculture has become the work of the elderlies because most young boys have left for foreign lands in search of jobs while their wives have shifted to the cities for differernt facilities.

Some 14,655 hectares of cultivable land has remained barren in Baglung where food grains are imported annually from outside the district.

Although food grains can be produced in 46,148 hector out of the total 1,82,766 hector area of the district, only 30,503 hector land is utilized for the cultivation, informed Agriculture Knowledge Center (AKC), Parbat.

According to Biswas Kafle, Agriculture Extension Officer at the AKC, 1,020 hector is sustained as plotted land, 9,980 is covered by streams and rocks and 98,046 is covered by the forest in Baglung district.

The lack of irrigation facilities, migration and brain drain of the young people has led to the shortage of human resource in the agriculture which has resulted in land barrenness in the district.

The young people are leaving the country and the elderlies are compelled to engage in agriculture because of which the food production has declined, said Kalfe.

The land has become barren due to the inability of the elderlies to work in agricultural land as the young people are in foreign lands for jobs and the daughter- in-laws are leaving villages to settle down in cities, said Kafle.

Reduction in food grain production is not only the result of increase in barren land but also the lack of irrigation facility.

In Baglung, only 5,974 hector land has irrigation facility while 24,529 hector area is out of reach of the irrigation facilities.

According to Kafle, as a hilly district, cultivable land in Baglung lies at the slopes of the hills while irrigation facility is available only in the plains, which has created difficulty in making irrigation accessible.

Stating that there is lack of resources to irrigate river water for food grains, Kalfe said that irrigation could not be done as per the need due to lack of resources.

After the abolition of the Agriculture Service Center in line with the federal structure, there has been a problem in updating the statistics of barren land from the local level.

Meanwhile, the barren land can be more than estimated, said Officer Kalfe.

Published on: 13 October 2020 | The Rising Nepal