Farming In The Hills
Most Nepalis live in countryside like that seen along this stretch of the Prithvi Highway, and the farming methods practised here are fairly representative of those employed throughout the hills. The land is used intensively but sustainably: trees and bamboo are pruned for fodder; livestock, fed on fodder, pull ploughs and provide milk and manure; and manure, in turn, is dolloped onto the fields as fertilizer (and used as fuel at higher elevations). Goats, chickens and pigs recycle scraps into meat and eggs, and even pariah dogs are tolerated because they eat garbage and faeces. Nepali hill farmers have a harder go of it than their Tarai counterparts: the average hill family's half-hectare holding is fragmented into several plots located at different elevations, often a half-hour or more apart. The typical household owns only simple hand tools - its only beast of burden a buffalo or ox - and grows just 70 percent of the food it needs each year. Most farmers barter surplus grain for odd essentials such as salt, sugar, pots and pans, and have little to do with the cash economy, though growing numbers near the highway are starting to raise vegetables for sale. Several research stations in this area are experimenting with improved seeds, but tractors and chemical fertilizers will probably never be appropriate for the vast majority of farms in Nepal's hills
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