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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 6, Issue 4 (Suppl)
Agrotechnology, an open access journal
ISSN: 2168-9881
Agri 2017
October 02-04, 2017
allied
academies
10
th
International Conference on
AGRICULTURE & HORTICULTURE
October 02-04, 2017 London, UK
Transition in mechanization of hillside farming for gender and socially inclusive rural development:
A case study of agricultural mechanization policy in Nepal
Rachaba Devkota
1
, John Fitsimons
1
, Hom Gartaula
2
, Manish Raizada
1
, Laxmi P Pant
1
, Kirit Patel
2
, Helen Hambly-Odame
1
and
Devendra Gauchan
3
1
Unversity of Guelph, Canada
2
Canadian Menonnite University, Canada
3
Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Nepal
N
epal recently endorsed its first agricultural mechanization policy in 2014 though mechanization started in late 60s in
Nepal. This paper examines the transition in agricultural and rural mechanization through the gender and socially
inclusive lenses in the context of hillside terrace farming in Nepal. Findings suggest that most of the previous policy such
as Agriculture perspectives plan, agricultural research and development policies are biased towards flat land and are gender
neutral; and hillside farming was largely neglected from the beginning. Study further reveals that flat land biased rural and
agricultural mechanization policy is a biggest challenge for Nepal as half of the country’s production comes from hillside
farming. Recently, new mechanization policy speaks about the gender and marginalized farmers issues along with hillside
terrace farming. However, how this policy change will be able to address the above mentioned challenge at implementation
level is unclear as there is not any such evidences and experiences of implementing mechanization policy strategies and
guidelines for its effective implementation in ground.
rdevkota@uoguelph.caAgrotechnology 2017, 6:4(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2168-9881-C1-028