Enhancing Labor Productivity via Local Agro-governance of Nepal

Year 2023, , 27 - 38, 30.12.2023

Dipesh Kattel

https://doi.org/10.61192/indpol.1352332

Abstract

Agriculture is vital for Nepal's livelihoods and economy, contributing approximately 27% to the national gross domestic product and acting as a buffer during economic downturns. Nepalese agriculture, with a rich history, faces challenges of declining profitability, causing farming abandonment, especially among the youth, despite local policy efforts. Addressing issues of unprofitability, land degradation, input inadequacy, and low productivity requires targeted agricultural research and policy reforms. Sustainable agro-practices, resilience, and achieving socio-economic indices are current community demands. This quantitative research design includes various constructs of agro-production and local agro-governance, estimating labor productivity through multiple regression. The research results revealed the importance of agro-policies focusing on farm inputs, agriculture extension, and governance enrichment. Minimizing policy shocks and executing labor-extensive short-term and long-term strategies are crucial for comprehensive agro-development.

Keywords

Farm inputs, labor productivity, land-labor ratio, local agro-governance, sustainable agriculture

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