Farming household numbers up by 300,000 over the past decade

KATHMANDU: The number of farming households in the country has increased by approximately 300,000 over the past decade.

According to the findings of the Agricultural Census for 2021, published by the Central Statistics Office on Thursday, nearly 4 million families are engaged in farming across the country. Additionally, 132,000 families raise livestock.

A decade ago, the number of households engaged in farming was 3.71 million, while 116,000 families were involved in livestock farming, as per the Agriculture Census for 2011.

The census defines households farming on 0.01 hectares as farming families. Similarly, households engaged in farming on less than 0.01 hectares but also raising livestock are categorized as livestock farmers.

Nepal first conducted an agricultural census in the 1960s. Since then, the census has been conducted every 10 years.

The number of farming families has been increasing in every census. In the 1960s, the number of farming families was 1.5 million, while the number of livestock farmers was around 22,000.