Labour Migration in the Middle Hills of Nepal: Consequences on Land Management Strategies

Abstract

Labour migration in Nepal is having profound effects on land management. We take two examples from the hills of Nepal where the increasing trend in outmigration continues unabated and explore its consequences. The purpose of this study is to understand the impacts of the subsequent labour shortage on land management and how it affects households. We used data from two surveys and assessed land use change and degradation with a qualitative mapping method. The findings show that the local context leads to very different strategies in terms of land management. In one study area, land was left to lie fallow without any use, leading to overgrowth and forest recovery due to favourable climate conditions. In the other, land was no longer used as cropland but turned into grazing land with consequences such as land degradation. This study provides strong empirical data and also contributes to the mountain research community by shedding light on the effects of outmigration on land management in the hills of Nepal. We suggest that these effects, including the labour shortage and the increasingly important role of remittances, should be addressed in an integrative but differentiated way that takes into account the regional context.

Responsible Agricultural Mechanization Innovation for the Sustainable Development of Nepal’s Hillside Farming System

“…In other words, Nepal's past public policies on agricultural and rural development ignored mechanization in hillside farming systems because of a fear of labor displacement by the use of machines that could lead to large rural unemployment [47]. In hindsight, this was a clear failure to anticipate growing farm labor shortages, drudgery, and growing rural employment in the service sector, as well as opportunities for agri-food processing, marketing, and the influence of the growing remittance of the economy and labor [38,44,48,49]. [44]; MoAD [45]; Dahal et al [46].…”

“…In 2016, Nepal was the second (29.7%) country after Kyrgyzstan (35.4%) in the world in terms of receiving remittance [60]. One of the highest rates of out-migration in Nepal are from the hillside region and farmers are highly dependent on remittances received to support subsistence household expenditures [48].…”

“…Nepalese youth are leaving the country in search of employment abroad [59], and the majority of them (95.7%) are men [61]. In this situation, Nepal's agriculture is feminized; meaning that farming is becoming the de facto role and responsibility of women, who are often left behind with elderly and very young household members [48,62]. Although some would argue that this could potentially lead to female empowerment [60,63], many analysts believe that the feminization of agriculture often increases women's workload and drudgery [62,64,65].…”

“…Consistent with the findings of this study, Khanal [68] also reported that 40% of farmers from the Kaski region did not cultivate at least one of their farmlands for more than two successive years. Jaquet et al [48] also highlighted that out-migration, education, and moving from rural to urban regions changed the land-use dynamics in the hills of Nepal. The acute scarcity of labor and decreasing trend of rearing bullocks/ox for ploughing of the land resulted in the increased wage rate.…”

Status of Farmland Abandonment and Its Determinants in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

“…The effects of climate change, high agricultural input costs, out-migration and long distances between residences and farmlands were perceived as the major factors driving farmland abandonment in the Hill region. A study based on household surveys found that labor shortages resulting from out-migration had caused farmland abandonment in the hilly and mountainous regions of Nepal [67]. In recent years, increasing labor costs have also contributed to farmland abandonment in many rural areas in China [68].…”