Rice wheat cropping system in Nepal: Issues concerning sustainability

Abstract

 Rice wheat cropping system has been widely adopted in Nepal since very long, but much less been studied about the sustainability aspects of this practice. South Asian countries-, as well as other rice-growing countries, have already experienced different ecological and environmental impacts of the long-term rice-wheat system. Also,climate change seems to inflict the rice-based farming system to a varied extent depending uponagroecological regions. In the meantime, the growth in yield of rice is plateauing to less than 1.5% although productivity is well below other South Asian countries. With the heightening consumption of agrochemicals and its subsequent impact on air, water and soil have to be taken into consideration. Rice-wheat system being heavy consumer of nutrient and waterraises question about the sustainable consumption of resources. The increasing dominance of hybrid varieties posses’ threat of extinction of local landraces of rice. Apart from environmental and agronomic issues it also maybe affected by socio-economic issues of Nepalese farming families. Extensive studies are yet to be done, but practices like conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification practices are found to make system more resilient. The aim of this review is to discuss such issues associated with sustainability and propose some probable sustainability measures.