Sustainable Agriculture Development Program (SADP) is committed to enhancing the livelihood of resource-poor farmers through research, development, and the promotion of sustainable agricultural training and community development.

Tourism

Tourism is the largest industry in Nepal. Located between China and India, Nepal contains 8 of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest and Kangchenjunga. Major tourist attractions are wilderness and adventure activities and religious sites. Important Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites are the Pashupatinath Temple, the world’s largest temple of Shiva, and Lumbi, a World Heritage site that is traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, is an important pilgrimage site.

Quick Facts

Official Name: Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

Capital:  Kathmandu

Climate: varies from cool summers and severe winters in north to subtropical summers and mild winters in south

Currency:  Nepalese rupee

Population:  29,391,883

Ethnic Groups: Chhettri 15.5%, Brahman-Hill 12.5%, Magar 7%, Tharu 6.6%, Tamang 5.5%, Newar 5.4%, Muslim 4.2%, Kami 3.9%, Yadav 3.9%, other 32.7%, unspecified 2.8% (2001 census)

Languages: Nepali (official) 47.8%, Maithali 12.1%, Bhojpuri 7.4%, Tharu (Dagaura/Rana) 5.8%, Tamang 5.1%, Newar 3.6%, Magar 3.3%, Awadhi 2.4%, other 10%, unspecified 2.5% (2001 census)

Religions: Hindu 80.6%, Buddhist 10.7%, Muslim 4.2%, Kirant 3.6%, other 0.9%

Labor Force (by occupation):  agriculture: 75%, industry: 7%, services: 18%

Industry:  Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for three-fourths of the population and accounting for about one-third of GDP. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of agricultural products, including pulses, jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. Nepal has considerable scope for exploiting its potential in hydropower, with an estimated 42,000 MW of feasible capacity, but political instability hampers foreign investment. Additional challenges to Nepal’s growth include its landlocked geographic location, civil strife and labor unrest, and its susceptibility to natural disaster.

Agriculture:  tea, rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and water buffalo meat

Exports: clothing, pulses, carpets, textiles, juice, pashima, jute goods

Imports: petroleum products, machinery and equipment, gold, electrical goods, medicine

Natural Resources: quartz, water, timber, hydropower, scenic beauty, small deposits of lignite, copper, cobalt, iron ore

Current Environmental Issues: deforestation (overuse of wood for fuel and lack of alternatives), contaminated water (with human and animal wastes, agricultural runoff, and industrial effluents), wildlife conservation, vehicular emissions

Population below poverty line: 24.7% (2008)

Life Expectancy: 66.16 years

Literacy rate (age 15 and over can read and write): male: 62.7%, female: 34.9%

Refugees and Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs): refugees (country of origin): 107,803 (Bhutan); 20,153 (Tibet/China) IDPs: 50,000-70,000 (remaining from ten-year Maoist insurgency that officially ended in 2006; displacement spread across the country)

People

Nepal’s population is made up of over 40 different ethnic groups. The two major groups in Nepalese society are Tibeto-Burmans, or Mongoloids from the north, and Indo-Aryans from the south. Many customs have been developed by the influences of the land, climate and available resources.The largest groups can be divided on the basis of geographical locations by altitude. These groups include: Sherpas,Tibetan speaking people, Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan, Lowland Terai People.

Languages

There are some 120 native languages of Nepal, belonging to the Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian language families. Nepali is the national language of Nepal, while other major languages of the country are Newari, Awadhi, Limbu, Hindi, Mundari, Bahing and Maithili. Many of Nepal’s indigenous languages are on the verge of extinction.

Religion

Nepal was the world’s last constitutionally declared Hindu state. But after the movement for democracy in early 2006 and the sacking of King Gyanendra, the Nepali Parliament amended the constitution to make Nepal a secular state.

Challenges

Nepal faces issues poverty, unemployment, a history of authoritarianism, violence, crime, drug peddling, human trafficking and environmental pollution. Once a Hindu monarchy, Nepal’s transition to democracy is compromised by its fractured political base. Nepal has experienced significant violence and civil strife combating Maoist insurgents. Stark differences between the Maoists and other parties over the constitution, limit potential for consensus. Continual ongoing clashes between the government and Maoist rebels has resulted in a significant populations of internally displaced persons, estimated at between 100,000 and 200,000 people in 2006.

HIV/AIDS

Although HIV/AIDS affects only about 0.4% of the adult Nepali population, the prevalence rate masks a concentrated epidemic among at-risk populations such as female sex workers, injecting drug users, homosexual males, and migrants. Nepal’s political instability has resulted in nominal government support for national HIV and AIDS programs. Therefore, most HIV/AIDS activities are funded by external development partners.

Women’s Issues

In Nepal, poverty, unemployment, and social discrimination disproportionately affect women. The unemployment rate remains at about 40% and the lack of trained skills among the labor force is critical.

Despite the fact that the Constitution does not differentiate between men and women, women in Nepal face difficulty accessing education or a political voice, with females almost twice as likely to be illiterate than their male counterparts. As a result of this severe gap in gender equality, Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where the female life expectancy is actually lower than male life expectancy. Few women hold positions of political power and voter registration for women is consistently lower than that for men, despite their larger population.

Entrenched social norms ensure that women are not considered equal to men. The influence of the Hindu religion places an emphasis on women’s chastity and virginity. This has resulted in increased restrictions and marginalization of women, as well as the marriage of girls at ages 12-14 in rural settings. Despite the obstacles Nepalese women face, local and international organizations are working for women’s empowerment.

Nepal exhibits tremendous geographic diversity due to greatly varied elevations, rising from less than 328 ft. (100 meters) elevation in the tropical Terai—the northern rim of the Gangetic Plain, beyond the perpetual snow line to Earth’s highest peak at 29,029 ft. (8,848 meters) at Mount Everest or Sagarmatha.

Along a south-to-north transect, Nepal can be divided into three belts: Terai, Hill and Mountain Regions.

In the other direction it is divided into three major river systems, from east to west: Koshi, Gandaki/Narayani and Karnali (including the Mahakali/Sarda along the western border), all tributaries of the Ganges. The Ganges-Yarlung Zangbo/Brahmaputra watershed largely coincides with the Nepal-Tibet border, however several Ganges tributaries rise inside Tibet.

Nepal is surrounded by India on three sides and China’s Xizang Autonomous Region (Tibet) to the north.  To the east are India and Bhutan. Nepal measures roughly 497 mi. (800 kilometers) along its himalayan axis by 93 – 155 mi (150 – 250 kilometers) across.