FARMING IN NEPAL

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31023, 31 March 1966, Page 6

FARMING IN NEPAL

Bigger Sales Of Milk Sales of milk were becom tag the chief source of income for farmers in the high coun try of Nepal, said Mr R M Upadhyay, a dairy develop meat officer from Katmandu in Christchurch yesterday. Mi Upadhyay is in New Zealant for 12 weeks studying dairy farming methods. Mr Upadhyay said that the harder climate and shortage of land in Nepal would not allow the Nepalese simply tc copy New Zealand dairy fam ing, but he hoped that everything he had learned here could eventually be put intc practice. An increasing demand foi milk in Nepal was making herd improvement and more efficient fodder production necessary, he said. Instead oi simply producing milk for his own needs, with a small surplus for making ghee, a farmer would now sell milk to a cheese factory. Half the cheese produced in Nepal was exported to India, said Mr Upadhyay. The Nepalese Government had established cheese factories—which also made butter as a by-product from the rich milk —as high as 14,000 ft. The hilly areas of Nepal, between 7000 ft and 15,000 ft, had a di mate suitable mainly for grass. It was here that most oi the country’s sheep and cattle were found.

The cteuri, a sturdy beast between a yak and a cow, was used for dairying, said Mr Lpadhyay. Cattle were a traditional part of the country’s farming, having always been used as working beasts and to provide manure.