Use of Insecticides in Nepal, Its Impact and Alternatives of Insecticides for Nepalese Farmers

Abstract

Nepal is an agrarian country whose population is primarily dependent on agriculture but the contribution to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is low as expected. There are many constraints to agricultural crop production and the farmers are facing those problems in their day-to-day lives. Deployment of insecticides and others to mitigate various insects and pests is one of them. Although abundant with locally available plant resources for pest management, farmers, especially in commercial pocket areas, are primarily dependent on conventional pesticides and those chemicals have detrimental effects on human health, including various flora, fauna, and environment. Although the Nepal government has formulated an act and worked on that basis, there is plenty of room to work on. Since farmer knowledge and behavior have a positive impact on reducing the use of conventional insecticides and work on alternative measures for pest management, these sorts of programs should be prioritized by the Government of Nepal and its allied agricultural organizations.