PRODUCTION AND TRADE SCENARIO OF CITRUS FRUITS IN NEPAL

Abstract

Agriculture contributes about one-third to the Gross Domestic Product and is the major source of employment in Nepal. Citrus fruits being cultivated in about 60 districts of the country contributes 22.37 % to total fruit production and share 3 % of total fruit export by volume. Considering the contribution of citrus fruits to food and nutritional security, and improved living standard of farmers, Government has implemented various programs to improve this sector. However, no studies were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. This study was conducted to analyze the trend of production and trade of citrus fruits in Nepal useful to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented programs. Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope method were used for study these trends. The result showed the increasing trend of area, productive area, and production of citrus fruits under study i.e. Mandarins, Sweet orange and lime and their decreasing productivity during the study period from 1999/2000 to 2017/18. Furthermore, their import, both value and quantity showed significant and increased trend whereas the export was negligible and insignificant during the period from 2009 to 2018. This concludes that the increased production of citrus fruits is insufficient to meet the demand of the country and Nepal is losing a huge amount for import of these fruits.