Agricultural land use changes and the remaining/ emerging peri-urban farmers in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal

Abstract

Peri-urban agriculture PUA is the agriculture practices taking place in the urban/ peri-urban areas, working dynamically to provide food at short supply chain empowering, dependable vegetable supply, jobs, etc. This paper investigated the Kathmandu Valley’s case in Nepal using peri-urban farmers as the key informants growing perishable vegetables in the three adjoining districts and the key reasons behind the permanence of PUA and the strategic approaches peri-urban farmers have adopted in the changing urban context of the Kathmandu Valley. The case-study research method was used as a methodological tool to investigate the transitions of the peri-urban farmers of the Kathmandu Valley in the contemporary bounded scenarios. Peri-urban farmers of the Kathmandu Valley were interviewed with open-ended questionnaires. Results showed a changing land use pattern of the Valley among the peri-urban farmers. This study identified an interesting transition of PUA practices from being traditional farmers to business farmers.