Socio-economic Study on Current Farmer's Practices on Wheat and Mustard Production Systems in Surkhet, Salyan and Doti Districts

Wheat is one of the major cereal crops grown as a mono crop or mixed with mustard/lentil or pea in the Mid and Far Western Development Regions. The main objective of the study was to explore the existing cropping practices of wheat and mustard production systems and to establish a benchmark for further impact evaluation. Three representative districts Surkhet, Salyan and Doti were selected for the socio-economic study in wheat and mustard production system. A total of 92 households were surveyed (using two stage purposive random sampling method) in the districts and information was also collected through RRA techniques. The total population of the surveyed households was 744 with an average family size of 7.8, 8.3 and 8.3 persons in Surkhet, Salyan and Doti, respectively. Brahmin/Chhetri (66%) and Gurung/Newar (1%) were the major and minor groups, respectively. The total area of the surveyed households was 79.96 hectares with an average farm size of 0.91, 1.02 and 0.60 hectare for Surkhet, Salyan and Doti respectively. Recommendation was made to identify the technology on mixed cropping of wheat and mustard for appropriate time of planting to maximize productivity of wheat and mustard crops without disturbing the existing farmer's practices. Key words: Farmer's practice, impact evaluation, mixed crops, socio-economic stud