Consequences of Deforestation for Women’s Time Allocation, Agricultural Production, and Nutrition in Hill Areas of Nepal

In the face of growing concerns about the environment, policy makers in developing countries find themselves increasingly pressured to choose between environmental deterioration in the long run and the growing demands of poor populations in the short run. Some environmentalists point to new technology –irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticides- as the basis of ecological decay in rural areas. A number of studies have shown, instead, that expanding farm yields in less fragile area through modern technology offers a viable alternative to stripping the land to expand crop area in marginal soils. In the hill areas of Nepal, as many developing countries, women’s work is the key not only to the functioning of the household but also a necessary supply of field labor. In Consequences of Deforestation for Women’s time Allocation, Agriculture Production, and Nutrition in Hill Areas of Nepal, Research Report 69, Shubh K. Kumar and David Hotchkiss show that the allocation of women’s time, as affected by the deforestation, has far- reaching effects on farm output, income, and nutrition. In countries such ass Nepal, where adoption od modern agricultural technology is so low, it seems that the environment, agriculture, and the quality of life all suffer for this state of affairs.