Post-disaster agricultural transitions in Nepal
Authors: Jessica DiCarlo, Kathleen Epstein, Robin 
Marsh, and Inger Måren
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1021-3.
DiCarlo, Jessica, Kathleen Epstein, Robin Marsh, and Inger Måren. "Post-disaster agricultural 
transitions in Nepal." Ambio 47, no. 7 (November 2018): 794-805. DOI:10.1007/
s13280-018-1021-3.
Made available through Montana State University’s ScholarWorks 
scholarworks.montana.edu 
Post-disaster agricultural transitions in Nepal
Jessica DiCarlo , Kathleen Epstein , Robin Marsh,
Inger Ma˚ren
Abstract In Spring 2015, a series of earthquakes and
aftershocks struck Nepal. The earthquakes caused
significant changes in labor and land availability, cash
income needs, and land quality. We examine how these
post-earthquake impacts converged with ongoing
agricultural shifts. Earthquake-related socio-economic and
landscape changes specifically motivate the adoption of
cardamom, Amomum subulatum, a high-value ecologically
beneficial, and low labor commercial crop. We investigate
reasons for the increased interest in cardamom post-
earthquake, and challenges associated with it. We find
that adopting cardamom serves as an important post-
disaster adaptation. However, more broadly, unevenly
distributed interventions coupled with the high capital
costs of agricultural transition exacerbate social
differentiation in communities after the disaster.
Adoption is often limited to economically better off
smallholder farmers. This paper extends previous
research on disasters and smallholder farming by
highlighting the specific potential of disasters to
accelerate agricultural transitions and resulting inequality
from the changes.
Keywords Cardamom  Disasters  Himalaya 
Rural differentiation  Small-scale agriculture
Abbreviations
VDC Village Development Committee
DADO District Agricultural Development
Office
MoA Ministry of Agriculture
UN United Nations
HVC High-value crop
TFRDC Tropical Fruits Rootstock
Development Center
Terai Lowland plains
Masl Meters above sea level
Amomum subulatum (Latin) Black cardamom, also
known as Nepal cardamom
Alnus nepalensis (Latin) Nepalese alder; utis in
Nepali
Khet (Nepali) Irrigated fields; typically
used to cultivate rice and wheat
Bari (Nepali) Rainfed fields; typically
used to cultivate maize and millet
INTRODUCTION
On April 25th, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck
central Nepal and was followed by a series of aftershocks,
one of which reached magnitude 6.3 on April 26th. A
second earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck on May 12th to
the east of the first. Smallholder farming communities near
the epicenters in the mid-hills were the hardest hit. Envi-
ronmental shocks disproportionately affected rural and
poor populations engaged in subsistence and small-scale
agriculture (Wisner et al. 2013). Given considerable aca-
demic and practitioner interest in agricultural development
(Diao et al. 2010; Wiggins et al. 2010; Lowder et al. 2016)
and sustainability (Rockstro¨m et al. 2017), this research
builds on the important and burgeoning canon of literature
that looks at development strategies involving rural
livelihoods (Valde´s and Foster 2010), livelihood diversifi-
cation (Gautam and Andersen 2016), smallholder farming
(Hazell et al. 2010; Jayne et al. 2010), and agricultural
change and poverty (Rigg 2006; Jayne et al. 2014), in light
of environmental shocks.
Disaster events can radically change agricultural land-
scapes (Eklund et al. 2016) and influence the adoption of
new farming practices and crop choices (Lin 2011; Altieri
et al. 2015; Epstein et al. 2017). Studies on post-disaster
agriculture have explored impacts to land-use change
(Khan et al. 2015) and productivity (Lesk et al. 2016),
showing how disasters like earthquakes can become critical
moments of transformation (Folke 2006). Nepal is well-
known for various types of disaster risks, primarily related
to seismic and climatic events (NSDRR 2008; Pandit et al.
2014). A World Bank report (2005) ranked Nepal 4th in
climate risk and 11th in earthquake vulnerability. Given the
link between disasters and agricultural change, under-
standing the capacity of smallholder farmers to adapt to
both sudden and prolonged shocks is a central focus
amongst both academics and development agencies (Lin
2011). Our work builds on previous examinations of
smallholder farming, disasters and agricultural change
(World Neighbors 2000; Holt-Gimenez 2002; Shivakumar
2005; Cutter et al. 2010; Lin 2011; Steffen et al. 2011) by
examining how disasters converge with ongoing agricul-
tural transitions. Using a qualitative approach, we examine
the earthquake’s impacts on agricultural production, how
the earthquake motivated increased interest towards car-
damom, and the challenges associated with crop adoption
post-earthquake. We highlight equity implications of post-
disaster agricultural transitions by examining the require-
ments for successful adoption of cardamom in the dual
contexts of earthquake damages and pre-existing socio-
economic differentiation.
High-value crop adoption in Nepal
Agriculture constitutes much of Nepal’s national economy,
with over 60% of the population engaged in farming and
37% of the gross domestic product (GDP) resulting from
agricultural activities (MoA 2015). Though some large-
scale commercial and export-oriented agricultural opera-
tions exist, especially in the Terai (lowland plains) region,
smallholder systems that produce primarily for home
consumption and rely heavily on family and local labor
prevail throughout Nepal (MoA 2015). Generally, small-
holder farms are less than 1 ha, with the average in Nepal
around 0.55 ha (FAO n.d.). Smallholder and subsistence
plots are especially prevalent in the mid-hills of Nepal,
where farmers grow rice, millet, maize and wheat, com-
bined with vegetables, spices and small livestock hus-
bandry. Here, farmers operate within tightly knit
agroecological systems, relying on interactions between
crops, forest products, and livestock (Ma˚ren and Vetaas
2007; Ma˚ren et al. 2013). Farmers have developed farming
techniques specifically tailored to the mid-hills landscapes;
the knowledge and skills associated with crop production
in this farming system have co-evolved over centuries of
exposure to disasters including avalanches, landslides and
earthquakes (MoSTE 2015).
Agricultural transitions in smallholder systems are
prevalent, widespread, and include partial transition from
subsistence farming to cash or high-value crops, farm
agglomeration and the narrowing of cultivars towards
mono-crop and commodity production (Hart et al. 1992; Li
2014; Behera et al. 2016). Such shifts in smallholder
communities typically result from multiple market-related
influences: changes in land, labor and cash availability
(Blaikie and Coppard 1998); non-agricultural opportuni-
ties; declining interest in subsistence lifestyles; and rising
consumer demand from urbanization and population
growth (Blaikie et al. 1998). Many of these factors are
present in Nepal (Gartaula et al. 2016), where transitions to
high-value crops vary by region and context as farmers
adapt to specific environmental and economic influences,
including ongoing and sudden climatic changes. For
example, shifting patterns in water availability have
strained traditional farming across the Himalaya (Eriksson
et al. 2009) and increased uncertainties for long-standing
traditional cultivars (Aase 2017). Farming communities are
highly reliant on hyper-localized water sources such as
local springs and rivers for irrigation and drinking water, as
well as groundwater availability in forests and pasture-
lands. Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation pat-
terns have driven the adoption of new technologies such as
drought-resistant hybrid crop varieties and elaborate irri-
gation and piping systems among other adaptations
(Eriksson et al. 2009; Chhetria et al. 2012), or have resulted
in declining production, particularly for smallholder
farmers (Manandhar et al. 2011; Harvey et al. 2014).
Since the 1990s, national policy in Nepal has played a
key role in encouraging adoption of high-value market-
oriented crops to generate and increase income for small
farmers and rural laborers (Takahamake 2001). Nepal’s
Agricultural Perspective Plan (1995), a 20-year country-
wide agricultural strategy, promoted increased cash crop
production as a form of agricultural and economic devel-
opment. Similarly, the 8th (1992–1997) and 9th
(1997–2002) Five Year Plans encourage agriculture-led
growth to generate income and job opportunities, promot-
ing policies to enable agricultural diversification and
commercialization (Joshi et al. 2007). The intensification
of agriculture in Nepal has been applied as a rural liveli-
hood strategy, and means of poverty alleviation (Brown
and Kennedy 2005), and food security (Sharma 1997).
Nepal’s most recent 14th National Plan (2017) targets the
development of agriculture for both post-earthquake
reconstruction and economic growth.
Livelihood diversification and commercialization of
agriculture are long-standing strategies for rural commu-
nities (Ellis 2000) to reduce poverty (Thapa et al. 2017),
manage risk (Reardon et al. 2001) and adapt to change
(Marschke and Berkes 2006). Yet, conversion to high-
value crops has important and potentially negative impli-
cations for food security (Achterbosch et al. 2014), par-
ticularly among smallholders (von Braun 1992; Baiphethi
and Jacobs 2009). The majority of mid-hills farmers
maintain some level of subsistence cropping to ensure
stock for home consumption (field interviews). Risks and
benefits associated with commercialization depend deeply
on context (Gautam 2011; Kremen and Miles 2012; Kre-
men et al. 2012), and can alter smallholder farming com-
munities by increasing social inequality (Li 2011, 2014).
For example, transitions to high-value potato or tomato
crops in the mid-hills led to uneven costs and benefits
among farmers (Brown and Kennedy 2005). Past studies on
cardamom cultivation in Nepal have shown crop adoption
to improve both income generation and food security for
cultivators (Sony et al. 2016), as well as increase inequality
between cultivators and non-cultivators, specifically in
eastern regions of the country (Fitzpatrick 2011).
Cardamom in Nepal
Known as the queen of the spices (Sony and Upreti 2017)
or black gold (Hartkamp 1993), cardamom is the world’s
third-most expensive spice crop (USAID 2011). Nepal’s
large cardamom variety (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) or
black cardamom (Fig. 1a) comprises 7% of agricultural
exports from Nepal (MoAD 2013), and nearly 70% of the
world market for this large variety (ICIMOD 2016).
Despite lower productivity in kg/hectare when compared to
India, Nepali cardamom fetches a higher price than other
varieties such as small cardamom or green cardamom
(Elletaria cardamomum) that are grown in hilly regions of
South India, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and
Guatemala (USAID 2011).
As one of Nepal’s most profitable cash crops, large
cardamom enjoys significant interest from both domestic
and international markets. Approximately, 67 000 house-
holds engage in cardamom farming nationwide with over
90% coming from four eastern districts: Taplejung,
Panchtar, Ilam, and Sankhuwasabha (ICIMOD 2016; Sony
and Upreti 2017). The country’s annual production of an
estimated 6600 metric tons contributes over $20 million
(USD) to the national economy (Chaudary and Vista 2015).
Such numbers underscore sustained interest in cardamom
from the Nepali government and NGO communities
(MoAD 2015); and, recent government-led analyses high-
light market potential and increasing international market
demand (MoAD 2015). However, other research notes that
competition from cultivation in India, where approximately
90% of Nepal’s cardamom is exported (Sony and Upreti
2017), and Bhutan, can generate price variability and
downward pressure (Poudel and Chen 2012). Furthermore,
production in the eastern districts has declined due to dis-
ease (Sony and Upreti 2017).
Cardamom has long been a viable option in Nepal’s mid-
hills along with kiwi, vegetables and potatoes. As part of a
rising trend in cash crop adoption, cardamom is well-known
in the region as a high-value and low labor crop (Gautam
Fig. 1 a Black cardamom grown in Sundrawati, Dolakha District, Nepal. b Black cardamom (Amomum subulatum) intercropped with Nepalese
alder (Alnus nepalensis) in Dolakha District, Nepal
2011). It is less labor-intensive than growing vegetables and
potatoes and requires less fertilizer. Comparedwith kiwifruit
in Dolakha, the high price of cardamom is reported as more
stable and, with few value-added products beyond the raw
material, Nepali farmers conserve a large percentage of the
final sale value. Farmers reported selling cardamom for
$16.70–18.40 USD (Rs. 1800–2600) per kilogram.
While farmers have started to plant cardamom on khet
fields (irrigated, typically used to cultivate rice and wheat),
it is also common to plant cardamom under Nepalese alder
(Alnus nepalensis) (Fig. 1b). Alder and cardamom both
grow well on marshy, degraded land and thus do not
compete with other crops for land use. Nitrogen fixing and
slope stabilizing alder stands populate naturally on land-
slide affected, degraded, and freshly exposed sites (Sharma
et al. 2008) and create a light-permeable canopy under
which cardamom thrives. In the mid-hills, intercropping of
alder and cardamom also conserves water, soil and biodi-
versity, controls for floods and landslides, reforests
degraded land, sequesters carbon, and increases soil fer-
tility (Sharma et al. 2000, 2008; Ma˚ren et al. 2013).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Research location
Dolakha is a mountainous district that lies 132 km north-
east of Kathmandu. The district consists primarily of south-
facing slopes with some flat valley floors. Administratively,
it is divided into 2 municipalities and 48 Village Devel-
opment Committees (VDCs). Elevations vary from 732
masl (Siteli VDC) in the south to 7148 masl (Gaurisankhar
VDC) in the north (Fig. 2).
The first two earthquakes that hit in April 2015 signifi-
cantly affected this district. However, the third earthquake
on May 12th, with its epicenter in Dolakha, caused the
most local damage. Over the course of these events,
approximately 87% of the houses were destroyed or
heavily damaged (UNOCHA 2015). Within Dolakha, we
collected data in Boch VDC, Sundrawati VDC, and the
district capital of Charikot. Our study locations lie in
Dolakha’s mid-hills, which are geographically situated
between the Terai (plains) to the south and the high
mountains to the north, at elevations ranging from 600 to
3000 masl. Mid-hills farmers here commonly cultivate
subsistence crops of rice, wheat, millet and maize, and are
beginning to adopt high-value crops that include potato,
cardamom, kiwifruit and green vegetables.
Research design, data collection and analysis
This paper is part of a larger research project on loss and
recovery in smallholder farming communities in mid-hill
Nepal after the 2015 earthquakes. We collected data over a
six-month period with two intensive field months (May–
June 2016) using stratified random surveys, semi-structured
and informal interviews, focus groups, and secondary data
Fig. 2 Map of the study region in Dolakha District, Nepal. Asterisk denotes epicenter of 12 May 2015 earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter
scale
from national and district level agricultural offices (see
Table S1). This paper draws on findings from the qualita-
tive research that focuses specifically on the accelerated
adoption of cardamom. Participants consisted of approxi-
mately equal numbers of men and women across a spec-
trum of age, caste, and community role. We employed
purposive and snowball sampling techniques to recruit
participants for data collection activities. Interviews were
conducted in Nepali and translated into English. We took
extensive notes in both Nepali and English in lieu of audio
recording, and triangulated qualitative reports through
repeated interviews and questioning. Interviews and focus
group discussions centered on agricultural trends, inputs
and production, post-disaster decision-making, new tech-
nologies and programs, relief and recovery projects,
development programs, and community forest and land
management. We also ethnographically engaged with
community members (Herbert 2000; Crang and Cook
2007) by participating in community meetings, weddings,
festivals, funerals, minor farm work, and many informal
conversations.
RESULTS
We find that the ecological and socio-economic impacts of
Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes influenced ongoing shifts
towards cash crop cultivation, reorienting farmer decisions
to increase the adoption of black cardamom, a high-value
crop. Post-earthquake shifts in labor and land availability,
cash income needs, and land quality converged with an
already ongoing shift towards high-value crops. However,
after the earthquakes, cardamom emerged as a particularly
appealing crop, because cultivation, market and ecological
features aligned with farmer priorities brought on by the
disaster.
Impacts to agriculture due to the earthquake
The earthquakes devastated agriculture in Boch and Sun-
drawati, directly impacting communities through livestock
mortality and physical damage to infrastructure, farms and
the landscape, and indirectly through increased socio-eco-
nomic pressures on labor availability and cash resources. In
the eyes of an officer at Dolakha’s District Agricultural
Office (DAO), their resounding effects have ‘‘set farming
systems in the district back 10 years’’. Productivity loss
was pervasive; at the time of data collection in 2016, dis-
trict agricultural officers projected 40% losses across the
district’s commercial and subsistence sectors. Interviewees
attribute farm level losses to several sources. Farmers noted
that the earthquake caused significant damage, including
large holes and cracks in the planting surfaces, to both bari
(unirrigated) and khet (irrigated) planting systems and
altered water sources. Following the earthquake, many
residents saw a reduction in water quality and quantity, due
to infrastructural damage to canals, pipes, and tanks. The
earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks and landslides
exacerbated erosion issues on steep terraces. Farmers
feared planting on damaged fields, because cracks and
holes would quickly drain water, increasing the potential
for subsequent landslides.
Post-earthquake, widespread livestock death and the
pressure to downsize household animal holdings impaired
subsistence livelihood practices and farming systems. In
addition to providing meat and milk for consumption and
draught power, livestock (like cattle, buffalo and goats)
provide manure, an essential nutrient input for both sub-
sistence and cash crops. Livestock mortality during and
after the earthquakes was concentrated in mountain regions
like Dolakha (Nepal ALIA 2015), where the majority of
families ([80%)1 keep ox, cow, and buffalo along with
goats and chickens for home consumption and sale. Many
families who did not directly lose animals in the earth-
quakes were forced to sell them due to lack of space, less
time for fodder collection, and a need for income. As one
farmer noted, ‘‘Our home was destroyed, so we slept in our
animal shed after the earthquake. The animals had nowhere
to live and we did not have time to care for them, so we had
to sell both our goats’’.
The earthquakes hit in early spring, before the monsoon
season when farmers in Dolakha prepare and tend to their
fields. Because relief and recovery activities were con-
centrated in the months directly following, many fields
were left fallow as families dealt with immediate infras-
tructure, public health, and safety measures as opposed to
planting. Food aid from the Nepali government and inter-
national NGOs like Plan Nepal and the Red Cross sup-
plemented home reserves and prevented widespread food
security crises. Despite extensive damages to farms, there
were low levels of emergency migration or dislocation, as
most residents opted to rebuild within their home village.
However, as of spring 2016, the effects of the earthquakes
in Dolakha remained highly visible and widespread. Much
public infrastructure like roads and buildings, as well as
private property, remains damaged despite efforts to
reconstruct.
The widespread need for local labor increased labor
costs and thus there is a need for income to pay for labor.
Immediately following the earthquake, residents across
Dolakha, including Boch and Sundrawati, received minor
financial support from the Nepali government (three
installments of Rs. 2000, 10 000 and 15 000; or roughly
1 Of 79 households surveyed in Boch and Sundrawati (Epstein et al.
in press).
$18.00, $95.00, $145.00 USD at the time) and international
and national aid organizations. Residents expressed dis-
satisfaction as this support was slow to arrive, insufficient
to meet the significant capital requirements for recon-
struction of individual homes and farms, and its distribu-
tion was inefficient. Additional support for rebuilding had
been promised by the government, but had not yet been
distributed when our research took place. Residents
expressed doubt that the government would deliver and
have relied primarily on international and local NGOs for
help, as well as intra-community support and labor
exchange for farm reconstruction.
Labor considerations
Labor availability is central to crop cultivation. In the
current period of reconstruction, sustained damage to fields
and the need to rebuild homes intensifies labor shortages,
preventing many farmers from planting as extensively as
they did before the earthquake. Lack of an adequate labor
force has increased the price for farm hands. Following the
earthquake, daily labor wages increased significantly from
Rs. 200–300 ($1.80–2.80 USD) to Rs. 400–500
($3.70–4.60 USD) per day for ‘‘soft’’ (female) labor and
Rs. 400–500 ($3.70–4.60 USD) to Rs. 800–1000
($7.40–9.30 USD) per day for ‘‘hard’’ (male) labor. Local
experts attribute this rise to several factors including pre-
existing supply pressures from out-migration. Increased
prices of household goods and services due to India’s 2015
oil and gas blockade2 have also inflated the costs of labor.
Additionally, our interviews revealed that local laborers
received monetary aid as part of relief measures, which
reduced their need to earn off-farm labor income. Because
farms in the mid-hills rely on family and local labor to tend
to off-field resources (forests and water) and on-farm crop
production and livestock, the feminization of agricultural
communities (Tamang et al. 2014) has put increasing
pressure on the workload of family members and specifi-
cally women and older children.
Through crop calendars and participatory budgeting
with lead cardamom growers and other cash crop and
subsistence farmers, we explored local perceptions of price
variability and compared labor requirements for cultivation
of maize, millet, wheat, rice, cardamom, kiwifruit, and
potato (Table 1). When compared with rice, maize, millet,
and wheat, household-level participatory budget activities
revealed initial labor investments for cardamom (seedling
cultivation and field preparation) comparable to subsis-
tence crops. However, after this initial input, much less
labor is required to maintain or harvest cardamom.
Farmers perceive labor costs for successive years of
cardamom cultivation as dramatically lower than other
crops. As one farmer explained, ‘‘I can tend to (mature)
cardamom by myself; for other crops, I must hire labor’’.
An older farmer explained how the low labor inputs for
cardamom afford more time for reconstructing the family’s
home. The economic and labor benefits of cardamom also
make sense for the farmer’s son who reported, ‘‘I have little
education or skills and so I cannot get a good job. Growing
cardamom will allow me to make a good income and stay
in the village with my family’’.
Ecological considerations
Physical changes to the landscape have also influenced
decisions to adopt and produce cardamom. In Boch, dam-
ages to homes and farms from the earthquake forced some
families to temporarily relocate. Residents of one small
hamlet below the Lamabagar Road3 moved to community
forest-managed land after the May 12th earthquake. ‘‘The
Table 1 Self-reported farmer adoption factors for cash crop options
in Dolakha. Data were gathered using participatory budget and crop
calendar exercises (where 6 farmers used a relative counting system
to rank inputs from lowest to highest), as well as focus groups and
semi-structured interviews. The crops listed are considered market-
oriented and presented in comparison with the typical subsistence
crops of the region (maize, wheat, millet and rice)
Cardamom Kiwifruit Potato Green
vegetables
Cash value High High High Medium
Labor
requirements
Low Low Medium High
Input requirements Low Low Medium High
Environmental co-
benefitsa
High Medium Medium Low
Capital investment
requirements
Medium High Low Low
Length of
investment
returns
Delayed
(3 years)
Delayed
(6 years)
Immediate Immediate
a By ‘environmental co-benefits’, we refer to the positive effect that a
measure aimed at one objective may have on another. Past studies
have identified cardamom as ‘‘economically valuable, ecologically
adaptive, and agro-climatically suitable’’ (Sharma et al. 2016)
2 In September 2015, after Nepal’s new constitution was announced,
India imposed an ‘unofficial’ or ‘undeclared’ transport blockade. The
Indian government claimed that they were not intentionally restricting
transportation, rather that Madhesdhi protests at the border prohibited
safe movement of goods into Nepal. India supplies nearly all of
Nepal’s oil and gas, and this two-month blockade limited their flow
into Nepal, resulting in a widespread fuel crisis. This shortage
reverberated across the economy, severely impacting sectors from
agriculture and disaster relief to tourism and pharmaceuticals.
3 Central, paved thoroughfare that runs east–west across Dolakha
District; the main district road for transport of goods.
land we have is not safe’’, a farmer and mother reported.
With her house completely destroyed and the terraces
above significantly damaged, the threat of additional
landslides forced her and thirteen other households to
abandon their properties. ‘‘We are scared to return to our
land’’, she explained.
In the fields high above the Lamabagar Road in Sun-
drawati, one farmer explained how his bari (rainfed fields;
typically used to cultivate maize and millet) suffered
extensive damage due to the earthquake. The large cracks
and holes will not support the intercropped maize and
millet he grew pre-earthquake. ‘‘I now plan to grow car-
damom in my bari instead to stop the landslides that are
likely to happen if I continue to plant my previous crops.
Cardamom and alder will be safer for my land’’, he said.
Several water-conscious farmers also noted that when
grown together, cardamom and alder conserve and even
enhance water sources. Historically, degraded or marginal
land was replanted with chir pine (Pinus roxburghii).
However, alder is a more appealing option as chir pines
dominate from ground to canopy, limiting local biodiver-
sity and fodder collection potential and reducing water
access downstream due to shallow and water-hungry root
systems (Nautiyal 2015). Chir pine plantations are also
more prone to forest fires, as needles and other biomass
accumulate on the forest floor (Sinha 2002).
Growing cardamom and alder together is additionally
attractive as cardamom plants can be used in papermaking
industries and alder can be felled as a timber product. One
such paper production site already exists in Dolakha.
Secondary product potential, alongside the need for addi-
tional income, prompted a new farming strategy for the
entire relocated hamlet to plant cardamom. One young
farmer planted 100 seedlings purchased from the local
agricultural office in the season following the earthquake
and will plant 100 more in the 2016 season. She anticipates
the new crops will stabilize the fields, require little labor
and provide good returns, thus retaining the production
value of her property and limiting her exposure to dan-
gerous landslide-prone areas. Moreover, as the sole care-
taker of her farm, the lower labor requirements of
cardamom address rising shortages and costs of hired field
labor as well as her husband’s absence as a laborer abroad.
These vignettes highlight how multiple influences and
impacts of the earthquake become key variables in farmer’s
decision-making and act alongside existing and ongoing
drivers of agricultural transition (Fig. 3). The need for cash
to rebuild after the earthquake has strained farming systems
and challenged the viability of subsistence mountain
livelihoods. As a result, farmers have gradually introduced
high-value crops and other entrepreneurial activities to
diversify and increase income, reduce labor costs and
bolster economic security. The transition to cash crops is
long-standing in these mid-hills communities; however, in
the post-disaster context, cardamom has become more
economically and ecologically appealing compared with
other cash crop options. This adoption pattern demonstrates
how disasters can become critical moments for accelerating
ongoing agricultural transition pathways.
Potential risks from cardamom adoption
Cash crop adoption requires careful consideration of eco-
logical conditions and interactions. In Dolakha, participants
consistently noted uneven and increasingly unreliable access
to water due to warmer seasons and environmental shocks,
such as landslides. Although cardamom requires less water
than many subsistence crops, moist soil environments are
essential. Climate change is a critical factor in explaining
increasing uncertainty in water sources, as exemplified by
the drought that followed the 2015 earthquakes. Addition-
ally, it is well-known that viral and fungal diseases reduced
cardamom production in eastern Nepal (Takahamake 2001;
Chaudary and Vista 2015). Though not yet identified in our
study locations in Dolakha, some farmers suspect disease
may be the cause of recent productivity declines. Testing for
a cultivar resistant to the disease is currently underway
(MoAD 2015); however, interviews in Dolakha reveal that
information regarding disease mitigation is not well-dis-
tributed throughout the district. As one farmer admitted, ‘‘I
think the disease may be affecting my fruit, but I’m not sure
what I can do about it’’.
DISCUSSION: CHALLENGES OF ADOPTION
Rebuilding the agricultural sector is a top priority in peri-
ods of recovery and reconstruction, and cardamom has
become an important component of campaigns for poverty
reduction and disaster risk reduction (National Planning
Commission 2015). Prior to the earthquake, in the eastern
district of Ramechhap where cardamom is extensively
produced, the UN Development Programme’s Rapid
Enterprise and Livelihood Recovery Project lauded: ‘‘ever
since they [local villagers] started farming this spicy plant
in their least yielding fields, the monster of poverty has
gone away. Perhaps, forever.’’ However, such plans are
often implemented in communities with connections to
roads and markets or where a niche crop can be cultivated
(Brown and Kennedy 2005). This can be seen in earth-
quake reconstruction plans where, for example, local value
chains have been identified for high-value crops, including
cardamom. Such plans aim to expand economic opportu-
nity and bolster recovery by promotion of crops that can be
grown in earthquake-impacted areas and processed in the
Terai (lowland plains) (Randolph and Agarwal 2017).
Despite the ability of cardamom to address multiple
post-earthquake stresses, our findings reveal that car-
damom interventions face limitations. First, starting car-
damom production requires appropriate land and new
plantings can take at least 3 years to reach maturation. For
many of the most impoverished farmers, land is limited, or
highly restricted to sharecropping contracts. In the past,
cash crop cultivation has conflicted with more traditional
communal land management practices. Protests and local
conflict erupted in Sundrawati several years ago after some
residents attempted to grow cardamom in community for-
ests. Post-earthquake, some community forestry groups
began to allow landless farmers to grow cardamom in the
forest; sharecropped land is currently reserved for subsis-
tence crops.
Access to cardamom is also differentiated by geography,
such that communities like Charikot (the district capital
and an urban center) and Boch (located on a major thor-
oughfare) have better access to nearby agricultural offices
that offer seedling discounts and technical support. Several
cardamom farmers in Boch regularly attended trainings and
received support from the agricultural offices, while others
in the more remote Sundrawati had little interaction with
agricultural technicians. This is likely because the coun-
try’s one Tropical Fruits Rootstock Development Center
(TFRDC) is located in Boch, which is a multi-hour bus ride
from Sundrawati. For more distant villages without active
agricultural offices, traveling to the district center of
Charikot can be time-consuming and expensive. Despite
significant interest in adopting cardamom in Sundrawati,
some farmers felt they lived too far from the DAO in
Charikot or TFRDC in Boch to regularly and reliably
access available support and resources. As one farmer in
Sundrawati explained, ‘‘if you don’t happen to be at the
office on the day they are distributing seeds, you don’t get
any seeds or seedlings’’ (Fig. 4). Unlike regions in eastern
Fig. 3 Analytical framework of ongoing and post-disaster factors impacting high-value crop adoption in the mid-hills of Nepal. Arrows indicate
relationships between patterns that emerged from our empirical findings. These affect ongoing changes and interact with community-level
impacts from the earthquake to motivate particular crop decisions. For example, decreased access to farm labor due to out-migration converged
with loss of critical livestock support and manual labor for hire, leading to desire for low labor crops; whereas damage to fields and uncertainty in
water sources limited farmer capacity to plant traditional crops, like rice, which require stable terraces and reliable irrigation. The earthquake
further undermined the structural integrity of many terraced slopes and fields, resulting in increased landslide risk, leading to a need for crops that
stabilize or grow on marginal lands, like cardamom
Fig. 4 Cardamom seedlings ready for distribution at the District
Agricultural Development Office (DADO) in Charikot, Dolakha
District, Nepal
Nepal, farmer-to-farmer extension of cardamom was not
widespread in Dolakha.
Other barriers to participation that exist across many
development programs, like access to information or grant-
writing ability, are relevant in our study communities. For
example, existing NGO- and government-support pro-
grams, like the High Mountain Agribusiness and Liveli-
hood Improvement (HIMALI) Project, offer grants for the
materials needed to start growing high-value crops. A
kiwifruit farmer we visited in Dolakha received such a
grant for the poles he needed to construct the supports for
the kiwifruit plants. However, he explained these programs
often require a written application and the ability to com-
pose a compelling grant application. Additionally, the
farmer may be asked to demonstrate grant-matching
capacity. Many who apply hire a person in the district
capital who knows how to write and format the application.
Even with grant support, capital inputs like seedlings or
soil amendments may be out of reach for smallholder
farmers. These requirements, thus, restrict cardamom
adoption to Dolakha’s better off smallholder households,
who have the capacity to invest and wait for the plant to
produce. Consequently, differentiated participation in post-
earthquake adoption of cash crops, including cardamom,
may accentuate pre-existing social inequality, as existing
programs to increase its production lift up the already more
resourced farmers, as opposed to poorest producers.
Farmers in Nepal with access to enough capital to plant
cardamom are exposed to a broader and more complex
supply chain than their subsistence-dominated systems. In
much of the global South, decisions to cultivate high-value
crops are often constrained by market demand (Patel 2008),
whereas rice, millet, wheat, and maize are consumed at
home or traded with neighbors. Nepal’s cardamom market
is predominantly international. Conventional economic
logic contends that market competition from India and
Bhutan may lead to future market saturation and depressed
prices. However, despite existing knowledge of these
trends, leaders of cardamom cultivation associations
showed little apprehension about these macroeconomic
factors and international production dynamics. They
instead insist that ‘‘cardamom will provide more stability
and higher income than rice or wheat because demand in
India and the Middle East is only increasing’’.
For farmers in remote villages, information regarding
price and distribution is limited. A study on cardamom
farming in Hmong communities in Vietnam highlights the
importance of market knowledge and social networks, and
how without them certain actors disproportionately profit
(Turner 2017). Similarly in Dolakha, limited information
constrains farmer choices. Non-local cardamom dealers
negotiate the supply chain and collect the cardamom seeds,
while the Indian market typically sets prices. Farmers we
interviewed reported making Rs. 1800–2600/kg
($16.70–18.40 USD/kg), while the end market retail price
is closer to Rs. 5500/kg ($50.00 USD/kg). This broadly
follows patterns where power is concentrated in the hands
of agribusiness brokers rather than farmers (Patel 2008),
thus allowing intermediaries to collect product at low farm
gate prices. The creation of storage mechanisms and value
addition activities could improve profits for farmers in
Dolakha; however, interviews revealed limited farmer
capacity for such activities.
Cardamom offers clear benefits for some farmers dev-
astated by the earthquakes and responds to the labor
shortage and cash needs of households, as they struggle to
rebuild their lives and farms. However, unevenly dis-
tributed interventions and benefits, coupled with high
capital costs of transition and cultivation, may lead to
increased rural differentiation and exacerbate inequities in
local communities. Furthermore, it may not address con-
cerns associated with food security. With this, along with
potential risks of disease, downward price pressure and
market saturation in mind, the capacity for cardamom to
extend comprehensively across populations in the mid-hills
is limited. Cardamom and its associated land, information,
technical and capital requirements, thus make this transi-
tion one available to a limited group of farmers.
CONCLUSION
This paper underscores the capacity of disasters to interact
with agricultural and socio-economic systems in ways that
accelerate adoption of specific crops, and potentially con-
tribute to further social differentiation. We examined
ongoing crop transition in the mid-hills of Nepal in the
context of the 2015 earthquakes. While crop transition is
widespread, adoption of individual crops responds to par-
ticular cultivation requirements and market pressures.
Farmers choose cardamom within the context of rising cash
crop economies, out-migration, climate change and agri-
culture policy. Threats from landslides, damaged fields,
post-earthquake labor shortages, changed water sources
and immediate cash needs for rebuilding were additional
motivations for cardamom adoption in the post-earthquake
landscape. These motivations highlight how environmental
shocks alongside specific crop features create new inter-
actions between economic and environmental variables.
Although attractive for enhancing income and livelihoods
in rural mountain communities, and an option with keen
ecological benefits, widespread cardamom cultivation is
not without challenges. Adopting high-value and low labor
crops may allow farmers to more readily adapt to pressures
from out-migration, feminization of the labor force or
recovery from environmental shocks. Yet,
inequitable distribution of land, capital, government sup-
port and information favor cardamom adoption by better
off smallholders, which could exacerbate rural differenti-
ation. Moreover, growing cardamom may introduce new
risks involving food security, volatile international markets
and unpredictable diseases for farmers already adapting to
a post-disaster scenario. This means that not every farmer
can nor should choose cardamom. As Nepal faces contin-
ued risks from environmental disasters alongside and
interacting with ongoing agricultural transitions from sub-
sistence to high-value crops, further research is needed to
understand the complexities of adaptation choices and their
implications for social differentiation, and to identify
options for more targeted and equitable agricultural
support.
Acknowledgements We heartily thank the participants from Char-
ikot, Sundrawati and Boch in Dolakha District, Nepal, for spending
time with the research team and contributing to this study. We thank
collaborators at ForestAction Nepal: Bikash Adhikari, Govinda Pau-
del, Naya Sharma Paudel and Dil Bahadur Khatri, for their fieldwork
assistance. We thank Isha Ray, Emily Yeh, Sarah Turner, Kripa
Jagannathan, Veronica Jacome, Galen Murton, Rupak Shresta and
Dinesh Paudel for their review, generous comments and guidance,
and Michael MacDonald for the study location map. Funding and
support was provided by the American Alpine Club, the Peder Sather
Fellowship, a joint collaborative of the University of California,
Berkeley and the University of Bergen, and Patagonia.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Jessica DiCarlo (&) is a doctoral student in the Department of
Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her
M.A. in Development Studies at the University of California
Berkeley, and B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from
Pepperdine University. Her doctoral research examines the grounded
implications of Chinese infrastructure projects in relation to wider
hegemonic projects of development.
Address: Department of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder,
110 Guggenheim Building, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
e-mail: jessica.dicarlo@colorado.edu
Kathleen Epstein is a doctoral student in the Department of Earth
Sciences at Montana State University with the Resources and Com-
munities Research Group. She earned an M.S. with the Energy and
Resources Group at UC Berkeley, and has a B.A. in Anthropology
from Davidson College. Her current doctoral research explores how
changing land tenure patterns in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
impact the capacities and policies of wildlife management.
Address: Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University,
221 Traphagen, Bozeman, MT 59718-4001, USA.
e-mail: kathleenepstein@montana.edu
Robin Marsh is an agricultural socio-economist and senior
researcher at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the
University of California, Berkeley. Marsh received her Ph.D. from the
Food Research Institute, Stanford University. She has over 25 years
of experience in international agriculture and rural development.
Marsh conducts collaborative research on the nexus of gender, agri-
culture and natural resource management. She is a Senior Fellow with
the NGO Ecoagriculture Partners and an Affiliate Faculty member
with the Berkeley Food Institute.
Address: Institute for Study of Societal Issues, University of Cali-
fornia Berkeley, 2428 Bowditch Street, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA.
e-mail: robinmarsh@berekeley.edu
Inger Ma˚ren is an associate professor at the Department of Bio-
logical Sciences, University of Bergen (UiB), Norway. She has a
minor in social anthropology, a Master’s in plant ecology and a Ph.D.
in quantitative ecology. Her work focuses on effects of anthropogenic
disturbances created by diversified farming practices in the global
north and south on ecosystem function, vegetation patterns and bio-
diversity. She has worked in Nepal over the last 20 years, giving her a
comparative, global perspective to the interactions between agroe-
cological systems, the environment and human impacts.
Address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen,
Thormøhlensgt 53A, 5007 Bergen, Norway.
e-mail: inger.maaren@uib.no