SOIL NUTRIENTS STATUS AND CROPPING SYSTEM IN PLASTIC HOUSE CONDITION OF CHANDRAGIRI MUNICIPALITY KATHMANDU

  • Nisha PANTHA1and Shova SHRESTHA2

Soil nutrients are essential for plant growth, crop production, and sustainable agricultural development. In recent years plastic house is going popular around peri-urban areas of Nepal, including Chandragiri municipality of Kathmandu district. The research report covered the experience, learning and contribution on nutrient status and cropping system of plastic house of Chandragiri municipality of Kathmandu district. The main goal of the research was to access the nutrient status as well as other farm activities of the farmers to maintain soil fertility and enhance the crop yield for the sustainable agriculture. The research involved different activities like survey, interview and soil sampling. Total 50 plastic houses were visited randomly to achieve the goal and 20 samples out of 50 samples were randomly selected for the laboratory analysis to find out the status of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (P), Zinc (Zn) and Boron (B). The data collected from the interview related to the farm activities involved all 50 farms. The data was analyzed with the help of Microsoft excel and SPSS (version 25). The observed data revealed a range of soil nutrient concentrations, with varying levels of consistency across different variables. Nitrogen showed relatively stable concentrations with low variability. Available Phosphorus and Potassium showed wider fluctuations. Zinc also showed moderate variability. Boron contained the highest variability among the variables, reflecting significant inconsistency in its concentration levels across the samples. According to the survey data, the highly cultivated crop was found to be tomato and its average production was 53.3T/ha which concluded that plastic house farming in Chandragiri has high potential to produce all kind of the vegetable crops and improve their livelihoods if their obstacles such as limited investment, small landholding, lack of subsidies and market facilities are addressed.