Production System and Productivity of the selected vegetable crops along the Dumre-Besishahar Road-heads
 Dr. Shanta Man Shakya, Ram Chandra Bastakoti, Durga Prasad Acharya

Aiming to exploit the opportunities of integrating agricultural production systems at the Dumre-Besishahar road head areas with external market outlets FORWARD had designed a project on "Vegetable production and marketing systems along the Dumre-Besishahar road-head areas" for three years starting from 1999 to 2002 with the financial support of Hill Agriculture Research Project (HARP). The project aimed to establish an effective market oriented vegetable production plan for both summer and winter season vegetables alongside a profitability analysis. Eleven different vegetables were included as researchable crops in the project for production trial in the farmers' field condition to study the social and economic aspects of the production. The result of the past two years study clearly indicated that except in a few crops such as tomato and, to some extent, radish there is good potential for increasing the productivity. With adjustment in time of sowing or planting and use of authentic seed and variety, the later two crops may also be taken successfully. For the radish and tomato, it is further recommended for the production research in the uplands to test their performances again targeting to planting time with several wilt and rainfall resistant varieties at different elevations. The area holds the strong potential for commercialized production of certain vegetables for which there is the dire need of strengthening and scaling up production through group approach by mobilizing and empowering the farmers for the development of their own self-reliant organization.