Farmer Mohan Kumar Adhikari of Ramdhuni Municipality, Sunsari, is relieved that his days of back-breaking labour are over. Thanks to mechanisation, he can now manage his farm with ease and efficiency.

A new system of custom hiring services—centres that rent out agricultural machinery and tools to farmers based on local needs—has taken a significant leap in the eastern Tarai plains, the country’s key food-producing region.

Adhikari, 70, is now the only one tending his family’s two-bigha [1.35 hectares] farm. His sons—one settled in Canada, another a university teacher in Nepal—chose other professions because traditional farming was too labour-intensive and unprofitable.

“Farming, obviously, is difficult,” he says. “But now, things have changed.”

With more than 700,000 Nepali youths leaving the country each year for work abroad, the agriculture sector faces severe labour shortages and increasing feminisation. But Adhikari remains loyal to his land. “Now, we do modern farming,” he says.

He first heard about custom hiring services three years ago through a cooperative. Since then, he says, his production costs have dropped by half. “Besides saving time and cost, the work has become much easier,” he says, adding that he recently switched to maize due to rising demand from livestock feed mills.

In Sunsari’s Inaruwa and Barahakshetra areas, many farmers have done the same, finding maize far more profitable than paddy and sugarcane.

According to the Agriculture Census 2021-22 conducted by the National Statistics Office, 19.44 million Nepalis—nearly two-thirds of the population—depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

The report shows a remarkable shift towards mechanisation: the number of farmers using tractors jumped to 1.63 million in 2021-22 from 845,000 a decade earlier. Similarly, 471,260 farmers now use power tillers.

Meanwhile, the use of traditional iron ploughs dropped sharply from 856,283 to 509,825 in the same period.

Tika Dutta Ban, founder chairman of Sagun Cooperatives in Sunsari, which pioneered custom hiring services, says mechanisation is now moving hand in hand with digitisation. “Our farms are not just mechanised—they are becoming digital,” he says.

The cooperative has developed a mobile app, Adhunik Kheti (modern farming), now in the implementation phase. Similar to a ride-sharing platform, the app allows farmers to book machines, view available equipment, and check prices. “We are a step forward in farm digitisation,” Ban says.

Agriculture remains Nepal’s economic backbone, contributing around 24 percent to GDP and employing more than half of its workforce. Yet the sector continues to struggle with low investment, outdated practices, and limited technology.

Ban recalls how laborious the old process was: “In the past, it took 10 people a day to transplant paddy on one bigha, and weeks to prepare the field. Now, the tractor finishes the job in 40 minutes.”

Hiring 10 labourers costs around Rs500 to Rs800 per person per day. By contrast, a tractor does the same work for Rs10,000, and a paddy transplanter completes transplantation for another Rs5,000.

Sagun Cooperatives operates a dedicated farm mechanisation unit, offering services such as zero tillage, seed drilling, and super seeding. Zero tillage costs Rs3,000 per hour, while seed drilling costs Rs8,000, and super seeding Rs6,000 for two hours.

The super seeder, a newer technology, shreds paddy straw in the field, allowing it to decompose naturally. This innovation helps combat the growing problem of stubble burning, a practice that causes air pollution. It is mostly practised in India and has begun to spread to Nepal due to labour shortages.

Farmers used to reuse straw for livestock feed and roofing, but as animal numbers have dropped and modern roofing replaced straw thatching, leftover straw is now often burned. “These machines eliminate the need to burn fields,” Ban says.

According to Ban, modern machines can reduce 15 days of work to just two hours. “Our estimate is that machines cut farmers’ costs by more than 50 percent throughout the farming cycle,” he says.

Sagun Cooperatives first introduced combine harvesters, which combine three different tasks: reaping, threshing, and winnowing. They were introduced from India 12 years ago—then a first in Nepal—at a cost of Rs2.6 million per unit.

“When we learned about these machines in Haryana, India, we saw the potential for leasing them to Nepali farmers,” Ban recalls.

In 2018, Sagun Cooperatives proposed a custom hiring programme to the Koshi provincial government. Three years later, the province allocated Rs60 million, enabling the service to expand across Jhapa, Sunsari, and Morang.

The cooperative now owns 28 farm machines, including five combine harvesters, a land laser leveller, and GPS-enabled computerised systems. It also operates Chinese chain harvesters that can work in muddy or uneven fields. With demand soaring, Sagun plans to add three more combine harvesters soon.

Starting with an investment of just Rs1 million 15 years ago, the cooperative now handles an annual turnover of Rs320 million and serves more than 3,000 farmers per season.

“Mechanisation has reduced costs, improved levelling and fertiliser distribution, and strengthened plants, which directly boosts productivity,” Ban says.

Farmers say mechanisation has drastically reduced post-harvest losses. In 2023, with support from the Swiss government, Sagun introduced GPS tracking in its machines under Sahaj, a joint Nepal-Switzerland initiative to strengthen agribusiness in 14 districts of Koshi Province.

“GPS not only tracks machines but also records data on fuel use, distance covered, and working hours,” Ban explains.

Sagun has established multiple service centres in Surunga, Rajgadh, Sijuwa, Shiva Satasi, Dharampur (Jhapa), Dangihat (Morang), Ramdhuni, and Itahari (Sunsari).

Ganga Prasad Pandit, who manages the cooperative’s custom hiring service and was Nepal’s first combine harvester driver, recalls the transformation vividly. “We used to rely on tractors and oxen. Now, machines save time, labour, and cost,” he says. “But small landholdings in Nepal still pose challenges for machine operation.”

A single machine can prepare one bigha of land for paddy in just 40 minutes. “Using oxen, it would take three pairs working all day,” he adds.

In Sunsari’s Barju Rural Municipality, Buddha Lal Chaudhari has replaced his sugarcane crops with maize after realising the advantages of mechanisation and prompt payment.

“It used to take 22 months to get paid for sugarcane. Now, we sell maize and get paid instantly,” he says. Earlier, Chaudhari cultivated sugarcane on seven bighas; today, he grows maize and accesses custom hiring services through his cooperative membership.

He says the cost of paddy transplantation has halved—from Rs25,000 to Rs12,000 per bigha—thanks to machinery.

The cooperative has also introduced aggregators, who collect crops—mainly maize—from farmers and supply them to feed mills. Around 30 to 35 feed mills operate along the Morang-Sunsari industrial corridor, ensuring steady demand.

According to the Department of Customs, Nepal imported prepared animal fodder worth Rs25.54 billion in the last fiscal year. The country also imported maize worth Rs18 billion, mainly for the feed industry.

“Before, we didn’t even know what custom hiring meant,” Chaudhari admits. “Now, the aggregator system connects us to the market directly.” The cooperative sells the collected maize to feed factories, taking a Rs1.50 margin per kg.

An estimated 70 percent of farmers in Barju have switched to maize after struggling with sugarcane’s long payment cycles.

In Morang, Pushpa Animal Feed Industries, managed by Netra Prasad Bhandari, has developed an innovative value chain—producing rice-like grains from maize collected by aggregators.

“We process maize to make rice, which is now popular even in urban markets,” Bhandari says. “We also plan to produce customised livestock feed soon.” The industry works directly with 3,000 farmers and recently set up a maize processing mill, planning to launch feed production by the end of the month.

In Jhapa, Adarsha Agro offers a one-stop solution, providing custom hiring, processing, packaging, cold storage, and warehouse facilities. The company chairman, Dilli Ram Poudel, says maize cultivation, which had nearly vanished from Jhapa, is resurging because of its commercial value and faster payments.

“Farming is no longer as hard as it used to be,” Poudel says. “Thanks to mechanisation and custom hiring services, agriculture is becoming easier, modern, and profitable.”