Farmers across Nepal, already delayed by a sluggish monsoon, are now scrambling for scarce chemical fertilisers as the paddy transplanting season gathers pace. But in parts of Chitwan and Palpa, a small group of growers has avoided the annual crisis altogether by abandoning chemical fertilisers and pesticides in favour of organic farming.

Their experience is increasingly being cited as evidence that Nepal’s dependence on imported fertilisers can be reduced through locally available organic alternatives.

In ward 15 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City of Chitwan, farmer Chandra Prasad Adhikari is busy transplanting paddy on his four-and-a-half bighas (3.05-hectares) of land. While most farmers are worried about finding urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP), Adhikari says the shortage has little effect on him.

He has been practising organic farming since 1990 and no longer applies chemical fertilisers or pesticides to his fields.

“I do not apply any fertiliser after transplanting paddy,” Adhikari said.

In the early years, he relied on farmyard manure, oilcake and green manure crops such as dhaincha (Sesbania) and sesame. Over time, he says, the soil has become fertile enough that additional fertiliser is no longer necessary.

Occasionally, his paddy grows so vigorously that the crop lodges before harvest, but he considers that a minor problem.

After harvesting rice, Adhikari cultivates vegetables on the same land. The vermicompost, cattle manure and poultry manure applied during the vegetable season provide enough nutrients for the following paddy crop, he said.

The only time he uses vermicompost specifically for rice is while preparing seedbeds.

“Maintaining the soil's natural fertility without chemical fertilisers or pesticides has benefited us,” he said. “The yield is good. Only crops like carrots and beetroot suffer from excessive weeds.”

Another farmer, Chhabi Lal Neupane of ward 25, cultivates paddy on about 10.5 bighas (7.11 hectares) of his 16-bigha (10.8-hectare) farm. He, too, has not used chemical fertilisers or pesticides for the past 14 years.

Instead of purchasing fertiliser, he grows dhaincha, a nitrogen-fixing green manure crop, before the rice season.

“When it’s time to transplant paddy, we simply plough the dhaincha back into the field,” Neupane said. “It decomposes in the flooded soil and becomes an excellent natural fertiliser.”

He also spreads powdered mustard oilcake across his fields and has already collected 15 quintals from a local cooperative oil mill for this season.

“I don’t have to worry about searching for fertiliser,” he said. “My only concern now is maintaining irrigation and preparing the fields.”

Neupane believes many Nepali farmers still assume that productive farming is impossible without chemical inputs.

“If livestock sheds are managed properly, the manure they produce is enough for farming,” he said, urging the government to encourage farmers to improve livestock management instead of relying almost entirely on subsidised chemical fertilisers.

An advocate of organic agriculture who also trains farmers, Neupane argues that allocating even 20 percent of the government's chemical fertiliser subsidy to organic farming would deliver significant results.

Properly managed livestock manure and urine, he said, can meet most nutrient requirements, adding that one adult cow or buffalo can generate enough manure to fertilise around one-and-a-half bighas of farmland.

Adhikari, who chairs the Chitwan Organic Association, said the lack of supportive government policies discourages more farmers from switching to organic methods.

“Many farmers believe weeds, pests and lower yields are inevitable without chemicals,” he said. “That misconception keeps them dependent on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.”

Farmers in Palpa have also begun reducing their use of urea over the past few years, turning instead to green manure, vermicompost, farmyard manure, liquid organic fertilisers and other biological alternatives.

Agricultural expert Sagar Karki said repeated fertiliser shortages, combined with declining soil fertility caused by excessive chemical use, had pushed farmers to seek sustainable alternatives.

“Farmers themselves have realised that the soil is losing its fertility,” Karki said. “Since traditional farmyard manure is becoming less available, they are exploring other organic options.”

Ribdikot Rural Municipality in Palpa has been investing more than Rs30 million annually to promote organic farming, including training farmers to produce liquid and organic fertilisers.

According to Rural Municipality Chair Narayan Bahadur Karki, the municipality has established an organic fertiliser plant at Kusumkhola through a public-private partnership involving the local government, farmers and the Jaleshwar Multipurpose Cooperative.

The fertiliser, produced under the brand name Amritbuti Organic Fertiliser, is sold at Rs25 per kilogram.

Karki said the project was launched after farmers repeatedly complained that crop yields no longer matched the effort they invested in cultivation. Around Rs45 million has been spent to establish the facility.

Soil tests conducted by the Soil and Fertiliser Testing Laboratory in Khajura, Banke, found that farmland in Ribdikot had become increasingly acidic, while some areas showed alkaline conditions, highlighting the long-term impact of excessive chemical fertiliser use.

Organic fertiliser specialist Yam Bahadur Darlami said similar small-scale fertiliser plants could be established by local governments across Nepal to improve soil health.

The Amritbuti fertiliser is produced from invasive weeds, mugwort, locally available hill vegetation, bone meal, oilcake, beneficial bacteria, Pseudomonas, Trichoderma, seaweed, calcium, cattle manure and press mud, a by-product of sugar processing.

The fertiliser contains around 1 percent nitrogen, 0.5 percent phosphorus, 1 percent potassium, 25 percent moisture and has a neutral pH of around seven percent, Darlami said.

Farmers in Damkada, Keseni, Rupse, Madipokharathok and Jhumsa of Dobhan have also started cultivating dhaincha as green manure for paddy.

Rishi Raj Khanal, a farmer from Tansen Municipality-9, said the decline in livestock rearing has sharply reduced the availability of traditional farmyard manure, making green manure crops an increasingly practical alternative for sustaining rice production.