Environmental research

The annual cardamom production of Nepal is 6128.24 MT, which is second highest position in Cardamom in the world after India. Nepal cultivates 11242.56 ha of land for Cardamom with the average yield of 0.51 MT/ Ha. Cardamom is one of the main cash crops among Nepalese farmers in Eastern part of Nepal. Cardamom is non labour intensive but energy intensive produce in Nepal. In 1997, according to WECS, in Nepal, a total of 834,673 GJ of energy was consumed to cure (to dry) the cardamom and the main fuel source is the fuelwood. Hence to replace this fuelwood consumption, the project has proposed to introduce solar hybrid dryer system amongst the cardamom cultivators. The project aimed to establish community managed solar hybrid dryer system to increase the quality of dried cardamom and also to reduce fuelwood consumption thereby reducing the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Nepal