Understanding household livelihood strategies is pivotal to minimize rural poverty in the least developed countries like Nepal. This study is an attempt to assess livelihood strategies pursued by rural households, investigate the most remunerative strategy, and identify the factors that influence a household’s choice of better strategies in rural Nepal. Primary data collected in 453 households from three villages of central Nepal are analyzed quantitatively within a sustainable livelihood framework. This study categorized households into five main livelihood strategy groups. The results showed that the majority (61%) of the households diversified their income to non-farm sources. Livelihood diversification to business/enterprise strategies adopted by 16% of the households is the most remunerative strategy followed by commercial farming that includes 13% of the sample and are more relevant to poverty reduction. Land holding, education, agriculture and skill training, access to credit, and proximity to the road and market center are the major influencing factors on the adoption of higher returning livelihood strategies. Stimulating poor households to follow market-oriented farm and non-farm activities by improving access to education, vocational training, rural credit, and rural infrastructures is momentous for reducing poverty in the rural areas of central Nepal.

Gender mainstreaming is a key for achieving inclusive economic growth, poverty reduction and equitable development. A gender disaggregated analysis of changing livelihood activities is, therefore, crucial for devising gender-sensitive policies and programs. This paper presents a gender disaggregated analysis to assess trend and influencing factors of switching livelihood to higher returning activities at the intra-household level in three villages in rural areas of central Nepal. The result showed that both men and women have changed their livelihood activities from subsistence to cash-earning activities in the last decade. However, the livelihood activities of men have changed considerably compared to women. Men are primarily attracted to out-migration and non-farm wage-based jobs whereas women to market-oriented commercial farming and rural enterprises. Individual as well as location-specific characteristics influence behavior switching to higher returning activities irrespective of gender, while the ethnicity of a household influences only women. Building human and financial capital through education and training along with strengthening access to credit and increasing connectivity through rural road and market centers would be pivotal for encouraging rural men and women to change traditional subsistence activities to higher returning undertakings, leading to equitable livelihood improvement in rural Nepal.

Conservation agriculture (CA) systems composed of intercropping and strip tillage practices were evaluated on marginalized maize-based farming system in hill region of Nepal. On-farm experimental trials were conducted on the field of 25 smallholder farmers in three villages of central mid-hill region. Results indicated that although CA systems did not increase crop yields; higher return and revenue were generated due to increased number of crop harvests and higher price of the cash crops used in intercropping. Therefore, it was concluded that smallholder farmers should adopt CA system for increasing return and improving sustainability of the farming system