It is by far the most dominant economic activity of the Nepalese people. It provides employment to 91% of the total population and brings in 52% of the total revenue of Nepal Government. Being a mountainous country, the cultivated land is limited to merely 18% of the total area of Nepal. Farming is mainly of subsistence type and yield per unit of land is very low. Owing to limited irrigational facility, Nepalese agriculture is excessively dependent on the mercy of monsoons. Due to excessive pressure of population on land, the par capita share of arable land comes to be just 0.2 hectare and holdings all are ver5y small. About 80% holdings are below one hectare. The tarai plain is the principal agricultural region representing about 70% of the total cultivated land in the country. Agricultural crops grow in Nepal are popularly divided into two groups - food crops and cash crops. About 82% of the total sown land are allotted to food crops. The most important food crops of Nepal are paddy, maize, millet, wheat and barley. Among them, the most important is paddy, which occupies 55% of the total land, devoted to food crops. About 80% of this crop are produced in the tarai region. Maize and millet are basically hill crops. On the other hand, leading cash crops which occupy 18% of the total arable land include oilseeds, suger cane, Jute, tobacco, potato, tea, cardamom, fruits, etc. Almost all these cash crops are produced mainly in the tarai belt. Associated with crop farming are livestock farming in the Himalayan region, dairy and fruit farming in the hilly region and fish farming in the tarai region. These activities are performed in a limited scale and in a scattered form.