Workplace Stress Management

• Stress develops in workplaces among employees due to various factors viz work overload, disturbing workplace environment, mistrust, unfairness, unclear job responsibilities and the lack of appreciation culture.

• Employees also get stressed at the workplace due to misunderstandings that arise from the difference in nature of their colleagues. This inhibits smooth work operations as work is now dependent on employee emotional levels. For example, a senior staff dominating his subordinates can create stress in the latter.

• Stress also costs companies through increased absenteeism, lack of enthusiasm for the job, poor performance, and bad attitude. Improvements in each of these areas can improve productivity and increase profits.

• Staffs' nature of hesitating to say 'NO' has been assigned to them makes them prone to workplace stress. They can limit their job load by respectfully and logically denying to undertake work overload.

• Properly managed circumstances can reduce stress, maximize employee productivity, and improve the living conditions of everyone.

• A well-managed workplace reduces stress and creates a fun environment to work in.

• The most important realization employees must have is that it is not the actual stressor which needs to be managed, but instead how they choose to relate to the stressor. Employees should be able to perceive attitude vs aptitude.

• When having to to do the dull work, staff must take time to explore within to draw out their passion, and then investigate how they can weave it  into their work. This then gives all of their effort a purpose and meaning. And when both purpose and passion are activated, employees become empowered to handle tasks and responsibilities which under different circumstances would have stressed them.

• People with high level of stress can be treated through proper counseling which works better than prescribed drug.

 

Cardamom Farming in Nepal

Introduction: Large Cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) or Alainchi in Nepali, is a perennial herbaceous plant with subterranean rhizomes that give rise to several leafy shoots and panicles. Large cardamom was introduced into Ilam (Nepal) in 1865 AD, nearly 143 years ago by Nepalese laborers from Sikkim. Its commercial cultivation started in Ilam much later in around 1953 AD only. The establishment of Cardamom Development Centre at Fikkal in this district in 1975 paved the way for the development of this crop.

Most of the cardamom producing areas is located in  Ilam, Panchthar, Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha, Terhathum, Bhojpur and Dhankuta districts. While the area has expanded to include more than 37 districts covering all development regions of the country.  Today, Nepal is the top producer of large cardamom followed by India and Bhutan (Large cardamom is produced by only these three countries). In 2012, Nepal  exported 5902 mt. ton of large cardamom worth Rs. 3,892,651,271.

Production: Cardamom is generally reproduced by vegetative propagation using suckers.  Economic yield starts from 3rd years onward after planting and its optimal yield period is 8-10 years. The total life span of Cardamom plants is about 20-25 years.There are sixteen varieties of Cardamom in the world. Among them five types of Large Cardamom are in farming practices across Nepal-Ramsey, Golsey, Sawney, Chibesey, and Dammersey. Although it varies from place to place, and variety to variety, about 26 kg of Cardamom (dry) is produced from 500 sq m (a ropani) of land.

Harvesting: The yield starts from 3rd years onward after planting. Fruit is ripened during August to November. Harvesting is done with the help of mechanical instruments e.g. knife. After harvesting, Cardamom capsules are separated manually by hands. The harvested fruits are processed mainly using traditional or improved drying technology (bhatty). The existing traditional practice of curing and drying the Cardamom is age-old types, where the capsules are dried by direct heating in the traditional bhatty. Under this system the Cardamom comes in direct contact with smoke and turns the capsule to dark brown black color with a smoky smell. To reduce smoke and produce light purple capsules, improved bhatties are being introduced.

Drying and Curing: After 18 to 24 hours of drying, the capsules are removed. But the total time of drying varies depending on factors such as fire management, initial moisture content of the capsules,weather condition and bhatty structures. There is no clear indicator to decide if the drying process is complete or not. In some cases, the capsules are either over-dried or under-dried at the same condition of fire and weather. Sometimes the farmers feel that the product is over-dried and they sprinkle water to increase weight. This practice leads to difficulty in maintaining consistent quality. In Taplejung district, there is a provision of premium price for improved bhatty products but prices also vary depending on tail-cut, moisture content, color and the level of dryness.

Packaging of cardamom: There is no specialized packaging and handling systems. Cardamoms are packed in jute sacks with capacity of 40 to 100 Kg. The packaging practices, however, differ with the intended duration of stocking.

• If the storage period less than 15 days, cardamom is packed in jute bags and left unstitched.
• If the storage period is more than 15 days, it is packed in jute bags with plastic sheet lining.
• If the storage period is more than one month, it is stored in bulk and is covered by Hessian sheets.

Marketing Channel: Cardamom makes its more than 90% of its sales to India without value addition. The Large Cardamom produced in is exclusively sold to Indian markets (Siliguri). Delhi and Amritsar are the potential markets in . After reaching India, the large cardamom are value added and sorted to export abroad. The typical market channel is:

Collector – District Traders – Regional Trader – Indian Traders  – Export to third countries

Market price of Cardamom:

The market price however is greatly influenced by the following major quality considerations:

• Size – the bigger the size of the capsules, the higher the price obtained. No grading is in vogue at present and mixing of all sizes and different cultivars is quite common.
• Color – more prices are offered to the capsules having a light pink color in international markets.
• Moisture contents – the products with high moisture fetch comparatively low price. The  moist capsules are also subject to easy fungal infection.

Cost of Cardamom at various market channels:

Farmers		Local Traders		Wholesaler		Exporter
Item	Cost	Item	Cost	Item	Cost	Item	Cost
Production Costs		Assembling Costs		Assembling cost		Assembling cost
Seed materials	8.63	Cleaning/Sorting	0.25	Sorting/Tail cutting	3.00	Cleaning/ Sorting	1.50
Fuel Wood	4.00	Packaging (in jute bags)	0.14	O'head Cost	2.00	O'head Cost	1.00
Labor	55.98
Others	3.43
Total Production Costs	72.04	Acquisition Cost	195.00	Acquisition Cost	210	Acquisition Cost	225
		Transfer Costs	0.75	Trucking Costs	1.04	Trucking Costs	0.71
Post Production Costs	1.50	Total Assembling Costs	196.14	Total Assembling Costs	216	Total Assembling Costs	228
Miscellaneous	0	Miscellaneous	0	DDC  & other tax	4.57	DDC & other tax/levy	5.00
Total Farm Level Cost	73.54	Total Trading Cost	196.14	Total Wholesale Level Cost	221	Total Export Level Cost	233
Losses	9.75	Losses	4.88	Losses	3.21	Losses	1.61
Margin	111.71	Margin	8.98	Margin	1.18	Margin	15.18
Avg Farm gate Price	195	Assembler level price	210	Wholesale level price	225	Wholesale level price	250

Export Figure:

S.N.	Country	Unit	Quantity	Value(NRS)
1	India	Kg.	5879702	3875674562
2	U.A.E.	Kg.	18000	15501059
3	Canada	Kg.	1000	1177650
4	China P. R.	Kg.	3000	240000
5	Nicaragua	Kg.	50	58000
Total			5901752	3892651271

From Date: January 2012 - December 2012

Production Yield (at farm level):

Country Average: 0.61 mt/ha; 30kg per ropani

Production Cost (Per Ropani): 73.50 * 30 = 2205

Sales Price: 195 * 30 = 5850

Profit per ropani: 5850-2205 = Rs. 3645

The Product HS Code of Large Cardamom is 09083010

The Product HS Code of Small Cardamom is 09083090

For more information visit these pages:

http://www.agripricenepal.com/newsdoc/20090716150653.pdf

http://www.cadp.gov.np/Document_Uploads/Reports/dd1d5812506492836355.pdf

http://www.snvworld.org/en/regions/asia/publications?filter=agriculture

http://208.67.23.5/~itsoftc/projects/tepc/

Helping Farmers in Nepal

If you are a farmer and stuck in a problem, you don't know what to do? Here is an agriculture counselling team ready to help you at free.

Established about a month ago, Agri-Care Nepal Private Limited (ACNPL) through the service 'Kisan Call Centre' has started toll-free counseling service for farmers.

With this service, farmers from any part of the country can get counseling on farm diseases from experts by making free calls to 1660-56-52999. Farmers can register their problem and nature of diseases through phone calls at the call center. Then the team of agro-technicians studies the case and provides technical counseling to farmers.

Vegetable Seed Production and Current Situation in Nepal

•   Over the last decade, around 50% of the domestic demand for the vegetable seeds was met by the domestic formal (government and private seed companies) sector.

•   The gap in demand of vegetable seeds is mostly met by imports and to some extent domestic informal sector  (farmer to farmer exchange, saved seeds, cross border informal seed supply)

•   Of the 2,000+ MT of vegetable seeds demand, around 3/4th of the total domestic demand in volume term is accounted by peas, (French) bean, onion, radish, cow pea and okra.

•   Cauliflower, cabbage, onion, radish and tomato are the top five vegetables in terms of area under cultivation, account for around 50% of the total area cultivated for vegetables in Nepal.

•   Radish and onion are important (in terms of vegetable seeds); in terms of cultivated area for vegetables and potential volume demand of commercial seed.

•   The current production of vegetable seeds (formal sector) would be less than half of the mentioned figure of around 950 mt (in 2008/9), i.e., around 400-450 mt. A trade survey in 2008/9, carried out by CEAPRED indicates that Kathmandu–based seed businesses bought not more than 340 mt of domestically produced vegetable seeds.

•   If five crops namely radish, broadleaf mustard, cress, peas and bean are excluded then it is estimated that over 80% of the domestic demand for seeds is met through imports.

•   Informal sources could account for anywhere from 30%-45% of the total vegetable seed consumed in Nepal, depending upon situation and circumstances

•   Most of these are introduced varieties of vegetables (cabbage, carrots, coriander, onion, spinach, tomato and zucchini) depend highly on imports. Indigenous varieties such as peas, cowpeas, radish, cucurbit crops, beans and rayo are lesser dependent on imports for seeds supply.

•   Taking an example of 2008/09:

•       Total estimated demand was 1,932 mt (VDD/ DoA),

•       Private / government sector supply was 957.3 mt (49.5%) (VDD/ DoA),

•       Formal imports: 407.8 mt (21.1%) (TEPC),

•       Data Gap comes to  566.9 mt (29.3%), which is met by informal channels and cross-border imports.