Aayushma Poudel¹ , Bishnu Prasad Bhattrai¹ , Krish Rauniyar² , Chandani Begam¹ , Asmita Oli¹

1 Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (HICAST), Kathmandu, 44600, Nepal
2 Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, 62901, USA
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2026, Vol. 16, No. 4   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2026.16.0019
Received: 16 May, 2026    Accepted: 15 Jul., 2026    Published: 28 Jul., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Poudel A., Bhattrai B.P., Rauniyar K., Begam C., and Oli A., 2026, From tunnels to transformation: evidence of livelihood enhancement through protected vegetable farming in Meghang, Nuwakot, International Journal of Horticulture, 16(4): 214-227 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2026.16.0019)

This study was carried out from March 2025 to June 2025 to assess the contribution of tunnel based vegetable farming in household income and livelihood enhancement in Meghang Rural Municipality, Nuwakot. The data was taken from five wards namely Panera (ward No.6), Samari (ward No.5), Kimtang (ward No.4), Deurali (ward No.3), Bungtang (ward No.2). A total of 100 farmers were selected through simple random sampling, and data were collected using household surveys and interviews. According to the study, farming community was dominated by male farmers (68%) and the majority were between the ages of 30 to 50. The majority of respondents were involved in vegetable farming as prime occupation and source of income. Tomato was the dominant crop grown under tunnels, and most farmers adopted improved practices such as drip irrigation and mulching. Majority of farmers relied on agro vets for hybrid seeds, applied FYM with chemical fertilizers, and had built medium sized, 6*12 m tunnel covered with 90 GSM plastic sheets. About 38% of the farmers who produced vegetables in tunnels earned more than NRs. 3 lakhs annually. About 23% of income was saved and was mostly used for health, education, and food. However, farmers faced challenges such as high initial investment, limited access to inputs, and market dependency. Overall, plastic tunnel farming has the potential to support household income generation and livelihood improvement in the study area.

Farming; Income; Livelihood; Tunnel; Vegetable