The Nepali Government is currently implementing policies for a radical agricultural transformation into large-scale, mechanized, specialized and commercial farming. However, the peasants prioritize diversified subsistence production of resilient and versatile food crops and regard cash crops only as a supplement. Cash cropping represents a potentially profitable income source but involves risk. Complete agricultural commercialization would jeopardize household and community food security, weaken trust- and reciprocity-based social mechanisms for exchanging food and labour, and break with traditions. Peasants’ motivations for balancing subsistence and market production are multiple and interrelated because their economic pursuits are deeply embedded in social and cultural structures.

尼泊尔政府目前正在执行政策，将农业从根本上转变为大规模，机械化，专业化和商业化的农业。但是，农民优先考虑生产具有复原力和多功能的粮食作物的多样化自给自足生产，并将经济作物仅作为补充。现金种植代表了潜在的有利可图的收入来源，但涉及风险。完全的农业商业化将危害家庭和社区的粮食安全，削弱以信任和互惠为基础的粮食和劳动力交换的社会机制，并破坏传统。农民平衡生计和市场生产的动机是多种多样且相互关联的，因为农民的经济追求已深深植根于社会和文化结构中。