Bari land needs good quality compost as it is planted with crops demanding higher fertility, e.g. maize, and much of the soil nutrients need replacing as they are leached annually. Water and silt provide much of the fertility in the khet land, as as required by the crops, a low level of nutrients are planted, e.g. for paddy , good quality compost is not essential. Vegetation Many plant species are used to make compost during different seasons of the year. Farmers are aware of the nutritive value of vegetative materials, but do not always use them for compost. Animal Manure Farmers recognize that different animal manure have different nutritive values, and that some add little to the fertility of the soil.
Chicken manure has the highest nutritive value and buffalo manure the lowest.
In Kavrepalanchok the farmers noted an adverse relationship between an animal's size and the nutritive value of its manure - the smaller the animal the higher the value, while the larger the animal, the lower the value. The manure is gathered buy farmers in areas with bat infested rock caves and is bartered for paddy at the rate of 1kg of paddy for 1kg of manure. However, there is an increasing shortage of compost due to a decline in preferred species, a shortage of fodder which ahs led to fewer livestock being kept, an increased need for compost due to introduction of winter crops in some areas and continuous cultivation with no fallow in others, a shortage of labor Many children now go to school and so are not available to herd livestock or to help with housework which left adults free to collect fodder and vegetation from the forest etc. Also, it has become essential for young men to go to urban areas and earn cash for school expenses, chemical fertilizer and food. The rapid increase in population, the division of land into smaller plots through inheritance, and the subsequent need to grow more food have made it essential to increase crop yield.