Its rectangular shape covers a length of roughly 800 km and a width of from 130-140 km. The rice-growing part of Nepal is in AEZ 6, characterized as warm subhumid subtropics with summer rainfall. However, within the short span of its width can be found all varieties of climate and topography. The country can be broadly divided into three parallel geographic regions based on topography. The population of the country was more than 21.4 million in 1995.
Rice is the most important food crop of Nepal.
The main diet of the Nepalese is also rice. Almost all people in the terai and river basins depend on this crop. Rice farming dominates the agricultural sector of Nepal, which itself dominates the economy. It is, therefore, the single most important industry in the country, contributing approximately one-fourth of the GDP and occupying approximately 1.4 million ha. Virtually all of the increase in total rice production came from increases in the area cropped.