page_title: Mustang District
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Mustang District / Economy
caption_attribution_description: Women bolting grain / Kagbeni, Nepal
context_page_description: Mustang District is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. It covers an area of 3,573 km² and has a population of 13,452. The headquarters is Jomsom.
  The district is in Dhawalagiri Zone and part of Gandaki Pradesh in northern Nepal, straddles the Himalayas and extends northward onto the Tibetan Plateau. The district is one of the remotest areas in Nepal and is second in terms of the sparsity of population. The elevation ranges from 1,372 to 8,167 meters, with several peaks above 7,000 meters.
  Mustang was an ancient forbidden kingdom, bordered by the Tibetan Plateau and sheltered by some of world's tallest peaks, including 8000-meter tall Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. Strict regulations of tourists here have aided in maintaining Tibetan traditions. Upper Mustang was a restricted demilitarized area until 1992, which makes it one of the most preserved regions in the world due to its relative isolation from the outside world, with a majority of the population still speaking traditional Tibetic languages. The name "Mustang" is derived from the Tibetan word meaning, "Plain of Aspiration." Upper Mustang was only opened to foreigners in 1992.
context_section_description: Mustang was an important route of crossing the Himalayas between Tibet and Nepal. Many salt caravans travelled through Mustang in the old times. Once a major thoroughfare for the trade of salt and grain between Tibet and Nepal's southern hills, the Mustang District in Nepal's western Himalayas remains a trading route to this day. For centuries, caravans travelled along the Kali Gandaki river trading salt, yak wool, cereals, dried meat spices and more in Tibet, China and India. and the Kali Gandaki gorge was used as a trade route between India and Tibet for centuries. The mountain pass of Kora La is one of the oldest routes between the two regions. It was historically used for salt trade between Tibet and Nepalese kingdoms.
  The border has been closed since the 1960s. However, there is a semiannual cross-border trade fair during which the border is open to local traders. In 2012, Nepal and China agreed to open 6 more official border crossings, Kora La being one of them. In July 2016, Nepalese government announced that they expected the border crossing to be open within and year to become the third most important crossing between the two countries.
  Kora La is currently being planned as vehicle border crossing between China and Nepal. Nepal is expecting to regain some of the strategic importance of Mustang with the construction of the road to connect China with Nepal through Mustang. Once completed the road is expected to become a highly accessible Himalayan corridor and the district is expected to change significantly. There also is a fear of losing the culture and identity of the region.
  Agriculture is the dominant economic activity in the district in which 80.65 percent people are engaged in the district. People of Mustang are engaged in a traditional form of agro-pastoralist economy common to the mountainous regions of Nepal. Business (6.82%), government service (1.91%), house work (3.50%), foreign employment (3.97%) and others (3.14%) are others occupation types besides agriculture.
  Many people in Mustang depend on sheep and mountain goat rearing for livelihood. Some of the points of attraction of animal husbandry are: access to pastureland, proximity to the Kora La border pass, and favourable market prices, as well as and technical help and subsidy from District Livestock Services Office. Yak-cow hybrids (called jhopa, or dzo) are employed as draft animals. Horses are reared largely for transport. In 2016, Mustang earned Nepalese rupee 270 million by exporting 13,000 sheep and 9,000 mountain goats. In 2017, the district supplied at least 25,000 sheep and mountain goats to different markets of Nepal during the Dashain festival. An estimated number of 9,000 mountain goats assumed as imported from Tibet in 2017, though traditional Tibetan traders are increasingly prioritizing Chinese markets.
  In the summer, goats, cows and sheep are grazed daily in herds in local alpine meadows. During the winter they are stall-fed with leaves, grass and crop wastes, cut and stored in the growing season as preparation for winter. The livestock provides the manure essential to maintain soil fertility, and thus is an significant link in the local agro-pastoral farming-system. Inorganic fertilisers or pesticides are not used.
  Mustang is sometimes called the capital of apples in Nepal. District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) reports that despite the fact that a total of 1,115 hectares of land is considered suitable for apple-farming in Mustang, apple is planted in only 415 hectares of land. Mustang produced 5,300 tons of apples in 2017, an increase by 800 tons over 2016. Price of apples also increased in 2017. In 2016, apples were sold at Nepalese rupee 80 which had reached रु 100 in 2017. Barley, wheat and buckwheat are grown in terraced farms, while vegetables and fruits are grown in orchards. At Mebrak and Phudzeling sites of Upper Mustang, there is evidence of cultivation of buckwheat, naked barley, cannabis, lentils and other crops dated between 1000 and 400 BCE. In Kohla, there is evidence of cultivation of barley, free-threshing
caption: Chaffing grain in Kagbeni
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Women bolting grain", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3200", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.3 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2014:01:31 00:06:59", "Image Copyright": "Sergey Ashmarin", "Image ExifOffset": "290", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[28, 31367/625, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[83, 93969/2000, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "944", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1152", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "17527", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:10:23 11:48:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:10:23 06:03:46", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "331919/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "24/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "42520611/16384", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "42520611/16384", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "135", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "6537154", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 200, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6"}