Farm budget still too little to attain food self-sufficiency, says Gharti

MINISTER for Agriculture Development Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti said on Monday that the budget allocation for the agriculture sector was still too little to fulfil the country’s commitment to attain self-sufficiency in food. The government has increased the farm budget by more than 80 percent to Rs 21.40 billion this fiscal year, bringing its share of the national budget to 4.14 percent. Speaking at an interaction programme, Gharti said, “The strategic document Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS), which contains a 20-year vision for the farm sector, has envisaged an annual allocation of Rs 50 billion. However, the current allocation is half of the proposed amount.” According to the Agriculture Ministry, the Three-Year Interim Plan (2013-14 to 2015-16) has been prepared with the aim of upgrading Nepal from a least developed country (LDC) to a developing country by 2022. In order to realize this goal, the agriculture sector, which contributes 34 percent to the national GDP and employs more than 66 percent of the population, needs to be transformed by increasing productivity, commercialization and farm mechanization, the ministry said. Minister Gharti said that his ministry had prepared 57 programmes and projects for this fiscal year. Of the total, 46 are priority one projects. The government has mobilized money for 40 projects while 17 projects will be run with donor funding. According to the ministry, donor grants and loans amount to Rs 4.29 billion and Rs 383 million respectively of the total budget. “The allocation is not adequate, but if the proposed programmes are effectively implemented, it could help Nepal reach self-sufficiency in food production to some extent,” Gharti said. He added that the country was self-sufficient in poultry and vegetable production, and that the government planned to expand the one-village one-product campaign which could help the country to become self-sufficient in other products too. The Agriculture Ministry has allocated Rs 31 million for a seed production campaign this year. The government plans to expand the seed campaign to 6,700 hectares to produce an additional 24,000 tonnes of quality seeds by involving farmers groups, cooperatives and the private sector. Similarly, the government has earmarked Rs 5.90 billion for fertilizer subsidies and plans to import 230,000 tonnes of chemical fertilizer this fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs 60 million for maize mission programmes in 39 hill and 16 Tarai districts in an import substitution effort. As per government estimates, the maize mission programmes will produce an additional 88,000 tonnes of maize and help to cut imports by 30 percent. The ministry also said a special programme had been launched to boost lentil output. As per the scheme, the ministry has allocated Rs 11.6 million and has estimated an additional 348 tonnes of lentil output. To promote dairy farming, the government has planned to set up 10 dairy plants in cooperation with dairy producers and has allocated Rs 60 million for this purpose. The ministry has set aside Rs 375 million to expand irrigation to 7,842 hectares through small-farmer irrigation projects and plastic ponds. For farm mechanization, the government has earmarked Rs 100 million for subsidies to encourage farmers to use farm machines like power tillers, harvesters, planters and seed drills in the hill and Tarai regions. Similarly, Rs 121 million has been allocated for a programme to involve marginalized and deprived people in cooperative farming. The scheme will be run in 41 districts. An additional 1,740 hectares of pocket areas will be created for off-seasonal vegetable production. For this purpose, Rs 30 million has been set aside. The government has increased the farm budget by more than 80pc to Rs 21.4b this fiscal year