'One District One Product' to bear fruit this year

The government and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) are all set to ensure that the much awaited ´One District One Product´ program will materialize this fiscal year. The program based on public private partnership model, which was announced in the budget for the last fiscal year, will cover eight products from eight districts to begin with. The products are the fish from Rautahat, dairy products from Bara, honey from Araghakhanchi, seed for food grain and vegetables from Pyuthan, the rainbow trout from Rasuwa and the processed gemstone from Jajarkot. The government has already infused Rs 120 million for the technology installation and machineries for going into industrial production in each selected districts while the FNCCI has earmarked Rs 180 million for infrastructure development including land and building construction. The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), which is the implementing agency, has already started the construction of infrastructure for grading and packaging vegetables in Dadhing and a factory to produce mandarin orange (Junar) juice in Sindhuli. “Full-fledged production of a product each from the eight districts will start this year,” Pradip Maharjan, CEO of Agro Enterprise Center at the FNCCI, told Republica. The FNCCI had prepared a detailed business plan, including the type of the industry, scale of the production and markets in Dadhing, Sindhuli, Rautahat, Bara, Arghakhanchi, Pyuthan, Rasuwa and Jajarkot in the last fiscal year. “We have already purchased the required land, the infrastructure development is underway, and the process of purchasing the machines and equipment with the government money is already in place,” added Maharjan. Likewise, the FNCCI also plans to carry out the study of the business plan for Pashmina production in Mustang, and Swertia chirata processing in Okhaldhunga in this fiscal year. “The program will be completed in these eight districts this year,” said Vijoy Kumar Mallick, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Agricultural Development. The current budget has included additional five districts for the study in this year under the program. The FNCCI has also developed a book to explore the potential products from all 75 districts and has also urged the government to develop the brand of the districts included in the program in the last fiscal year. The model of ´One Village One Product´ practiced in many Asian countries was customized to suit the context of Nepal, according to Maharjan. The One Village One Product, started some five years ago, was much focused on the technical training for the producers and marketing ideas, whereas the One District One Product program directly aims at industrial production. This year the One Village One Product program, which has a high success rate, has been extended to 32 districts, from 21 districts in the previous years. The One Village One Product program was launched in Japan in the 1980s for producing the selective, competitive and staple products to improve the living standard for the residents of the concerned villages.