Sunday, February 24, 2019

Agriculture Ministry seeks Rs 90 billion

Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has sought around Rs 90 billion for new programmes that is expected boost agricultural products and substitute agri produce imports.
The proposed projects – including Farmers Welfare Programme worth Rs 50 billion, One Municipality One Model Farm worth Rs 20 billion, Youth Employment Special Programme worth Rs 5 billion, Food Hygiene and Standards Programme worth Rs 5 billion, Agri Market Promotion Project worth Rs 5 billion, Paddy Production Programme worth Rs 4 billion and Agriculture Research and Extension programme worth Rs 1 billion – worth around Rs 90 billion.
Agriculture secretary Yubak Dhoj GC today presented at least seven medium and long-term projects to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. "The food production has been increasing in an arithmetic progression but demand is growing in a geometric progression," GC briefed the premier.
According to the Department of Customs (DoC), Nepal imported farm products worth Rs 215.50 billion in the last fiscal year, up by 10 per cent compared to a year ago. The share of agro products in the total import bill – of Rs 1,243 billion – has swelled to 17 per cent in the last fiscal year.
The food import bill in 2009-10 stood at Rs 44.43 billion, which almost doubled to Rs 76.05 billion in 2011-12 and to Rs 99.35 billion in 2012-13, and tripled to Rs 127.51 billion in five years in the fiscal year 2013-14, though Nepal is agriculture country. In the fiscal year 2014-15, Nepal imported agro products worth Rs 157.78 billion four times increment in 6 years.
Among the agriculture produces, cereal tops the list followed by edible oil, vegetables and food and animal fodder. According to the data, the cereal import bill amounted to Rs 44.52 billion in the last fiscal year, up from Rs 40.14 billion a year ago.
Likewise, edible oil imports touched Rs 29.72 billion in the last fiscal year, up from Rs 28.83 billion a year ago.
The vegetable import bill has also increased to Rs 22.67 billion in the last fiscal year from Rs 21.50 billion a fiscal year ago. The import of rice has also increased due to demand of aromatic and fine rice as the increasing middle-income population prefers to eat basmati rice, which is not grown in sufficient quantities in Nepal.
Though, Nepali agri produces including fresh vegetables, lentils, large cardamom and ginger are popular in Gulf countries, lack of standards, processing and packaging of these products made it difficult for the Nepali produces' export.
Likewise, Nepali tea, coffee, honey and herbs are popular in Europe, Japan, the US and Australia, but they also have branding, certification and quality issues.
Implemented in November 2016, the 10-year Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project – launched to boost agriculture production and substitute imports – has failed to increase production and boost exports putting pressure on import bill.

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