ADS must protect farmers

The National Peasants' Coalition, which joined the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) drafting process a few months ago, has criticised the draft of the strategy.

The strategy will not be successful unless it is able to protect farmers through accessible subsidies, expert inputs, insurance and land reforms, said the coalition in a press meet today.

The strategy will meet the same fate as that of the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), if it does not include the necessities of farmers and the geophysical situation of the country, said a representative of the coalition Prem Dangal. "APP failed to achieve its targets because it ignored farmers, and their involvement in the production and marketing process," he said.

The government had adopted APP in 1995, with a vision to make the country self-reliant on cereal crops and to commercialise cash or high value crops in 20 years. However, it completely failed to achieve its targets.

The government has been developing ADS to replace APP from 2015. "We have corrected our past mistakes and tried to make it practical," said deputy coordinator of the ADS technical assistance team Dr Purushottam Mainali. According to him, the strategy has been designed on a logical base of four pillars — governance, productivity, profitable commercialisation, and competitiveness.

"ADS will achieve its target through the promotion of inclusive and sustainable growth with larger connectivity and participation of the private and cooperative sectors," he said. The strategy has a target to increase land productivity from $1,600 per hectare to $5,000 per hectare in the next 20 years. Similarly, it has planned to achieve agriculture growth of at least five per cent during the period.

However, critics doubt whether the strategy will be able to attract the youth to the agriculture sector with the projected income. "How can we attract youth with a projected income of $2,000 a year in 2035," said a critic during the programme, adding that it will not stop the migration of youth to foreign job markets.

Currently, migrants have been earning about $2,400 and they are sending about $1,600 home annually. Therefore, the agriculture sector will remain a business related to elderly people and the target will not be achieved, he said.

Similarly, an officer at the Ministry of Agriculture Development said that the target to achieve 20 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) from agribusiness is unrealistic. Two decades is a long time. There is a possibility that other sectors could emerge as major contributors to the GDP, so a target of 20 per cent is unrealistic, he said.

The strategy's other weakness is that it has been based on a sound governance environment when political instability and uncertainties are overwhelming in the country.

Deputy coordinator of the ADS technical assistance team Dr Prabhakar Pathak said that the government has been incorporating two new programmes — food and nutrition security, and climate change effects in agriculture. "The two components were not included in APP. These are new concepts in the sector,” he said.

The government has been developing ADS with technical assistance from Asian Development Bank and a dozen other donors including IFAD, EU, FAO, SDC, JICA, DANIDA, USAID, and WFP. It is a $2 million project where ADB has contributed $1.5 million and the remaining by other donors.

Finance Ministry organises NDF prepratory meeting

The Finance Ministry today held extensive discussions with representatives of Kathmandu-based foreign donor agencies and countriies at the ministry here as a preliminary preparation of the Nepal Development Forum (NDF) meeting that will be held on May 12-14 in Kathmandu.
Addressing donors, Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai said that peace, democracy and development would be the three major agenda of the government for the NDF meeting. “Without peace, there can be no development and without development there can be no peace,” said Dr Bhattarai.
At the meeting attended by representatives of donors including World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), DfID, IMF, DANIDA, India, China and Finland, he alsohighlighted his government’s foreign aid priorities. “The government will come up with realistically set up clear priorities of development for the coming three years before the NDF meet,” he assured them.
Dr Bhattarai urged the donors to set programmes based on Nepal’s priorities. “While preparing programmes at local levels, avoid the overlapping, duplication and fragmentation of aid,” the finance minister requested them adding that they should realise the constraints and acknowledge the realities of the transition phase in Nepal.
Stressing on Nepal’s transition period, he urged the representatives of Nepal’sdevelopment partners to adopt a ‘transitional sensitive approach’ to development needs rather than standard normal applicable approach.
On the occasion, the first finance minister of the youngest republic also gave a brief overview of the implementation of the current fiscal year budget. “The macro economic situation is sound and most of the indicators are satisfactory,” he said adding that revenue collection was exceeding the target.
Though he accepted the government’s failure in kickstarting development activities and making capital expenditure unsatisfactory, he claimed that the budget deficit was within the appropriate limit and that external assistance also was coming as committed. He voiced the hope that development activities would pick up in the later months of the fiscal year.
In the meeting, the donors appreciated the government’s efforts and Dr Guna Nidhi Sharma, vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) — the national think-tank — also presented a paper. Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal also made a presentation before the donors. "The donors are very enthusiastic about the NDF preparations,” he said.
Dr Bhattarai informed donors that the next fiscal year’s budget would be presented by late May or early June. The budget is expected to be around Rs 263 billion. “Presenting the budget by late May or early June will give the government ample time to implement it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the secretaries under various ministries also briefed Dr Bhattarai today on the current state of budget implementation under their respective ministries. "The finance minister was satisfied with the briefing," said a source at the meeting adding that Dr Bhattarai also said that the people have been expecting a miraculous change from the government and it must deliver.