By Laxman Kafle
Kathmandu, May 25: The government has made special provisions for the agriculture sector in its policy document for the coming fiscal year. Presenting the policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23 at a joint meeting of the federal parliament on Tuesday, President Bidya Devi Bhandari said agriculture will be promoted as a major driver of economic growth and employment generation. Special arrangements will be made to increase the agricultural production through the budget of the coming year and to take the policy of import substitution by marketing it, she said.
For this, a new national agricultural policy will be formulated, agriculture will be mechanised and commercialised and climate friendly technology will be promoted.
Stating that the basis of economic growth will be strengthened by modernising the agricultural sector, President Bhandari said, “While formulating policies in finance, monetary, irrigation, energy, supply and industry sectors, plans are made to increase the production and productivity of agriculture and forest sector.”
A programme will also be made in the budget to increase the production of food items in the country and reduce the processing cost, she said.
Climate resilient seeds will be promoted, she added. The government will do the research and investment required for the development and production of such types of seeds.
Plan to restructure PMAMP
The government plans to restructure the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project (PMAMP) on the basis of a five-year mid-term review, while the zones and super zones will be classified on the basis of potential crops.
President Bhandari said that the government plans to hand over the project to the provinces on the basis of feasibility from a technical and economic point of view, she said.
Special programmes to increase production of imported agricultural produce
The government is going to bring a special programme to start or increase the production of the most imported agricultural produce in Nepal.
President Bhandari said that special programmes are being brought from
the budget to increase the production of most imported goods in the country.
She also said that the government will run programmes to cultivate agricultural produce, including potato, apple, paddy, maize, wheat, onion and walnut.
Similarly, the government will bring special programmes in the coming fiscal year to promote commercial cultivation of rubber.
She said that a policy will be taken to protect the farmers and the government will take a policy to buy the agricultural produce.
“Agriculture subsidies will be provided on the basis of production. Payment will be provided to the farmers in the same year of sugarcane crushing,” she said.
Nepali agricultural produce will be made competitive by increasing its quality. The private sector will be involved in pesticide and quarantine testing.
Irrigation facility for additional 22,200 hectres of land
The government has announced to ensure the irrigation facility to additional 22,000 hectares of land over the next fiscal year, she said.
“Lift irrigation will be provided in the hills and mountains and water storage and tube irrigation in the Terai. Electricity used for irrigation will be provided in a subsidy,” she said.
The government is going to put forward a plan to encourage collective and cooperative farming by making good use of barren land.
She said that the plans would be made to encourage value-based collective and cooperative farming by making better use of barren land.
She also mentioned that the government will bring special programmes in the coming fiscal year to promote commercial cultivation of rubber.
Solving the problem of landless squatters within two years
The government has announced to solve the problem of landless and unorganised settlement within two years.
It has also announced that the local level would run employment and capacity building programmes for freed Kamaiyas and the remaining Haruwa.
The government has also announced that targeted programmes will be launched for the poor around the national parks and along the river banks.
The government has also announced to provide land ownership certificates to those who are left out from land survey, to prepare land use plans at federal, province and local level by classifying the land as per land use policy and law.
President Bhandari also announced that legal reforms would be made to facilitate land acquisition for the development projects and to review the demarcation for the specified industries.
She also said that a policy will be taken to stop the subdivision of land.
Subsidy for producing quality organic manure The government will encourage the production and use of organic manure.
Announcing the government’s policy and programme, President Bhandari said that the same amount of subsidy would be given to organic manure as chemical manure.TheRisingNepal
