The draft of the Agriculture Mechanization Policy 2013 was jointly designed by the Agro Enterprises Center (AEC) of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and USAID´s Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) Program. [break]
“We have received the draft policy jointly prepared by NEAT and the AEC. We will hold discussion with line ministries and give it a final shape, prior to sending it to the cabinet for approval,” MoAD Spokesperson Prabhakar Pathak told Republica on Tuesday.
The draft has envisaged providing capital subsidy for procurement of farm machineries and creation of an appropriate system to ensure easy availability of farm equipment.
Providing concessional loan to marginalized farmers to increase their access to modern farm equipment and tools, arrangements on hiring of such equipment, subsidized insurance for machine operators and provisions on awarding farmers, researchers and businesspeople, who develop innovative tools and machines, are also some of the highlights of the draft.
Also included in the draft are provisions for promotion of land consolidation so as to discourage fragmentation of agricultural land and extension of subsidy or concessional loan to those who farm on large areas.
The draft has also suggested that the government encourage partnership between public and private sectors, including cooperatives, for production, trading and maintenance of agricultural equipment. It has also envisaged promotion of industries that generate employment and replace imports of farm machineries.
In a bid to encourage production of machineries within the country, the draft has proposed exemption or refund of VAT and exemption of excise duties on imports of raw material used in production of farm machineries.
Similarly, the draft has proposed income tax holiday for factories that manufacture agricultural machineries and spare parts. The policy has also envisaged customs duty exemption and extension of loans for imports of equipment that will be rented out to farmers.
Subsidy on procurement of small tractors, tillers and other equipment and exemption in imports duty of such equipment have also been mentioned in the proposed policy.
Promotion of women, use of environment friendly equipment, capital subsidy on imports of equipment to be operated by women and youth, development of necessary human resources for farm mechanization and promotion of institutions for development of such human resources are few other highlights of the draft.
The draft has also envisaged mobilization of the private sector for research and development works, while extending priority for establishment of storage and processing facilities, and mechanized marketing.
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