Senior officials at the MoAC said the proposed programs are aimed at enhancing food security through raising agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner through higher investment in research and development. [break]
Dr Hari Dahal, spokesperson at the MoAC, said the ministry is proposing National Food and Nutrition Security Plan and Nepal Agriculture Sector Development Strategy before the donor agencies amid fresh challenges such as food insecurity, climate change and other pertinent issues emerging in the country over a couple of years.
"Given the changing situation, programs based on existing Agriculture Prospective Plan (APP) are not sufficient. So, we are incorporating programs that would address the fresh challenges in agriculture production such as climate change, bio-diversity, accession of Nepal to World Trade Organization (WTO) and rising food deficit, under the new proposal," Dahal told myrepublica.com on Sunday.
APP was introduced in 1996, focusing on commercialization and sustainability of agriculture sector.
"We will ask the donor community to support us in implementing the programs which have been devised for a long-term perspective," said Dahal.
The new programs would help reduce malnutrition and hunger by 50 percent by 2015 as per the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeted by United Nations.
The MoAC is presenting the proposed plans at the meeting with donor community this week. As per the donors´ suggestion and other inputs from stakeholders, the MoAC will further consolidate the programs.
Dahal said present policy and its implementation have to be reviewed and analyzed given the emerging threat to food security situation due to low productivity and rising population in the country. Availability, access, utilization and sustainability of food for the people are the key components of food security, he added.
"To cope with the burgeoning population, squeezing agriculture land and poor state of agriculture infrastructure, the program has also focused on easy market access and other incentives for farmers to enhance their competitive power on the back of increasing threats on domestic agriculture following the accession to WTO," added Dahal.
A national-level food security and nutrition plan will be devised with the long-term implementation plan under the programs.
Among the South Asian countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Pakistan have already formulated such strategy.
Under the proposed plan, the MoAC is also proposing different technical research planning so as to enhance productivity in agriculture sector which has been seeing insufficient inputs and low investment from the government.
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