KATHMANDU, March 22: With a focus on strengthening the food security situation by increasing food productivity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC) has proposed three-year campaigns estimated to cost Rs 25 billion.
The MoAC presented the three-year programs on Friday to the National Planning Commission, the government’s apex policymaking body. [break]
Dr. Hari Dahal, spokesperson of the MoAC, said those programs include special food security campaigns, paddy and wheat production campaigns, dairy development campaigns and high value crop development campaigns.
“Keeping in view the growing food insecurity across the world and the similar situation also prevalent in our country, we have formulated these four campaigns. We have demanded Rs 5.43 billion in the coming budget for those initiatives for the fiscal year 2009/2010 alone,” Dahal told myrepublica.com.
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The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has put Nepal on the list of 31 nations at risk of food insecurity.
Considering the ongoing shortage of foods due to various reasons, the government has placed 12 districts of the high hills, 21 districts of the mid-hills and 8 districts of the Tarai, under the category of food deficit districts.
The ministry has demanded Rs 6 billion for the special food security programs over three years. Under the campaign, soil improvement, fertilizer management, irrigation expansion, resource conservation and technology promotion programs will be launched.
“We have expected that annual production of food grains will rise by about 0.5 million tons and cropping intensity, a level of usage of land, will go up by at least 50 percent with the execution of the programs” said Dahal.
In a bid to boost production of rice and wheat which command a significant weight in Nepal’s food basket, the MoAC has proposed 12 billion for three years to increase production of improved seeds and hybrid seeds, along with launching a seed mortification program.
“We have a target to raise pro-productivity of paddy and wheat from 2.87 tons per hectare and 2.25 per hectare to 3.51 per hectare and 3.1 per hectare, respectively, in three years,” added Dahal.
Under the national dairy campaign estimated to cost Rs 4 billion, the government has targeted substitute imports of powder milk, which stands at 8,000 tons annually.
The program will also aim to push dairy consumption up to 183 grams per person, per day in three years from existing the 146 grams per person per day, which is far low than the Food and Agriculture Organization’s standard consumption rate of 250 grams per person per day.
The ministry has demanded Rs 2 billion for the promotion of high value crops such as tea, coffee, cardamom, orange, and ginger, with their value addition through processing, grading, quality-control and standard packaging.
Meanwhile, the MoAC has proposed a total of Rs 12.71 billion for the agriculture sector for the coming fiscal year. The ministry has also demanded Rs 6 billion for a proposed subsidy for farmers in chemical fertilizer, still to be approved by the cabinet, as well as Rs 730 million for restoration of cultivable land in Koshi-affected areas of Eastern Nepal.
prabhakar@myrepublica.om
