New agriculture policy needed: Bastola

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KATMANDU, May 8 - Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Chakra Prasad Bastola has pointed out the need of a new national agriculture policy to brace for emerging challenges of the agricultural sector.

"After going through all the existing official documents of the agricultural sector, I realized that we badly need an appropriate comprehensive national agriculture policy to cope up with the emerging challenges," he said.

Inaugurating the tenth anniversary of National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) here Tuesday, he said our efforts in agricultural sector have not produced desired results in the absence of such a policy. He also suggested NARC to reorient their researches so that more and more farmers could benefit from them.

He said those who teach us about scrapping subsidy in agriculture are heavily subsidizing their agricultural products, said the Minister targeting the donor communities.

"Subsidy in agriculture is inevitable as our agricultural products unless the local market will be flooded by cheap Indian products; but unfortunately, the government is not in a position to provide subsidy in agriculture," he added.

Following the accession to World Trade Organization (WTO) regime, we will have a tough time as our agricultural products have to compete in the global market. Therefore, time has come to shift our focus on developing technologies that help boost the competitive edge of our agro-products, said the Minister.

Food security and commercialization of agriculture is but the need of the day, but the geographic condition has become obstacle on the path ahead. In the present context, only the big farmers could be benefited by the commercialization of agriculture, leaving the major chunk of farmers in the same situation. So in order to address the problem, we have to start with basic groundwork in this sector, he added.

Citing example of India’s ban on Nepal’s milk export, he said Indian officials have banned it on the ground of Phyto-sanitory goods category. Hence, before producing exportable goods, we have to be fully aware of international agreements and treaties, he further said.

He said farmers in the eastern part of Nepal are doing well in tea and sugarcane plantations and so is the case with green vegetables. So we have to develop and explore models and technologies that best suit the climatic condition of the country and NARC has a lead role in it, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Dhruba Joshi, Executive Director of NARC, said that in order to make the Council more dynamic and expand its working field, a restructuring process has been forwarded. He also said that the Council is going to implement a long-term strategy.

Though there is a lot to do, the Council has also made some concrete contributions especially to the field of major crops and technology development. Being a research institute, NARC has to focus on four major technologies: technologies for sustenance, commercialization, rural employment and natural resources management, he advised.

He also said that the Council has won an international award ‘Chairman’s Excellence in Science Award 2000' for its contribution to and cooperation in doing researches.

Ratneshwor Lal Kayastha, Secretary at the Ministry, expressed the view that NARC has a great challenge of developing appropriate technologies to keep pace with the changing trends in farming.

National Planning Commission (NPC) member Hari Shankar Tripathi said that the Council has not been able to publicize the activities done in the field of technology development. As a result, it has not reached to the target group, he said.

Minister Bastola also gave away plaques and certificates to those employees completing 25 years of service in the Council.

PAC to summon hydro power officials

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KATHMANDU, May 8 - Parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC) has decided to summon the concerned officials to furnish further details on the alleged irregularities concerning the contract of 70 MW Mid-Marsyangdi Hydro Power Project awarded for the Civil Construction Works (CCW).

PAC had grilled the same officials on April 12 and ordered them to submit necessary documents regarding the tender process.

A PAC meeting on Tuesday, held after the submission of required documents by the officials, has also decided to asked the officials to produce the signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) of the CCW of the project along with the actual cost of the Project.

The Project has been alleged that it made some increment to the initial cost of the Project of the successful bidder and enough space has been created to escalate the cost of the project.

The bid was won by a consortium of international construction companies headed by Dywidag, a German-based company, at Rs. 6.20 million leaving behind other six rivals competing for the lucrative deal.

Likewise, PAC has constituted a sub-committee constituted by Birodh Khatiwada, Ramesh Lekhak and Sarba Dhan Rai to investigate on the alleged irregularity on VSAT tender called by Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC). The sub-committee is set to submit the report within five days.