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Kathmandu Wednesday May 09, 2001 Baishakh 26, 2058.
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New
agriculture policy needed: Bastola
Post Report
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.
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