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Kathmandu Friday March 08, 2002 Falgun 24, 2058.
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Govt announces Fertiliser
Policy
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 7 : With an aim to boost
agriculture productivity through an increment in the use of good quality fertiliser by
ensuring its uninterrupted supply, the government today made public National Fertiliser
Policy 2002.
The new policy, which was approved be a recently
held cabinet meeting, among others, has reiterated that the government will stick to its
current anti-subsidy policy on fertiliser imports, ruling out the possibility of
reintroducing subsidy in fertiliser.
However, the policy has said that the fertiliser
would be made available at discounted rates for the farmers of the hilly regions that
still does not have motorways. Similarly, such fertiliser would also be made available to
poorest of the poor and marginal farmers through special agriculture production
programmes.
Speaking at a program organised here today to
inform on the policy, Mahesh Acharya, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives,
highlighted various programmes and polices that the government would adapt to boost
agricultural productivity.
He also said that ensuring the availability of
quality fertiliser in the joint public-private partnership is the main aim of the new
policy.
He also said that the past policy of granting
subsidy on fertiliser import had put constraits on the import and distribution of
fertiliser, thereby, resulting in low consumption. "The consumption and import of
fertiliser has increased after the private sector was ushered into fertiliser business by
withdrawing subsidy on it," he said.
In the newly released policy, the government has
expressed its commitment to encourage the participation of the private sector and
co-operatives in fertiliser transaction. "The government will abet and take necessary
measures to encourage domestic production and make the import and distribution network
more transparent, competitive and reliable," states the policy.
The policy has emphasised on the proper use of
all types of fertilisers, including organic compost manure and chemical fertiliser, since
unbalanced use of fertilisers actually erodes the productivity of the arable land.
Among others, the new policy has also sketched a
provision to keep 20 per cent of the possible national consumption in stock so as to make
necessary intervention in the market to curb artificial shortages and ensure smooth supply
of one of the major agricultural inputs.
"Past experiences has taught us that due
intervention sometime becomes necessary to make the market stable. The stock would be
built up from the fertilisers received in grants from donor countries and agencies,"
Archarya said.
He also said that apart from the fertiliser
stock, agriculture production and marketing, quality and enhancing the use of fertiliser
and strengthening the capacity of sellers are some of the issues addressed by the policy.
According to the statistics given at the
program, the consumption of the fertiliser has increased impressively after the private
sectors were allowed to engage in the fertiliser import business.
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