It is not astonishing, even today
majority of rural Nepalese don't ponder further to surety of Gans, Bans and
Kapas ( food, shelter and clothes ) if
they are contemplated, what they endeavor from the government? And it has been measurable
time, policies are formulated, expenditures are made to asymptote on those
community but achievement is far from the contemplation.
Recently news are circulated, government
budget in agriculture is plausible to be doubled in next fiscal year; PM Bhattarai
is divulging at different functions. This has fabricated an aspiration in promotion
of Nepalese economy through commercialization in agriculture sector.
Agricultural commercialization calls for augmented investment and capital
formation for more intensive production. Hence, the magnitude of
commercialization and amplitude of investment are positively correlated. Antithetical to
the PM's testimony; Whether there wasn't ample investment for agriculture in past?
This question is being common for us.
Comprehensive amount of money have
been invested in agricultural development in Nepal, but unfortunately
most of them have not been fruitful. Starting form 5th periodic plan to 9th
periodic plan, agriculture was the first prioritized sector of the country. But,
yet to be imported large amount of cereals, meat, milk, pulses, oilseeds and
fruits shows our investment on agriculture was either not abundant or despoiled.
The record from trade and export promotion center (TEPC) shows agricultural product
amounted NRs 46,825 million have been
imported in Nepal in FY 2010/11 from different parts of the world; major being
India, while this figure for export is only NRs 13,580 million. This shows if
we were self-sufficient in production, NRs 33,245 million could be scrimped
form departing; which is around nine percent of our national budget for fiscal
year 2011/12.
The economic hardship experienced by
most people in rural region of the country has destined outflow of youth population
from the country, so more and more productive agricultural land has been
virtually taken out of production. Spending to agriculture is one of the most pivotal
government instruments for accelerating economic growth and alleviating poverty
in rural areas of Nepal. This is because , the majorities of poor people in
Nepal live in rural areas and depend upon agriculture for their livelihood.
Agriculture is therefore eminent both for economic development and poverty
reduction.
The time has come to give rigorous
attention during investing in agriculture. There might be stream of funds in
agriculture sector, but if this could not be routed well, that will again be a
huge excrement. So government has to aware of this.
First of all, the comprehensive
study of performance of present agriculture sector should be conducted. It
should be converged on disposition of existing agriculture system, its
institutional framework, strengths and weaknesses. Based on this, the skeleton
for investment will be formulated. The second step, should be scrutiny of past
policies affecting the agriculture. This covers not only agricultural policies
but also policies juxtaposed with trade and marketing, import, export, subsidy
to farmers, banking policies and agribusiness promotion policies etc. More to
this, how investment decisions are taken and what is the role of farmers on
that judgment? is one of the important query to be anatomized on policies. As a
result, an idea of deficient part on policies and agility to be incorporated
for immediate and long run response is
achieved.
As a third step, an arbitration of
investment processes in Nepalese agriculture should be thoroughly executed.
This not only covers investment from government
compartment ( ministry, banks ) but also from private sector, private
banks, different NGOs, INGOs, CBOs and UN agencies. This will somewhat assist
in disclosing investment duplicating, lacking
and potential investment area. Besides assessing the investment area, it also covers
the disbursement process, and find out effective method in our context.
Until government is nimble to take
advantage of every rupee their national hold, the development seems almost unattainable
for any country. A number of countries are now undertaking ambitious attempts
to transform their agriculture sector, engaging in public-private
collaboration. So, as fourth step, an analysis to constraints to private sector
investment in Nepalese agriculture should be done. This will unmask , why
private sector is reluctant to invest in agriculture ? and give an idea to inspire
them for the outlay.
During this dissertation process, it
is almost sure, many alternatives of investment will be there in front of
government. As we know, If we possess many alternatives with limited budget, we
should choose that gives highest output with minimum payback period, same doctrine
should be followed here. Thus, the study of choices for investment gives an idea about the
superior option to be implemented. So the fifth step should be identification and evaluation
of investment options. This whole process will divide the work to be done in to
two categories i.e. of immediate response and long term. Thus as a last step
implementation of the chosen investment activities should be sequenced on
priority basis.
Now I would like to highlight some
of the major constraints being faced in Nepalese agriculture, which demands immediate
attention.
The first solicitation of farmers
anywhere in the country is availability of irrigation. Thousands of hectares of
land are barren, less productive and infertile. If government could manage
irrigation to them, it will certainly work in multifaceted way. First of all,
the production will be boosted, which means amalgamation of income level of
farmers that results gravitation of youths toward the agriculture. Thus,
irrigation is the most distinguished instrument to jump toward agricultural commercialization.
Irrigation not necessarily means large budgeted canal irrigation, but our
geographical location and topography indulges small irrigation in hilly region
and canal irrigation in terai.
There
is one important fact about agribusiness; the prices of farm inputs has
increased magnificently since last decade but price of the farm produce at
farmers level is increased to a lesser extent. Thus, second most noteworthy
component is subsidized and sufficient high quality agricultural inputs like
fertilizer, seeds ,animal breeds, equipments and machineries. There may be many
reasons, mechanization in Nepal is at rudimentary stage. Traditional farming
practices are still established here. High yielding varieties of crops and
breeds of animals are still not common in farmers level. Farmers never
get timely and prosperous fertilizers during cultivation of crops. So input accessibility
is important factor to be considered.
The third up most important
component is availability of credit to the farmers. If sufficient credit and
technical assistance is bestowed to the farmers,
they would then be in a position to apply improved production techniques,
thereby increasing yields and production, and achieving the stated policy goal
to boost exports and reduce imports through commercialization of agribusiness
practices. At present condition, high level of investing for commercial purpose
in agriculture is not prevailing in Nepal. Thus government should provide sizable
amount of credit to the farmers at highly subsidized interest rate. The
investment also should be in denomination of animal and crop insurance through
the credit providing agencies.
Thus, the pattern of agriculture and
its output could be molded by government policies adopted during the time on
agricultural investment. High investment in agriculture will not work as a
magic if not utilized precisely. So, government should give attentive eye to
many such key issues antecedence to investing on agriculture sector; the sector
which employs two third of nation's population and provides one third of
national income. The demand driven and return oriented investment will
certainly work paramount rather than abruptly deciding for the investment.
5:02 PM
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