Agriculture minister agrees to review ADS draft team

Following strong criticism and protests from farmers and civil society members, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative (MoAC) has decided to review the structure and modus operandi of technical assistance team that is drafting a new 20-year agriculture vision document -- Agriculture Development Strategy (2015-2035).
The ministry has also formed a committee to investigate why farmers were not represented in the team, which was formed last year.
"Points raised by farmers about the way the government is developing the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) are pretty valid. It was wrong not to ensure farmers´ participation in such a crucial task," said Nandan Kumar Datta, minister for agriculture and cooperatives.
Datta, who on Thursday held talks with representatives of farmers´ organizations and related civil society organizations in the presence of senior ministry officials and members of technical team drafting ADS, said that he would work to review the team.
"I have directed senior ministry officials to work to accommodate the farmers´ concerns," Datta told Republica. "I also want to know why farmers were excluded, so a committee has been formed to find out the reason," he added.
During the talks, Minister Datta assured the farmers and civil society members that the reviewed team would have maximum possible representation of farmers and organizations working to protect farmers´ interests.
The government had initiated process to develop ADS -- a document that will replace the Agriculture Perspective Plan 1995-2015 -- in 2011 and had formed a 33-member technical team by including former bureaucrats and foreign consultants about a year ago to draft it.
The document is being prepared with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and USAID, among others. The government has allocated US$ 2 million (about Rs 160 million) for developing ADS.
However, representatives of farmers´ organizations as well as civil society groups during Thursday´s meeting with Minister Datta said the whole idea of getting 20-year agricultural vision document prepared by technocrats and foreign consultants, who have little idea of farmers´ needs and concerns, was wrong.
"We informed the minister that our farmers have already suffered a lot because of implementation of similarly drafted APP. We cannot afford to compromise this time -- as ADS will affect the whole agricultural sector for decades till 2035," said Prem Dangal, general secretary of the All Nepal Peasants Federation (ANPF), who was present at the meeting.
Farmers´ representatives strongly protested the approach of preparing such a crucial document behind closed doors, saying that vision document prepared by "so called agro-experts and foreign experts" might not address farmers´ concerns and agricultural reality of the country.