Draft of ADS envisages achieving 5 pc annual growth

The proposed Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) -- a long-term vision document that will chart the course of country´s agriculture sector for next two years -- has envisaged intensifying commercialization to increase farm productivity and enhance competitiveness of Nepali farmers to eventually achieve five percent growth in the sector.
The government with the assistance of 12 development partners, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, and United State Agency for International Development (USAID), has formed a technical team involving officials of the Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoAD), experts and stakeholders to prepare draft of the ADS.
The draft, once approved by the government, will replace the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) 1995-2015, which has also incorporated an ambitious program for the development of the country´s agriculture.
Before finalizing the draft, the team conducted an interaction with stakeholders on Sunday.
The draft targets achieving annual growth of 5 percent by the end of 2035 by increasing arable land and adopting massive commercialization to increase farm productivity. It has identified frequent changes in government policies and leaderships, and weak implementation the major impediments in agriculture development.
“There must be consistent policies and effective implementation of the government policies in order to achieve a higher agricultural growth rate,” reads the draft.
Similarly, the draft has emphasized efficient use of natural resources and timely availability of agriculture inputs, among others, to boost agriculture productivity.
Underlining the need to ensure proper use of arable land and expanded irrigation facilities, the draft has identified fragmentation of land, tenancy practice and haphazard plotting of fertile land as major factors limiting the farm productivity.
The drafting team has also concluded that the much-hyped APP failed to yield targeted results due to weak implementation of policies owing to ineffective governance system.
Similarly, agricultural commercialization has been identified in the draft as a tool to connect the farmers with the market. The draft has identified agricultural roads -- connecting farms with market -- and establishment of product value chains as keys to farm commercialization.
In a bid to achieve long term goal to transform agriculture into vibrant sector of economy, the draft has proposed enhancing competitiveness of this sector by improving market structure, assuring market for farm products and increasing market access.
The ADS draft also envisages making agriculture sector competitive, sustainable, and inclusive to eventually make it a driving force for accelerating economic growth.