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.

Nepal requests support for enhancing productivity, quality

Nepal on Thursday requested the trading and development partners to support it in setting up quality laboratories and testing facilities in order to help the country meet and certify that its products meet international standards.
Commerce Secretary Lal Mani Joshi made such a request while speaking at the concluding session of Nepal´s trade policy review (TPR) at the head office of World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
According to a press release issued by the office of permanent mission in Geneva, Joshi emphasized that Nepal has accorded high priority to improve trade facilitation measures and taken concrete steps toward reducing transaction costs by simplifying the trade and transit related procedures. The TPR meeting of Nepal had begun from Tuesday.
During the TPR, a number of delegations from USA, Japan, India and China among others had raised a number of questions related to Nepal´s compliance with WTO commitments, trade and investments. "Joshi responded to those questions and thanked the WTO members for their appreciation of Nepal´s efforts in liberalizing trade and investment," reads the release.
Joshi, who highlighted Nepal´s efforts at promoting investments such as formation of high-level Investment Board, also expressed commitment that Nepal would continue its efforts to promote international trade by reforming investment regime. "We are trying our best to attract investment in infrastructure, particularly hydro-electricity and transport connectivity, and in other priority sectors such as tourism and agriculture," the release quoted Joshi as saying.
He also requested all the trading and development partners to enhance and scale up their support to Nepal in terms of market access and enhancing productivity.
As the Chair of the TPR body, Ambassador Eduardo Munoz of Colombia stated that the first-ever TPR of Nepal has given a better understanding of development in Nepal, particularly its trade and related policies and practices. Nepal joined WTO in 2004.

Finnish delegation commits support to women entrepreneurs

Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and a visiting delegation from Finland on Thursday discussed enhancing the capacity of Nepali women in order to empower them and foster entrepreneurship.
FNCCI President Suraj Vaidya and Helena Arlander, investment director of Finnfund, led their respective institutions during the meeting attended by FNCCI members and parliamentarians and bankers from Finland.
The Finnish team is in Nepal to assess the situation of Nepali women entrepreneurs and to identify the areas wherein they need assistance, reads a FNCCI statement.
“The FNCCI officials and visiting Finnish delegation discussed challenges faced by Nepali women entrepreneurs, like poor access to loan, higher interest rates, weak access to market and low level of skills,” reads the statement. Women entrepreneurs, who were present at the meeting, also shared the challenges they are facing at present.
In his welcome remarks, Vaidya highlighted initiatives taken by the FNCCI in order to develop entrepreneurship among women and promote women entrepreneurs, such as the ´one district, one product´ program and different trainings and capacity-building workshops at different levels.
He also requested the Finnish delegation to support Nepali women entrepreneurs by transferring new technologies in the remote areas and running programs that enhance the quality of their productions.
In response, Arlander expressed commitment to provide all possible support to Nepali women entrepreneurs in areas they deemed important.