Govt to start ADS drafting afresh

The government is preparing to start drafting 20-year long vision document of Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) afresh after newly inducted representatives from farmers associations refused to accept previous team´s assessment of Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP).

Though a steering committee entrusted to draft the ADS, which will replace APP once it ends in 2015, had already completed the assessment of the APP and also developed vision of ADS, newly inducted Prem Dangal, general secretary of the All Nepal Peasants Federation said the whole process needs rework because the evaluations done by the previous team were faulty.

“APP was a complete failure, but their assessment does not reflect that. If we accept it, we will stand on faulty premises and that will misguide the new vision, plan and strategy,” said Dangal, adding that the government has already given nod to restart the whole exercise afresh.

However, sources said the government has not taken any concrete decision on the matter particularly as the exercises carried out so far was funded by multilateral and bilateral donors and outright rejection of report prepared by experts they assigned could ´hurt their sentiment´.

Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota, who chaired a meeting of ADS stakeholders this week, said that they reached an conclusion to rethink the assessment and vision report of previous team as farmers representatives strongly expressed dissatisfaction.

“But we will take a concrete decision only after discussions with concerned ministers,” he told Republica, adding that a meeting between Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) and Ministry of Finace (MoF) will be held soon to decide on the matter.

Nonetheless, he added that there was no meaning of continuing the draft process when farmers are completely against it.

A meeting held last Monday had asked the ADS steering committee to stop working till the government makes concrete decision whether to own the work that has been completed so far.

The government had initiated process to develop ADS in 2011 and had formed a committee under the leadership of Francesco Goletti, a policy and institutional specialist and president of Agrifood Consulting International - New York University. The team included former bureaucrats and foreign consultants.

The document was being prepared with technical assistance from the Asian development Bank, the World Bank and USAID, among other 7 donors. The government has allocated US$ 2 million (about Rs 160 million) for developing ADS.

Farmers´ Organizations had been strongly protesting the approach the government adopted for preparing such a crucial document, saying that vision document prepared in the absence of farmers´ representatives might not address their concerns and agricultural reality of the country.

Ministry to address farmers' concerns

After almost a yearlong silence, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative (MoAC) is finally preparing to review a methodology adopted to draft a 20-year vision document Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) 2015-2035 that will guide country´s agricultural sector once the existing Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) ends in 2015.

So far, the ministry had assigned a 33-member technical assistance team, one-third of which are foreign consultants, to draft the document. However, such a closed-door approach had drawn flak from various farmers associations as well as MoAC officials themselves.

"We might have to rethink the way the team has been formed and the way it functions, particularly as it might later pose problem in owning the document," Dr Hari Dahal, joint-secretary and spokesperson of the MoAC, told Republica on Tuesday.

The Ministry has even called a consultation meeting of the stakeholders on March 15 to review the whole approach of drafting ADS.

Various farmers´ groups had protested the approach, mainly expressing fear that close-door preparation of such a crucial document by ´so called agro-experts and foreign experts´ might not address their concerns.

"The methodology used in preparing ADS is almost similar to that of APP. As APP was totally a failure, adoption of same method has raised question over ADS being a better document," said Prem Dangal, general secretary of the All Nepal Peasants Federation (ANPF).

Some of the MoAC officials too had challenged the approach, saying that it might lead to lack of ownership by various ministries.

"The 20-year vision document will deal on multi-sectors like irrigation, agricultural inputs, and other crucial sub-sectors. It is always appropriate to let the respective ministries formulate the related set of strategies, instead of preparing them by MoAC," said an official at MoAC.

Dahal agreed with the official and even admitted that APP failed because it was not fully owned by the line ministries and agencies supposed to implement the action plan. Also reduction in budgetary allocations on the sector had hit its implementation.

"We are having a meeting with farmers and other stakeholders to hear their voices," Dahal said, "We will consider their concerns seriously."

The government is preparing the ADS with the technical assistance of various donor agencies, including Asian Development Bank, World Bank and United State Agency for International Development (USAID), among others.

Two-thirds of the members in the drafting committee led by Francesco Goletti, a policy and institutional specialist and president of Agrifood Consulting International- New York University, are former government officials.

"Our concern is the team has no representation from farmers´ organization and civil society groups working in the agriculture sector," stated Dangal.

MoAC officials said the government has allocated $2 million (around Rs 160 million) to prepare the ADS and the team has been asked to submit it within two years.