March 16: Farmers' organizations have warned that they will protest if the government does not immediately withdraw the decision to cut subsidies on chemical fertilizers. The All Nepal Peasants' Federation (ANPF), National Farmers' Group Federation and Nepal National Democratic Farmers' Organization held a joint press conference in Kathmandu on Wednesday and demanded that the government's decision to reduce the subsidy on fertilizers should be withdrawn immediately.

The farmers’ organisations said that they will protest from March 17 if the government does not withdraw the decision.

As mentioned in the conference, a memorandum will be submitted to the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on March 17 and after that a joint farmers’ struggle committee will be formed at the local level. The struggle program will be conducted on needs basis.

The government made a ministerial-level decision on March 10 and reduced the subsidy given to farmers for the purchase of chemical fertilizers from 70.82 percent to 59.4 percent.

A joint statement issued by all the three organizations reads, “The farmers' organization has drawn serious attention to the decision of the government. The decision to cut this kind of subsidy on fertilizer will increase the cost of agricultural production and increase the price of agricultural produce.”

During the press conference, Prem Dangal, president of the All Nepal Peasants' Federation said that the decision to cut the subsidy has discouraged the farmers, who are always suffering from lack of fertilizer during farming.

Ganesh Timilsina, president of Nepal Peasants’ Federation commented that instead of bringing a program to encourage and protect farmers, the government decided to cut subsidies to further trouble them.