December 26: Wheat is the second major staple crop of Nepal after rice. However, the area of wheat production in Nepal has been continuously declining in recent years due to the trend of leaving the land fallow after rice cultivation.

Although the area of wheat cultivation has decreased, wheat production has increased to some extent. However, the current production is not sufficient to meet the market demand of Nepal.

The government does not have a concrete plan to increase wheat production. According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, the area of land under wheat cultivation in Nepal has continuously decreased in the last 10 years.

In the fiscal year (FY) 2069/70, wheat cultivation was done on 759,843 hectares of land in Nepal. By the time of FY 2078/79, such area decreased by 42,865 hectares to 716,978 hectares. Nevertheless, wheat production is reported to have increased to some extent during this period.

During this period, wheat production increased from 18,82,220 metric tons to 21,44,568 metric tons. However, even though production has increased, it is not enough to meet the country’s demand.

According to Rajendra Prasad Mishra, joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal needs to produce more than 2.5 million metric tons of wheat to meet its domestic demand. However, the country has not been able to increase wheat production to meet the demand due to the lack of adequate irrigation, advanced varieties of seeds, chemical fertilizers and technology, he said.

"Irrigation facility, improved variety of seeds and technology help greatly in increasing production. However, as we are unable to provide such facilities to the farmers on time, the production has not increased. On top of that, the campaign to increase the production of any item and to reach a state of self-sufficiency is a very long process. Apart from the campaigns that were conducted in the past, the ministry does not have a big plan for now," he told New Business Age.

For the past few years, the government has been implementing a programme under the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project to increase wheat production by declaring three zones and one super-zone for wheat cultivation.

However, this program seems to be implemented just for the sake of showing that the government has been promoting wheat production.

Under this programme, wheat cultivation is done in only 3,121 hectares of land. This programme produces only about 14,000 metric tons of wheat annually.

Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of Agriculture Campaign for Food, says that the government should take special initiatives to increase wheat production. He said that farmers can be attracted to wheat farming only if the government takes steps to provide high subsidies for wheat, expand the pocket area of wheat farming, facilitate access to equipment and make fertilizers and advanced varieties of seeds readily available. He said that although there is a lot of potential for wheat production in Nepal, it is unfortunate that government has no proper plan for it.

As the government does not have a concrete plan to increase wheat production, it is not possible for the domestic production to meet the market demand.

As a result, the country has to import wheat in large quantities every year. According to the data of the Department of Customs, Nepal imported 201,000 metric tons of wheat worth Rs 6.24 billion in the fiscal year 2075/76. In the year 2076/77, the country imported a total of 240,745 tons of wheat worth Rs 8.19 billion.

In the year 2078/79, wheat import seems to have decreased due to India's ban on wheat exports. That year, only 24,700 tons of wheat worth more than Rs 1.16 billion was imported into Nepal.

According to the information provided by the Wheat Flour Industry Association, 36 mills in Nepal utilize 6.5 million tons of wheat annually. About 70 percent of wheat required for industrial purposes is obtained from domestic production. The remaining 30 percent is imported from other countries including India. Apart from India, wheat is also imported to Nepal from Mexico, China, Japan, Thailand, the UK and Bangladesh. According to a report published by the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2020/21, Nepal is the second major wheat exporting country for India. It is recorded that India exported 330,700 tons of wheat to Nepal during the review year.