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Import of Food Rising

  1 min 24 sec to read

August 23:           The import of food has been steadily rising in the recent years due to the insufficient internal production to meet the demand. Statistics maintained by the Trade and Export Promotion Center show that Nepal imported food worth Rs 40 billion in fiscal year 2016/17. The country had imported food worth Rs 39 billion in FY 2015/16.

Rice constitutes the major proportion of imported food, informed an official at the center. Besides rice, the import of food grains like maize, wheat, buck wheat, barley, is also growing over the years.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture Development, Nepal produces 10.5 million metric tons of raw food grains like rice, wheat, maize and buck wheat annually. After processing, 5.5 million metric tons of grains are left, according to the ministry.

An official at the ministry said that the current population requires 7.4 million metric tons of food. In this regard, the domestic production is not enough to suffice the demands of the country.

Of late, the trend of consuming rice, especially the long-grain rice, has also contributed in increase in import of rice.

Although the government has given priority to increase in food production, the import of food has been rising instead. The government has been spending a lot in the agriculture sector but has not yielded the expected results, said Agriculture Secretary Uttam Bhattarai.

According to Bhattarai, besides the production woes the lack of proper use and management of food as well as change in food habit have resulted in the country becoming dependent on food like rice, maize and wheat.

 

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