The changing food habits and lifestyle of consumers have fuelled the demand for spices in Nepal. Much of this demand is met through import which has been consistently rising for the past few years. The Nepali agencies and institutions concerned are reluctant to formulate implementable policies to support the farmers who grow spices. The farmers are facing various obstacles at every step.

 

But instead of creating an environment conducive to our farmers and the domestic spice-processing industry, the authorities concerned are serving the interests of the farmers and interest groups of other countries. As a result, the import of processed or raw spices has been growing at 24 percent per annum for the past few years. To get rid of this problem, the government should support the Nepali farmers and industrialists with incentives and subsidies. A bulk of the spices imported by Nepal comes from India where the government has been subsidising production of spices. So, Nepal should provide at least as much subsidy to it farmers as the Indian government does to its farmers

 

On the other hand, the Ministry of Health and Population should educate the people about healthy food habits and make them aware about the harms of excessive consumption of spicesby publishing guidelines for the intake of spices.