The current big projects in agriculture include the projects listed by National Planning Commission (NPC). It has listed 41 projects under first priority and has included nine others in the list of second priority under its periodic agriculture project. The projects in first priority mainly include special agriculture production programme, co-operative farming, micro irrigation, transportation program of seed and fertilizers, livestock health service program and agricultural research program. The projects having second priority mainly include tea and cardamom development programme, hilly community forests and livestock development projects.
These projects have different date of completion and among them some are running from some five to seven years. Chandika Poudel, Planning Officer at NPC, says the projects that NPC has enlisted are of high value in the development of agriculture sector in Nepal. “All these projects run simultaneously, but the projects in first priority are arranged in such a way that they will be never out of budget,” Poudel says. According to him the failure of many such projects have taught lessons to the strategy makers and they are now determined to complete these projects successfully. These projects were selected as they were deemed viable in increasing production, good governance, public participation, environment friendly, and bio-diversity among other many necessary elements to guide the agriculture sector in right direction.
The foundation of all these agriculture projects is Agriculture Perspective plan (APP) wich was started from 1995 and is completing in 2015. According to Prabhakar Pathak, Spokesperson at Ministry of Agricultural Development, the APP has mixed results in terms of development of agriculture sector with some plans achieving more than the target and some doing less than the projection. To fill the gap to the achievements in agriculture sector after the completion of APP, the Ministry of Agricultural Development has come up with the formulation of Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) to impact sustainable growth in value in an agriculture sector that is more resilient to climate change with a 20-year vision and a 10-year planning horizon.
The ADS, planning to spend of Rs 250 billion during the period, has a wide scope including food security, sustainable production and adaptation and improved land and water management and water allocation.
The ADS has projected to increase export from 24 billion to 53 billion dollars. Similarly, it targets to minimize trade deficit to zero, increasing per hectare productivity from Rs 159 thousands to Rs 259 thousands, increasing income of agriculture labour from Rs 70 thousands to 106 thousands and increasing area of irrigated land from 18 per cent to 60 per cent.
