Government plans to develop agriculture pocket areas

In a bid to make the country self-reliant in agriculture, the government has planned to develop pocket area for 1500 special crops. It is not only to make the country self-reliant on agriculture in two years, but also to control growing outflow of youths and promote commercial agriculture. With the development of the pocket area, the country would gradually become self-reliant on cereals, vegetables, fruits, pulses, fish, eggs, flowers and honey. The Ministry of Agriculture Development came up with such plan as a lesson learnt from the undeclared blockade by India on the country. The crops and places would be selected based on climate in the mountain, hill and Tarai regions. At a press meet on Saturday, Minister for Agriculture Development, Haribol Gajurel said under the pocket area development plan, there would be at least 500 extensive agro production centres and some model production farms. Even the research on production would be conducted, he added. For the special production centres, the investment would come from public (20 per cent), cooperative (40 per cent) and private industries (40 per cent). The centre would have the agro experts, and those graduated in agriculture and agro technology. "It would not only create jobs to youths, but also benefit heavily to the small farmers," the Minister believed. RSS