Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS): Work resumes on drafting 10-year farm plan

KATHMANDU, SEP 12 -

Work has resumed on drafting the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) as a prolonged dispute between representatives of the farmers and the government has come to an end. According to officials, two of the four vital phases in the ADS project—Assessment and Vision—were completed recently.

The ADS steering committee has planned to collect comments from stakeholders and farmer organisations by Sept 15 to prepare a policy option report, which is the third phase of the project. The report will be prepared by the end of September. It will then be submitted to the Agriculture Ministry for its approval to prepare the country’s agriculture roadmap for the next 10 years.

“We have finished collecting comments from the stakeholders for the country’s farm policy, while farmers groups have promised to provide their comments by Sept 15,” said Surya Prasad Paudel, a member of the committee. “As per the policy, an agriculture roadmap for 10 years will be prepared.”

Amid protest from farmers and civil society representatives that their representation in preparing such a fundamental document was nominal and that it was being carried out behind closed doors, the external process of the ADS was stalled for more than three months. The new development blueprint for the farm sector was scheduled to be prepared by the end of 2012, however, now it has been postponed till March 2013.

The dispute ended after the Agriculture Ministry inducted four representatives from the National Peasants Network into the ADS steering committee. Civil society and farmers groups had been demanding inclusive participation in drafting the ADS. The four new members represent farm leaders from major political parties.

Paudel said that although internal work on preparing the ADS was carried out without obstruction, other tasks like consultation, national and regional workshop, field work, policy roundtables and national conference were halted due to the protest.

“The government included four representatives from the National Peasants Network six weeks ago following the complaints,” said Prem Dangal, secretary general of the All Nepal Peasants’ Federation. “We will be providing our input soon to the committee on behalf of farmers’ organisations.”

The ADS is being prepared with a 20-year vision and a 10-year planning horizon with the technical assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

A number of donors including the  International Fund for Agricultural Development, European Union, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency , Denmark Agency for International Development and United States Agency for International Development have also supported the government in ADS drafting.

The ADS preliminary vision has envisaged that under GDP and Agriculture GDP growth assumptions of 8 percent and 5 percent, agricultural GDP will more than double from its current level of about US$ 6 billion to almost US$ 15 billion while the share of agriculture in the GDP declines from 33 percent to 19 percent and labor productivity in agriculture increases from US$ 794 per agricultural worker to US$ 1,833.

The proposed vision for the Irrigated Agriculture and Water Resources (IAWR) sector is that, by 2030, the irrigated agriculture sector will have expanded in terms of production by 100 percent over 2011 levels (4 percent per year), reducing food insecurity by 75 percent (in terms of the number of food insecure households) and increasing household income for rural Nepalis by at least 50 percent in real terms, according to the vision report.

The preliminary vision has envisaged that the mobile phone revolution will mean that probably even before the year 2030, 100 percent of the population will have access to mobile phones. This will facilitate access to information such as prices, technologies, markets, regulations and disasters. Such information could in turn lead to improved decisions to affect living standards positively.

Of the four phases of the ADS, assessment will involve a review and assessment of the agricultural sector, its trends, the key constraints and the policy and institutional issues and gaps. Vision will articulate a long-term vision for the agricultural sector in Nepal.

Policy Options will explore different options for policy and investments and Road Map and Action Plan will select the strategy and formulate action plans that guide the implementation of the strategy.

The government issued the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) in 1995 as a 20-year vision and strategy for agriculture-led growth and implemented it in 1997. The APP recognised the agricultural sector as an initial engine to accelerate economic growth and was formulated with a view to put the agricultural sector on a sustainable high-growth path.

However, the plan failed to achieve the desired impact because of little investment support, lack of effective leadership and coordination and inconsistent policies related to subsidies.

The scope of the ADS includes food security, agricultural productivity, sustainable production and resource management through climate change mitigation, adaptation and improved land and water management and water allocation, increased private sector development, delivering fair reward to all stakeholders in the value chain and policies, institutions and investments.

Source: The Kathmandu Post