Govt to subsidise agro, livestock

KATHMANDU, APR 02: 

The government is planning to provide more subsidies on agriculture, especially on fertilisers and seeds for farmers below the poverty line.

“The Finance Ministry and National Planning Commission have already started a dialogue on how to provide subsidy on seeds and fertilisers for farmers below the poverty line,” said finance minister Barshaman Pun, adding that the government is thinking of providing subsidy on livestock for those farmers who have no farm land.

The government has already started preparing for the budget of fiscal year 2012-13, he said. “The planning commission has given a ceiling of Rs 429 billion for the budget of next fiscal year.”

The total budget outlay for this year stands at Rs 384.90 billion. The government had allocated Rs 12.43 billion for agriculture in the current fiscal year’s budget, which is 2.4 per cent of the total budget outlay which will increase to 3.2 per cent if subsidy on fertilisers is also calculated.

The country has imported 110,000 metric tonnes (MT) of fertilisers worth Rs 2.48 billion in the current fiscal year, according to spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Dr Hari Dahal.

“The country needs around 600,000 MT to 700,000 MT fertilisers for one fiscal year,” he said, adding that the government has to allocate enough budget for agriculture it it wants to provide subsidy for fertilisers.

But the ministry has received a Rs 14.60 billion ceiling — for agriculture for next fiscal year 2012-13 — which will not be sufficient for subsidy on fertilisers or seeds. “With the increase in petroleum prices, the price of fertilisers too keep increasing,” added Dahal.

Despite being an agriculture country, Nepal imports agriculture produces and livestock worth 

billions, according to the central bank data.

The country has imported Rs 450.1 million worth fruits, Rs 187.8 million worth live animals, Rs 1.63 billion worth rice, and Rs 1.73 billion worth vegetables from India in the first seven months of the current fiscal year even though the country boasts of being an agriculture country and around 70 per cent of the populace are dependent on agriculture.

“The government needs to encourage farmers to modernise and commercialise agriculture, if it wants to uplift people’s lives, as the current traditional method of agriculture will neither be sufficient to feed the people nor will it help increase the income of the people forcing them to find greener pastures in the Gulf and Malaysia,” according to economists.

Source: THT