13.5 Strategic planning to Improve Nepal’s Bioeconomy
Nepal: Agricultural Development Strategy (Khanal et al., 2020)
The Agricultural Development Strategy (ADS) for Nepal is a comprehensive plan aimed at transforming the country’s agricultural sector into a resilient, competitive, and sustainable industry. The ADS focuses on a 20-year vision and a 10-year planning horizon with the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable growth in the value of the agricultural sector while building resilience to climate change. This strategy is critical for Nepal, a nation where agriculture plays a pivotal role in the economy. ADS seeks to unlock the full growth potential of Nepal’s agricultural sector, making a substantial contribution to overall GDP growth. This includes not only increasing agricultural productivity but also improving the sustainability of agricultural practices.
A primary objective of the ADS is to contribute to poverty reduction. By promoting sustainable and competitive agriculture, it aims to enhance the livelihoods of rural communities and reduce poverty levels. Ensuring food security is a core element of the strategy. The ADS aims to bolster the production and availability of food to meet the growing demands of the population. The strategy places great emphasis on the conservation, promotion, and sustainable use of natural resources, environmental protection, and biodiversity conservation. It recognizes the intricate link between agriculture and the environment.
The ADS, as outlined in its inception report, identifies several key findings and focus areas:
Despite numerous challenges, the agricultural sector in Nepal has the potential for significant growth. It can play a vital role in contributing to GDP growth, poverty reduction, and the sustainable management of natural resources. While addressing the need to increase cereal productivity, the ADS underscores the importance of commercializing high-value agricultural products like horticulture, livestock, fisheries, spices, and medicinal and aromatic plants. This involves the development of agribusiness and value chains. Given Nepal’s diverse agroecological environments and social diversity, the strategy acknowledges the need for tailored technologies and interventions for different regions and commodities. It emphasizes the importance of both the supply and demand sides of agricultural technology, including technology adoption. Enhancing the competitiveness of Nepal’s agricultural products is a priority. The strategy aims to address challenges related to quality control, low technology adoption, business difficulties, and inadequate infrastructure. It recognizes the need for a well-functioning system for quality and safety control. The ADS focuses on promoting sustainable growth and poverty reduction, which will require a substantial increase in investment from various sources, including the government, private sector, cooperatives, and development partners. While Nepal has a wealth of well-formulated policies, the challenge lies in the implementation gap. The ADS recognizes various factors contributing to this gap, such as planning and institutional capacity weaknesses, lack of supporting legislation, irregular and insufficient funding, limited human resources, weak accountability systems, and challenges in policy and program implementation. The ADS is designed to benefit smallholder farmers, small and medium enterprises, and communities engaged in agricultural activities across different geographic areas. Its goal is to open up profitable job opportunities in non-farming rural areas. The ADS highlights the significance of effective climate change adaptation to counteract its detrimental effects on development, acknowledging the effects of climate change on agricultural practises. ensuring that all Nepalese citizens have access to and availability of wholesome food. raising productivity and output in agriculture to satisfy the population’s expanding needs. increasing market accessibility and connectedness, which is essential for agricultural initiatives to succeed. enhancing the agricultural sector’s resilience to withstand the difficulties brought on by climate change. ensuring climate change mitigation and natural resource management in agricultural practises. promoting the growth of cooperatives and the private sector to improve the value chain and give everyone fair rewards