BOOK LAUNCH: PROSPECTS FOR NEPAL’S AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION

Event participants discuss approaches to stimulating Nepal's agriculture sector and rural development.

Agriculture is a vital sector of Nepal’s economy, contributing about 29% to the country’s GDP and employing about two thirds of the workforce. But the sector’s performance over the past 25 years has been shaky. A new book, Agricultural Transformation in Nepal: Trends, Prospects and Policy Options, explores the challenges the country faces as it attempts to navigate major changes, including boosting productivity and bringing smallholders into high-value agricultural production.

A Nov. 11 virtual book launch, organized by IFPRI’s South Asia Regional Office (IFPRI-SAR) in collaboration with the Nepal Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), examined the prospects for agricultural transformation.

“The issues covered in this book are wide-ranging, from the role of agriculture in Nepal’s structural transformation, to unlocking its production potentials, diversification, trade and marketing,” said IIDS Chairman Swarnim Wagle. “The book’s richness reflects the diverse partnerships both in terms of disciplinary scholars and institutional outreach.”

“This book addresses how Nepal can harness the potential of its agriculture sector,” said IFPRI Director General Johan Swinnen. “A key element of the book is a characteristic of what we do in IFPRI, which is evidence-based policy advice. We hope that the findings of the book will contribute to inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food systems that may develop in the coming years. We are also committed to facilitate evidence based decision making, to accelerate the pace of economic and agriculture growth in Nepal.”

The book fills a void, said editor Ganesh Thapa, Visiting Scientist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal. “Although scattered research has been conducted on the challenges and opportunities in Nepal’s agriculture sector, there is a lack of comprehensive and analytical research that can provide evidence-based policy direction to the government and other stakeholders in formulating and implementing appropriate policies, programs and projects,” he said. “Bridging this gap was the main motivation behind 27 economists and other experts coming together to publish this book,”

To address Nepal’s long-term food and nutrition security challenges, and to see that it benefits from its comparative advantages, the book recommends a two-pronged approach: Increase the growth rate of domestic cereals production to slow increasing dependence on imports; and promote agricultural diversification through the production of high-value commodities, boosting both nutrition security and farmers’ incomes.

“We need to unlock the potential of production and increase the existing yield in Nepal, which are huge in terms of quantity. This will require effective extension approaches and access to improved technologies to bridge the gap,” said editor P.K. Joshi, President of the India Agricultural Economics Research Association.

“Despite several challenges in Nepal’s agricultural sector there are also ample opportunities,” said editor and IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Anjani Kumar. “The transition in consumption and dietary patterns and the share of high value commodities has been consistently and substantially growing in the fruit basket, which implies demand-led agricultural diversification and commercialization.”

The book’s five parts address macro-level issues, productivity growth, rural economic diversification to improve livelihoods, agricultural trade and marketing, and institutions and governance issues vital for agricultural development.

Some of the questions it addresses include: How does the role of agriculture change with economic growth and structural transformation? What role can agriculture play in reducing poverty? What impacts will climate change have on agriculture—and what mitigation and adaptation measures can address those effects?

The book will be an important resource for academia, policy makers and development agencies in researching and designing agricultural programs, said USAID Resilience and Food Security Advisor Chip Bury, noting that most chapters draw upon USAID’s policy reform initiative implemented by IFPRI in partnership with the government of Nepal, part of Feed the Future.

Puspa Raj Kadel, Vice Chair of the Nepal National Planning Commission, noted that “agriculture is the backbone of Nepal’s economy … the National planning commission will be the organization most benefited by the findings published in the book. It fills the gaps of agriculture knowledge in Nepal.”