KATHMANDU, MARCH 26

The government has approved the proposal to set up a fertiliser factory.

The proposal submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development was approved by the Cabinet meeting held on Thursday.

Minister for Agriculture Padma Kumari Aryal informed that the government is going to set up a fertiliser factory for the long-term solution of the problem faced by Nepali farmers due to lack of chemical fertiliser every year.

'We have already solved the problem of fertiliser availability for short-term period. In order to solve the problem in long-term, government has taken forward the process of building a fertiliser factory,' said Minister Aryal.

The Cabinet meeting approved a study report for the establishment and operation of chemical fertiliser factory in Nepal and gave approval to the MoALD to take forward the process for the same.

The ministry has also decided to give responsibility to the Office of the Investment Board of Nepal to prepare and implement the necessary procedures to build the chemical fertiliser factory in the country under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) modality.

Every year, farmers have been facing the problem of unavailability of fertiliser and each year the government has been failing to provide the fertiliser on time due to several reasons. This year also the government failed to bring the fertiliser on time citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the ministry has claimed that from the next farming season, the farmers won't have to face this problem.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 27, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.