Biratnagar, November 24:

A Commercial Agriculture Development Project is being launched with a grant assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 11 districts of the Eastern Development Region.

The agreement was signed between the government and Asian Development Bank yesterday.

The Asian Development Bank has provided a grant to Nepal for the project for the next six years, Yogendra Kumar Karki, project chief informed here at a seminar yesterday.

Jagannath Mahaseth, Eastern Regional Agriculture director presented a working paper on ‘Agriculture development in the Eastern Region’, while Laxman Poudel of Agriculture Department presented a paper on ‘Role of the department in agriculture commercialisation’ at the seminar.

Dr Devbhakta Shakya of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Market Information Service (MIS) presented a working paper on ‘Market information service’, Kamalesh Tiwari of the project presented a paper on ‘Project selection process’ and Mohan Bahadur Thapa of Morang District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) presented a paper on ‘Agriculture commercialisation in Morang.

They all stressed on commercialisation of agriculture to uplift the living standard of the people. Agriculture is the largest employment provider in Nepal as it is an agricultural country.

However, the dependency on rain water for harvest ing and shortsge of fertilizers have hit commercialisation of agriculture. “Irrigation facility and smooth supply of fertilizers are a must,” they said.

Similarly, Ram Kumar Sharma, general manager of the Commercial Agriculture Alliance and Rita Koirala, JFPR project coordinator introduced their respective organisations on the occasion.

Lawmaker Guru Baral, addressing the seminar said that commercialisation will be aided by the organised efforts of the farmers.