Kathmandu, February 28

If farmers are to get reasonable price for their produce, they should carry out farming together, believes Dan Alluf, counsellor at the International Development Cooperation (Mashav) Science and Technology, Israel, who is currently in Nepal to participate in an event on the issues being faced by farmers.

Citing that farmers not getting reasonable price for their produce is a common problem across many countries, Alluf urged Nepali farmers to carry out farming together and lobby with middlemen together. “One farmer cannot make a difference in price while hundreds of them can.

Farmers should unite first and bargain with the middlemen.

This will certainly create pressure,” he reiterated.

Along with working closely with other farmers, a farmer should also see him/herself as a leader and plan their business accordingly. Citing that a majority of farming businesses are carried out without proper planning and analysis, Alluf stated that proper planning is the crux to the success in farming.

“A farmer should plan with another farmer. A single farmer’s business is vulnerable compared to a business carried out by a group of farmers.”

Meanwhile, Alluf also expressed his willingness to bring in Israeli expertise in agriculture to Nepal to help farmers and promote the country’s agriculture sector.

“Israel has a lot of innovations and other expertise in the field of agriculture. As we have been sharing our expertise across the globe, we are ready to help Nepali farmers and the country’s agriculture industry to grow better,” he mentioned.

Giving an example of the Indo-Israel Agro Project being run by Israel in India since the last few years, Alluf said that such projects are crucial to promote the competitive growth of the agriculture industry.

Under this project, Israel has established 25 Centres of Excellence across different states in India.

Each of these centres promotes the cultivation of a particular crop in a scientific manner.

These centres also provide necessary training to farmers, share knowledge and expertise and also distribute better crops and seedlings to farmers.

Alluf said Israel can bring in such projects to Nepal if the government expresses its interest.