KATHMANDU, APRIL 6
A three-day symposium has kicked off in the federal capital here to deliberate on and come up with an appropriate conclusion regarding the use of improved varieties of seeds, fertiliser, and agricultural implements in a bid to enhance soil nutrients and increase agriculture productivity.
The symposium is jointly organised by the Salt Trading Corporation Limited and Indian Potash Limited with the technical support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. The symposium will discuss a range of topics related to modernisation of agriculture.
High-ranking officials of the Government of Nepal, province government officials, agricultural scientists, stakeholders and renowned agricultural scientists from India are taking part in the seminar.
The Salt Trading Corporation Limited stated that the symposium was organised with the objective of receiving suggestions and recommendations on issues related to the supply of major agricultural inputs (seeds, fertiliser, and machinery) and subsidy mechanism, and discussion on the issues related to international trade of major agricultural input. The symposium also aims to know about the subsidy mechanism of inputs in India.
Group discussions will be held on over a dozen topics at the programme. The topics include fertiliser policies and subsidy mechanism in Nepal, general soil nutrients status of Nepal's farming land, type of plant nutrients required, current international market of fertiliser in relation to DAP, urea and MoP, how Nepal should prepare itself in the next one year, the present scenario of provincial agricultural input demand and supply, and challenges and prospects.
Also, discussions will be held on topics related to government subsidy in different agricultural sector, prevailing weaknesses and recommendations for present policy for output-oriented implication and the present situation of farm mechanisation, scope of agricultural machineries and agricultural tools.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation Kumar Rajbhandari said farmers can benefit when agricultural scientists of Nepal and India share their knowledge and experience as the geographical conditions of both countries are nearly the same.
"In Nepal's context, basic production inputs such as irrigation, continuous supply of fertiliser, improved seeds, commercialisation of production, value addition, farm mechanisation for smallholder farmers, and agricultural credit subsidy are still not in synchronisation," he said adding that, "This symposium has been organised against this backdrop and it is expected to provide valuable inputs for improvements."
The Salt Trading Corporation Limited is doing its best to increase agriculture production in the country by facilitating import and supply of quality fertiliser, improved seeds and modern tools and machinery.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
