" The effectiveness of the amended Seeds Act will be known only when it is put into practice"
In what is a major stimulus to the farmer, both the Houses of the Parliament recently endorsed the bill to amend the Seeds Act 1988, which stipulates a provision of compensation for crop failure. With its authentication by the President, the bill has taken the form of an Act. Under Section 11 of the Act, any farmer suffering crop failure or a poor harvest that is substantially less than the supposed produce despite the use of seeds, fertilisers, techniques and process recommended by any government organisation, agency, company or firm is entitled to reasonable compensation from the concerned recommending agency.
With the population nearly doubling since the 1980s, farmers have been switching to imported hybrid seeds and using more fertilisers and pesticides to get a bumper harvest, but this has not always been successful, rather it has proved disastrous. At times, the recommended maize varieties, for example, did not yield even a single grain, leaving the farmers high and dry. The farmers received no compensation from the seeds importing agencies and were instead blamed for not following the required procedure.
The Act thus seeks to prohibit the sale or distribution of seeds that are not listed in a notification published in the Nepal Gazette, except for the purpose of agricultural research. Similarly, the Act requires the concerned persons or organisations to conduct a risk analysis before importing or exporting any variety of seeds or genetically modified organism or living modified organism that may cause adverse impacts on humans and animals or the environment.
Based on the risk analysis, the government may impose a ban on any seeds not deemed appropriate for Nepal. The Act also requires any person or organisation seeking to produce source seeds to first acquire a license from the National Seeds Board formed by the government.
The problem of crop failure, however, is not only with the seeds sold openly in Nepal's countryside.
The open border to the south makes it difficult to control the smuggling of sub-standard fertilisers, which are always in short supply when the farmers need them the most. Even during the paddy planting season this year, the government has not been able to import the needed urea in time.
While welcoming the provisions stipulating compensation for the farmers for crop failure in the amended Seeds Act, one will know about its effectiveness only when it is put into practice. It is not that the government does not have laws at present on what agro inputs can be imported and what cannot be. But it has always faltered when it comes to implementation.
There are high chances of some clever farmers having links with the farm inspectors misusing the laws to get compensation while the majority are unable to access it. Misappropriation of funds meant for agro projects has been reported in the past, with even high-level officials entangled in it.
Thus, the success of the Seed Act hinges on effective monitoring and integrity of the government-appointed inspectors, apart from being able to coerce the importers to pay compensation. There is no doubt that the effective implementation of the Seeds Act would go a long way in ensuring food security in the country.
Save Chure
The Chure range stretching from east to west is the youngest mountain in the Himalayan region, and it is also the major source of water for irrigation and drinking in the Tarai region. It helps maintain the ecosystem, climate and environment in the Tarai and Mahabharat range. Fragile as it is, any disruption in the Chure range will have a devastating impact in the entire Tarai belt, which is the food basket of the country.
Over exploitation of the Chure range, especially for sand, boulders and timber, over the decades has not only threatened its very existence but also that of the Tarai region, which is at risk of desertification. Should the Chure range dry up due to massive landslides and flash floods, the plains of the country will turn into a desert. In order to conserve the Chure range, the President Chure Conservation Programme was launched when Dr Ram Baran Yadav served as the country's first president. But the programme, which is still ongoing, could not function as per its expectations due to political interference, lack of budget and institutional capacity. The Chure range can still be saved provided the government imposes a complete ban on extracting sand and boulders from its bed and rivers flowing from it.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 11, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
