Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Chakrapani Khanal has said that the government was working as per the short-term, medium-term and the long-term plans to address the pressing problems of farmers.
Minister Khanal was speaking in the meeting of the National Assembly, the upper house of Federal Parliament, Tuesday. He reiterated that the government will solve the problem faced by the dairy farmers for their not being able to sell milk and hence having to spill it on the road and the other farmers having to leave their land uncultivated.
Recently, dairy farmers in Jhapa district had spilled milk on road to protest the lack of market for it while the farmers in Chitwan bulldozed their vegetable farms for the same reason.
He also stated that efforts are being made to set up storage house and collection centers throughout the country for managing the market for the agriculture produce grown by farmers.
Khanal further said that powder milk plants have been operated in various places across the country with the participation of the private sector so that the milk produced by the dairy farmers would not be wasted.
He expressed concern over the growing import of agriculture products from third countries even though Nepal is known as the agriculture-based country, adding that this situation would be soon put to an end.
"Works are underway to double the agricultural production in the country," he said. The Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project has been forwarded tying it up with all three levels of government.
He reiterated that the grievances of the sugarcane farmers that the support price the government has announced to them would be addressed.
Lawmakers Radheshyam Adhikari, Ram Narayan Bidari, Thagendra Prasad Puri, Anita Devkota, Prakash Pantha, Sher Bahadur Kunwar, Badri Pandey, Bimala Rai, Tara Devi Bhatta, Kamala Kumari Oli, Mukta Kumari Yadav and Ramesh Prasad Yadav had asked Minister Khanal about the government subsidies to farmers and new agriculture policies of the government.
