KATHMANDU, May 21: Despite a decade-long plan and billions in subsidies, Nepal’s flagship agriculture modernization project has delivered only modest results, with funds misused and progress stalling. Backed by a Rs 130.74 billion investment, the program has fallen short on nearly every major target — from pocket areas and zones to promised jobs and food self-sufficiency as the project nears its deadline.
In its 63rd report submitted to President Ram Chandra Paudel on May 15, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) highlights the pathetic progress of the government’s ambitious agriculture project. With an aim to aid the state’s agriculture development strategy, the government launched the ten-year project in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016/17. The project expires in FY 2026/27.
The PMAMP had set a target to establish 15,000 pocket areas across the country, but the progress stood at 9,162 as of the last FY. Likewise, the project was supposed to install 300 zones, but it has been able to prepare only 206 zones. In its timeframe of one decade, the project aims to establish 21 superzones.
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Similarly, the government through the project had targeted to create full-time job opportunities for 309,000 people and partial employment for 5.114 million people. But the progress under the headings were reported to stand at 225,000 people and 2.276 million people, respectively. Similarly, the project was able to utilize a budget of only Rs 36.50 billion out of the disbursed budget of Rs 56.54 billion as of the last FY.
To ease supply-side constraints, the project offered generous subsidies. Farmers in designated pockets, blocks, zones, and super zones received up to 85 percent cash grants to purchase agricultural inputs. Similar levels of support were extended to build collection centers, warehouses, seed banks, processing units, marts, cold storage facilities, and training centers. In addition, a 50 percent capital subsidy was provided for equipment and tools, while 15 mobile laboratories were deployed to deliver technical services in production areas. In effect, the programs under PMAMP were heavily subsidized, yet the outcomes remained limited.
Despite making the heavy expenses from the state coffers, the project’s progress has been nominal, while there were instances of misappropriation of the funds. In FY 2017/18, the project signed agreements with seven organizations to provide grant amount of Rs 1.14 billion to install cold storages and disbursed advances worth Rs 167.80 million to them.
However, the organizations concerned failed to construct the proposed structures. Although the PMAMP recovered the advance amount from four organizations, three others have not returned the money to the project till date.
The PMAMP was introduced with a clear and specific roadmap for increasing agriculture production and productivity to make the country self-reliant in food production within a decade. It envisages making the country self-reliant in agricultural products by promoting mechanization technology with proper and efficient use of seeds and fertilizers to increase productivity.
The project aimed to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat and vegetables by the first fiscal year, in paddy and potato in two years, in maize and fish in three years, and in fruits like banana, papaya and litchi in four years.
According to Bhairab Raj Kaini, former chief at the Department of Agriculture, the project could not yield desired results due to poor coordination between the concerned authorities at the central and provincial levels.
Krishna Prasad Poudel, an agriculture expert, told Republica that the project failed to improve the specialized sectors due to misuse of funds. According to him, subsidies were mostly enjoyed by the persons with access, with little trickling down to the intended beneficiaries.
