Kathmandu, Jan. 29 : Minister of State for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Narendra Bikram Nemwang inaugurated here today a roundtable meeting on “Promoting regional trade among AFMA member countries” organised jointly by the Association of Food and Agricultural Market Agencies in Asia and Pacific (AFMA) and Nepal Food Corporation.
In his inaugural address, Minister of State Nemwang said that Nepalese economy is predominantly agro-based and hence the government on its Ninth Plan has given top priority to the agricultural development in the country and is also promoting agricultural products as exportable goods.
“In the past, the government’s agricultural development efforts mainly focused on production, largely assuming that market forces would take care of farmers marketing needs. However, there are many indications that marketing constraints have emerged as a second generation problem in areas where farmers have achieved production gains,” he noted.
“But the underdeveloped infrastructures pose a major constraint on agricultural trade in Nepal through high transportation costs, spoilage and wastage and the non-recognition of market opportunities,” he said and continued: “These problems are less severe in the Tarai than in the hills because of its flat topography with relatively well-developed transportation network.”
After the restoration of multi-party democracy, Nepal followed the policy of economic liberalisation and initiated a number of important policy measures towards liberalising agricultural trade, he said.
From the chair, secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Mohan Dev Panta said as people in Asian countries continue to depend especially on agricultural products it is necessary to formulate Nepal’s agricultural policy in the light of her physical features.
General manager of Nepal Food Corporation B. R. Panday said the need of the improvement in agriculture marketing as a crucial factor for stimulating production, thereby benefiting producer, trader and consumer was lately recognised.
AFMA at various times has been carrying out various activities such as consultations and training on different aspects of food and agricultural marketing to the benefit of member agencies in particular and the member countries in general, he noted.
FAO representative Mr W. R. Rudder said that South Asian countries was grappling with poverty alleviation as a main challenge and for this reason, they had to make market promotion policies and institutional structures with the people’s active participation in keeping with their rural setting.
Deputy General Manager of Nepal Food Corporation K. B. Shrestha said, “Our of Nepal’s total trade of Rs 128 billion in l998/99, AFMA member countries accounted for about Rs 58 billion, (45 per cent of the total trade volume) and agricultural trade with AFMA member countries was worth about Rs 7 billion (12 per cent).
Nepal had agricultural trade deficit with all other AFMA member countries except Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, he further noted.
Delegates from 13 member countries are participating in the six-day roundtable.