May 10: The decline in food production since the last 35 years has increased Nepal’s dependence on foreign countries for food. The production of major food products of Nepal such as paddy, maize, wheat, millet and buckwheat has been declining over the years. The production of buckwheat has been most affected. It has declined by 40 percent.

Considering the findings of the National Census of Agriculture 2001/2002, the country’s agriculture is expected to shrink by 30 percent by 2021/ 2022.

The then government had opened a company in 1978 to export rice to foreign countries. The company used to export rice to Bangladesh, Bhutan and India. But Nepal currently imports rice worth Rs 2 billion from different countries.

According to the Department of Customs, Nepal imported 300 million kilograms of rice from India and 733,000 kilograms of rice from the USA in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Similarly, Nepal imported 330 million kilograms of maize from India, 2.4 million kilograms of maize each from Brazil and Argentina.

The National Census of Agriculture 2011/2012 shows that the production of paddy declined by 6 percent. Similarly, the production of maize, wheat, millet, buckwheat, barley and mustard declined by 12 percent, 6 percent, 19 percent, 40 percent, 35 percent and 13 percent respectively.

Agriculture experts claim that the major reasons for the decline in agriculture as plotting of land, leaving the arable land fallow, and farmers, especially women, moving into cities from villages.

Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development Dr Yogendra Kumar Karki says that the agriculture production of the country must be increased in order to sustain the growing population of Nepal, mentions a news report published by the national news agency RSS.