November 18: The Government of Nepal has launched the Rural Enterprise and Economic Development (REED) project in collaboration with the World Bank.

A joint statement issued by the World Bank and the Government of Nepal states that the project was launched by Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Mahindra Ray Yadav and World Bank’s Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos amid a programme on November 18.

According to the World Bank, the project aims to boost Nepal’s agriculture sector by strengthening rural market linkages and promoting entrepreneurship while creating jobs to support post-COVID-19 recovery. The project is financed with an $80 million credit from the World Bank and is expected to leverage additional funding from producers, financial institutions and local governments in the next four years.

 “In the context of Nepal’s agriculture sector transformation and COVID-19, ensuring market linkages of produce of smallholder farmers, famer groups, and cooperatives is critical to accelerate recovery of the sector and the economy from the pandemic’s impacts,” the statement quoted Minister Yadav as saying. “This project will help to increase the income of smallholder producers and farmers, promote agriculture entrepreneurship, and create jobs in rural Nepal.”

 The REED project will be implemented in selected municipalities in five economic corridors covering provinces 1, 2, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpashchim to foster sustainable linkages for rural entrepreneurs. The project is aligned with the government’s Agriculture Development Strategy 2015-2035, and will work with provincial and local governments, intermediary organizations, and small and medium enterprises, especially those that are women-led to strengthen the agriculture sector and the entrepreneurship ecosystem. 

The project will also help improve production through investments in municipal agriculture centers and value chain infrastructures to ensure the availability of inputs for farming as recovery actions from COVID-19, the statement added. The project will use labor-intensive Cash for Work mechanism in infrastructure works and is expected to create short-term jobs for over 5,700 people including women to support economic recovery from COVID-19.

“The project supports Nepal’s green, resilient, and inclusive development and provides an opportunity for the government and the private sector to work together to build the ‘Nepal’ brand in the agriculture sector,” stated World Bank’s Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos. “In doing so, the project can stimulate many niche sectors such as coffee, tea, fruit, and medicinal products, among others, to help them grow and to support a resilient recovery from the pandemic.”

 The project agreement for REED was signed in December 2020 by the Government of Nepal and the World Bank.