Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Ramnath Adhikari has asked the farmers not to worry as the required chemical fertilizers are in stock.

During the discussion on the Ministry's Appropriation Bill, while answering the question raised by the MP on Monday, the minister said that the demand will be met from last year's and this year's imported fertilizers. 

According to the ministerial official, the current economic  After allocating the budget for the import of chemical fertilizers in the year  So far, 345,000 metric tons of fertilizer have been imported and 391,000 metric tons have been sold and distributed.

The minister informed that there is a total of 64 thousand metric tons of chemical fertilizers available including last year. In this way, one hundred and forty-two thousand metric tons of fertilizer is being imported and this June  There is a situation where it can be imported by the middle of the year,'' he said.

According to a ministerial official, 28.82 billion budget has been allocated to import fertilizers for the coming year. From that, 6 lakh metric tons of fertilizer will be imported. For that  He informed that the action plan has been prepared. For this, he informed that source assurance has been obtained from the Ministry of Finance and bids have been invited for the import of three lakh metric tons of fertilizer for the next financial year.

Regarding the payment of the price of milk, the minister said that after the payment of about five billion 68 million due to dairy farmers by the end of May last year, currently the dairy development institute has about 900 million and the private dairy industry has yet to pay the farmers about three billion.

He said that about one billion 41 crore subsidy was given to the farmers who cultivated sugarcane in the month of October of the current financial year. He informed that the purchase price of sugarcane in the current financial year has been set at 585 per quintal and the plan is to distribute the subsidy after the necessary decision regarding the subsidy is made by the Government of Nepal. Two billion has been allocated for subsidies to be given to sugarcane farmers in the coming year.

In order to support the development of entrepreneurship among agricultural entrepreneurs and youth, he said that the agricultural and livestock entrepreneurship program has been launched in the next fiscal year through the National Agricultural Modernization Program, through which there is a plan to support 646 small and medium agricultural entrepreneurs.

The ministerial officer said that the distribution of subsidies will be organized in the local levels where the registration of farmers has been completed. He said, 'After identifying farmers, cataloging and distribution of identity cards, the program related to farmer pensioner land bank can be implemented through policy arrangements.' He informed that about 23 lakh 20 thousand farmer families have been registered in the farmer registration system so far. 

The minister has given necessary instructions to the financial institutions providing agricultural loans for providing subsidized agricultural loans to farmers and for simplifying the process of loan disbursement and necessary coordination and cooperation has been done with Nepal Rastra Bank and the Ministry of Finance for policy reforms.