Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Ramnath Adhikari has said that the government is committed to the welfare of farmers.
Speaking at the 22nd National Paddy Day and Planting Festival, 2082, organized by the Department of Agriculture, Crop Development and Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Center, National Farmers Commission and National Crop Science Research Center (NARC) today at the National Crop Science Research Center Khumaltar with the slogan 'Intensification of rice crop food security and self-reliance', he said that despite the limitations of resources and means, the state will work for the farmers with due attention.
'Asar is a ritual that must be done in the mud, unless we emphasize on production, the country will not prosper, there is no rice as sweet as Chaite rice, the taste of the Ghaiya rice that I produce and the Marsi rice of Jumla is the same.
He promised to move forward by assimilating the ideas expressed by the farmers saying that the production will increase when Paddy Day is celebrated next year. "We have managed to solve the problem of what the state has to do to be self-sufficient in rice, the situation of not being able to plant due to fertilizers will end," he said.
Chairman of the Agriculture, Cooperative and Natural Resource Development Committee of the Federal Parliament, Kusum Thapa said that he will direct the government to make the necessary arrangements by holding a policy discussion in the parliamentary committee to make the country self-sufficient in food by empowering the country's farmers.
Secretary of the Ministry Deepak Kumar Kharal, respecting the contribution made by the farmers in Nepal's agricultural sector, emphasized that they should replace imports by contributing to rice production, consumption and export. He said that due to the land use policy issued by the Government of Nepal, there was some problem when even the productive agricultural land was converted into residential land and emphasized that it should be facilitated.
The Executive Director of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) Krishna Prasad Timsina said that rice is an integral part of people's way of life and culture, and they are developing different types of rice to solve the problem of climate change. He said that according to people's interest and population growth, there will be changes in the demand structure, and there will be changes in import and export, and he said that there are preparations to make Nepal self-sufficient in rice by 2030.
