Foreign Minister Dr. Rana Urges Support for Climate Finance and Sustainable Agriculture Systems

Kathmandu: Foreign Minister Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba has urged multinational companies around the world to invest in Nepal’s agricultural sector. Addressing the High-Level Session on Agriculture and Food Systems organized today under the 44th General Assembly of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, in Rome, she urged them to benefit from the global market through Nepal’s original and unique products by investing in the agricultural sector.

Minister Dr. Rana said, “In line with the government’s policy of increasing private sector involvement in agriculture, large private companies have started investing in agriculture. However, despite sufficient potential due to the lack of large-scale investment and modernization in agriculture, Nepal is not able to export agricultural products on a large scale. We need large-scale foreign investment in this sector.”

Minister Dr. Rana said that the Nepal government is committed to making the agricultural sector attractive through innovation, use of AI in agriculture, and use of technologies such as drones for farming, modernization and scientificization in agriculture through international cooperation and collaboration.

She said that since people engaged in agriculture in Nepal, that is, farmers, are still looked down upon, this sector has not been modernized and developed in a timely manner and made export-oriented. She also expressed the view that agriculture should be made a dignified and attractive profession.

Minister Dr. Rana, former chairman of the Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee of the Parliament, said, “The social image of farmers has not been changed even now. Even when I became the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, I remember why some people chose this committee. But I chose that committee.”

She said that although 83 percent of Nepal’s territory is mountainous or mountainous, and most of the land is located in small plots, agricultural work is extremely difficult, it has long been linked to a self-sufficient economy and poverty.

Stating that remittances, which have become the largest source of income in Nepal’s economy, contribute about 35 percent to Nepal’s GDP and agriculture’s contribution is in second place, that is, about 23 percent, Minister Dr. Rana discussed that the agriculture sector is still a means of employment for about 80 percent of the population.

She said that the agriculture sector has been adversely affected due to the adverse effects of climate change in recent times and this is a matter of serious concern for Nepal. She mentioned that due to the absence of youth and men in villages, farmers are suffering due to the increase in attacks by wild animals on farming and that conflicts between humans and wildlife have also increased. Minister Dr. Rana also clarified that efforts to promote agriculture by coordinating it with education, nutrition and health are being successful.