Rethinking Nepal’s agriculture development

We must support producers by linking them with markets to transform agricultural value chains.

Many development projects in Nepal focus on strengthening smallholder farmers’ input supply rather than linking them with markets and agro-processors. There is little evidence that development projects are succeeding. First, such projects are worked with startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a limited economic footprint. Second, successful private sector partners do not crowd in other entrepreneurs or businesses, thereby kickstarting a virtuous cycle. Third, development projects pursue an “actor-based” rather than a “rules-oriented” approach, consequently failing to remove the root causes of unsatisfactory market outcomes.