Modernising Agriculture

More than 60 per cent of Nepalis have been engaged in the agriculture sector but its share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) merely stands at 24.12 per cent. This shows that agricultural activity is characterised by low-value cereal and subsistence farming. The country was once a food-exporting nation but today it imports grains worth billions of rupees. Behind the pathetic condition of the agro sector lies the adoption of traditional methods of farming and a lack of investment in modernising and commercialising it. For the development of the industrial and agro sector, the state should be proactive through policy intervention but its role has been minimised with the introduction of neoliberal economic policy in the early 1990s. The deregulation and privatisation have weakened the industrial process, negatively affecting overall economic development, though some areas witnessed some progress.