By Our Correspondent
Bhairahawa, Nov. 23: Newly appointed Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Ghanashyam Bhusal said on Saturday that enabling the country to break away from traditional agriculture system would be his major priority.
Advancement of agriculture sector is the first step towards the socialism and therefore traditional agriculture system should be improved upon, Minister Bhusal said at a press conference organised by Lumbini Press Club at Gautam Buddha Airport.
He said that socialism would not be achievable without agriculture revolution as various issues including poverty alleviation, development, production and productivity are associated with the agriculture sector.
He further said that agriculture revolution was impossible without commercialization of agriculture by making improvement on the current traditional and subsistence based agriculture system.
Minister Bhusal, who visited his home district for the first time after being appointed as a minister, said that this year he would focus on implementing the programmes as directed by the budget of the current fiscal year.
“But I will engage in formulating policy and programmes of the government for the next fiscal year so as to support the agricultural revolution in the country,” he said.
Though the development is not an easy task, it is achievable, Minister Bhusal said adding that he had a plan to utilise agriculture labour in agricultural revolution.
“I will not be influenced by any greed and fears while conducting works that fall under my ambit and which are my responsibilities,” Bhusal said.
Bhusal said that focusing on practical aspect was better rather than talking about big things. According to him, transforming subsistence labour and traditional agriculture into enterprises is the key for the economic development of the country.
“I would make attempts to bring subsistence labour and traditional agriculture in to industrial enterprises and make them more productive,” Bhusal said.
He said that role of cooperatives would be very crucial in the country like Nepal where agricultural lands are fragmented in small pieces.
Minister Bhusal said that he would take initiative to resolve the problem of fertiliser and seeds by shortening the process of acquiring and distributing them He, however, said that he could not currently answer how this would be addressed.
In the context of Nepali land encroachment by India, Bhusal said that no country could resolve multilateral disputes through war and conflicts.