By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 28: Newly appointed Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Padma Kumari Aryal said on Sunday that the government would create infrastructure to store chemical fertilisers in all seven provinces.
Assuming her new responsibility at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) at Singhadurbar, she said that she was committed to resolving the problem of chemical fertilisers, which the farmers were facing for years.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has stationed Aryal at the MoALD changing her earlier responsibilities of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation after Ghanashyam Bhusal resigned.
She said that storage facilities with 25,000 tonnes capacity would be created in each province. “There will be no fertiliser shortage from the next year. The storage facility will be used to maintain the required amount of fertilisers so that the farmers need not to be worried,” she said.
She also said that the ministry would launch a one-door system to mobilise subsidised fertilisers, seed, agricultural inputs and technology, and grants, agriculture insurance and loans by March next year.
“Real farmers will be benefitted by the new system,” said Minister Aryal.
According to her, Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project will be revised as per its objectives so that it will be more result-oriented. “The ministry will also initiate work to address the constraints faced by the farmers like poor access to the market and under valuation of their produces,” she said.
She said separate agencies would be created to monitor the agriculture and livestock markets.
Minister Aryal also said that the government would establish storage facility in the Terai-Madhesh for rice, and resolve the issues of sugarcane farmers. “The MoALD will immediately coordinate with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies to address the problems of the sugarcane farmers,” she said.