Kathmandu, March 30: The government has initiated a process to determine minimum support price of major crops within a month. The 100-point reform plan endorsed by the Cabinet meeting held on March 27 mentioned that the support price was going to be determined to resolve farmers’ problems- loss of their products- following unchecked fluctuation in market prices.
A provision would be implemented where credit transactions for the purchase of agro produces must be paid within 25 days maximum to ensure the appropriate price of agro produces as per the reform plan. Otherwise, a directive would be issued immediately to pay the payments with interest.
Similarly, a national agriculture market information system would be in place to strengthen market access of agro produces, to share information about the price of agro produces among the farmers through SMS and digital medium, thereby facilitating the local levels to run weekly agriculture market in each local level. A programme ‘one municipality, one cold storage centre’ would be run to store agro produces and its market.
Feasibility study would be conducted within 10 days to establish cold storage centre in a public-private-partnership model in every district. Soil health card to farmers operating commercial agriculture farms would be ensured within three months, the plan stated.
It will take 60 days for collection and verification of integrated digital data of landless squatters and unorganized settlements across the country.
Likewise, household survey would be conducted in coordination with local levels to implement clear criteria to identify real beneficiaries, to provide land to the real landless squatters in phase-wise manner. The problems of landless and unorganized settlement would be resolved within 1,000 days, the scheme stated.
