Untitled

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to assess the farmer's satisfaction with agricultural services and the local government's performance in delivery of agricultural services under the new federal system of Nepal. The responses of 300 farming households covering three local levels (100 farming households from each municipality) were collected during 2019 and 2020 to analyse responses. Based on the information obtained, a relative importance index (RII) was developed by using 16 parameters that were considered as performance variables in a Likert-type scale.Results showed that about one tenth of the respondents were highly satisfied; about two fifth were satisfied, and nearly half of the respondents were moderately satisfied with the agricultural services at local level. The RII analysis revealed that local governments are effective in providing agricultural services that are relevant to the farmers resulting in increased access to services along with implementation of agricultural related activities. Other positive changes include the timeliness of service delivery by the local level governments, which have also become more accountable in terms of service delivery. On the other hand, the respondents have felt lower levels of agreement related to the capacity of the local staff, the institutional mechanisms, and participatory planning and financial resource allocation for agricultural services. Thus, from a policy perspective, the findings suggest there is a strong need for strengthening local staff capacities, the formulation of appropriate policies, and the establishment of institutional mechanisms to ensure farmer's participation at the local level planning process, and the prioritization of resource allocation to the agriculture sector to achieve improved agricultural service delivery and greater farmer satisfaction.