Agricultural Support Policy of Nepal: Cases of Subsidies

Abstract

As an agrarian nation, agriculture policies of Nepal have been prioritized subsidies to increase production, improve food security, and reduce poverty. Nepal government has been allocating a huge amount each year for agricultural subsidies. This paper focuses on identifying the critical issues of the effective implementation of agricultural policies and programs in Nepal. The paper is based on primary and secondary sources of information. The primary data were collected on the field visit and in-depth interview has been taken with key stakeholders of the agriculture field. The secondary sources of information are based on government and academics' publications and their study reports. Qualitative research method has been adopted for this study, and the collected data are being analyzed based on the narrative analysis method. This study found that the utilization of agricultural subsidies has not been utilized properly in practice, and small and needy farmers are not being benefitted from the agriculture support policies and programs. It is found that government subsidies are heavily influenced by political power and politically influential persons. The bureaucratic complicated system, lack of transparency and good governance, lack of proper information about the subsidy are found the key constraints to easy access of subsidy to the small and needy farmers. In addition, failure of anti-corruptions mechanism and degradation of the values, ethics and morality are also significant issues of Nepal.

Policy Actors' Perceptions of Obstacles to Sudan's Policy of Wheat Self-Sufficiency Implementation

“…According to the participants' perspectives, ineffective governance signs such as confusion in decision-making and shortcomings in governance processes, institutions, and practises led to a lack of transparency, accountability, responsibility, and responsiveness, which ultimately resulted in a lack of effective implementation of the policy. This is in line with the study, which stated that lack of good governance, lack of transparency, corruption, and degradation of values and ethics, including financial morality (nepotism and favouritism), as fake farmers supported by political leaders and commissioned by government officials, are critical issues for the effective implementation of agricultural policies and programs in Nepal (Mahesh, 2021).…”

“…Findings of this study about barriers to policy implementation range from mismanagement, including ineffective administrative measures, ineffective planning, technical risks, and ineffective policy instruments, to economic difficulties, including financial difficulties and high production costs, along with ineffective governance and foreign constraints. These findings complement earlier literature that highlights policy implementation as being hindered by a number of factors, among them limited institutional capacity and a lack of cooperation among different sectors Ambali & Murana, 2017;Tesfagabir (2017); Ville et al (2017); Letswa (2018); Dezhman & Daneshfard (2021), a lack of sufficient funding and production inputs (Resnick et al, 2018;Munene, 2020;Schiller et al, 2020), limited agricultural technical know-how, weak agricultural research and weak extension services (Kamarulzaman, 2017;Bamoi & Yilmaz, 2021) , and a lack of good governance (Mahesh, 2021).…”

Analysis of Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Changes and Adaptation Strategies in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

“…In particular, rural farmers with low levels of education do not have enough knowledge of the coping strategies for the adverse impacts of climate change on the agricultural system [36]. The subsidies and grants provided by the government were highly influenced by political power and people, so political influence must be discouraged in order to implement grants and subsidies specifically for needy farmers in Nepal [80] as well as in India [16]. The subsidy program of the Nepal government is limited to wheat and paddy and needs to be expanded to include pulses and oilseed crops [81].…”

Assessment of Government Policies, Farm Subsidies, and Agriculture Growth

“…There are many moral hazards of subsidy abuse. Shrestha (2021) concluded that agricultural subsidies supported by different organizations have not been utilized properly and smallholders have not benefited from these supports. Even the distribution of the subsidies was heavily influenced by political power.…”