New Agriculture Minister Directs Civil Servants to Work Dynamically

Kathmandu. The newly appointed Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Gita Chaudhary, has directed civil servants to work with continuous dynamism. At a program organized for assuming office at the Ministry in Singha Durbar, Minister Chaudhary urged cooperation in the campaign to build the nation by solving all kinds of problems, as the new government was formed after a special election.

Minister Chaudhary stated, "This government is different from the past ones; the public has given a majority mandate to run the government for five years. The government will identify problems, formulate immediate and long-term programs, and set priorities; based on that, we must work together."

Stating that the biggest problem in the agricultural sector is chemical fertilizer, Minister Chaudhary said there could be no greater irony than farmers not receiving fertilizer in an agrarian country. Earlier, the two secretaries of the ministry, Dr. Deepak Kumar Kharel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad Mishra, provided information on issues including budget, chemical fertilizer, milk prices and payment of agriculture and livestock insurance, subsidy management, fallow land, coordination problems, irrigation, agricultural loans, and investment.

They mentioned that problems in obtaining additional chemical fertilizer for sugarcane, banana, tea, coffee, and specific vegetables, in addition to major food crops, have been observed. The ministry stated that while the country requires seven to eight lakh metric tons of fertilizer annually, a budget of NPR 50 billion is necessary for that purpose.