Nepal is an agricultural country, with around 66 per cent of people directly engaged in farming. Agriculture contributes around 33 per cent in the country’s gross domestic product. But farming in Nepal is subsistent in nature. Crop is mostly integrated with livestock. Nepal is yet to see commercialisation of the agriculture sector. Perhaps this is also because of lack of proper implementation of agriculture insurance. The contribution of agriculture in the GDP hence has plunged over the years.
The Crops and livestock Insurance Directives, 2013 was introduced by the Insurance Board with the focus on crops (paddy, vegetables, potatoes, apples and banana among others), livestock and poultry, making it mandatory for all the non-life insurance companies to come up with insurance policies for these products.
Likewise, National Agriculture Policy, Agro-Business policy, Agricultural Sectoral Operating Policies and National Micro-Finance among others were introduced for the uplift of the agriculture sector. But all these policies have so far been limited to papers only.
Though the government has announced 75 per cent subsidy as agriculture insurance to farmers, only a handful have benefitted. Still farmers in large numbers belonging to remote areas are unaware of insurance policies. Even if they are aware of these policies, they do not seem to be interested in availing the facilities, as they believe such policies are meant for only those people “who have access to high-level government officials”. There is a lacks of awareness about the government policies among farmers.
Nepal has always been prone to natural disasters like hailstorm, flood, landslide and earthquake. Farmers often face huge losses due to destruction of crops by natural disasters. Disease outbreaks are a major setback for farmers engaged in animal husbandry and poultry farming. Agricultural pests have been wreaking havocs on crops such as paddy, wheat, maize, ginger and cardamom among others every year.
The new generation does not seem to be interesting in farming because these young people have seen how various factors have caused economic burden to their families. Commercialisation of agriculture only can encourage young people like me, whose families are in farming, to engage in agriculture. Proper implementation of agriculture insurance can encourage people to engage in farming.
A version of this article appears in print on April 05, 2018 of The Himalayan Times.