Nepali Economics
Nepal importing vegetables and rice from India
By Prajwal Shrestha
Every year, Nepal is importing billions of rupees worth of rice, paddy and green vegetables from India and other countries. Those were the days when Nepal was exporting rice and paddy to foreign countries. Today, we have become an importer of a huge quantity of agricultural products.
If we visit the Tibet autonomous region of China, we can see the big farmhouse in high altitude land. Tibet is exporting a large quantity of highbred apple, onion, livestock and many other agricultural items to Nepal. Nepal is even importing some quantity of rice from China. When farming is possible in Tibet like high-altitude land known to be the roof of the world, why we are unable to grow sufficient agro-products within the country, is a burning question for the political leadership.
Here, every time, when farmers need chemical fertilizer, there is a shortage of it in the market. Farmers are unaware of the market and they are unable to introduce modern farming technology and equipment. The government is spending a huge budget on agricultural development but it is unable to help the farmers with modern technology and even unable to provide fertilizer on time.
In India, the local governments are providing subsidies to the farmers, from which, the production cost of the agro products in India is cheaper than in Nepal. Meanwhile, in Neal, there are the brokers and middlemen who are exploiting both the farmers and consumers and the government is patronizing those brokers as leaders are enjoying the commission received from them.
We had a Vaidyakhana producing different types of quality Aryuvedic medicines. The Vaidyakhana is still in operation but it has become sick due to the political intervention. Instead of providing support for the speedy recovery of the Vaidyakhana, our prime minister has ensured for providing land to the Patanjali, a multinational business company run by controversial Indian Yoga guru Ramdev.
Ramdev’s company is exporting ghee from India. Ramdev is planning to establish a dairy farm in Nepal on a huge scale. Accordingly, the Amul Group is also trying to run a dairy farm in Nepal. If these groups will come to Nepal for investment, our farmers who are running dairy farms on a small scale will become jobless.
We talk about direct foreign investment in Nepal but what benefit did Nepal get from the establishment of the Dabur Nepal, Unilever Nepal and other Indian multinational companies? Nepal was self-reliant on the production of soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, among others. Nepali entrepreneurs were running these industries. Along with the arrival of Dabur Nepal and Unilever, those factories run by locals have been shut down as they were unable to compete with the big investments.
Of course, we need foreign investment for the industrialization of the country but we should have a policy of protecting local industries. We should have good homework that which sector should be opened for foreign investment. We don’t have any homework and our leaders and government officials are working on the basis of commission that received from the businessmen and brokers. It won’t be odd if Patanjali and Amul will run dairy farms in Nepal.
Login to add a comment