Nepal's farmers report fertilizer shortages yearly, especially for rice, wheat, and maize production. A reliable and established approach to estimating the actual demand for fertilizers for different crops and cropping seasons is lacking. Therefore, it is difficult to project the types and quantity of fertilizer to import and allocate across various regions in the country. With the direct involvement of the Government of Nepal (GoN) in fertilizer import, price (subsidy), and distribution, together with the high affinity of farmers for the subsidy, there is no incentive for the private sector to import and distribute fertilizers. Thus, farmers’ access to fertilizers in the country depends primarily on the subsidy budget, quantity and types of fertilizers imported, and their distribution management. In this study, the fertilizer demands, both at the national and sub-national levels, were estimated through a survey of cooperatives that distribute subsidized fertilizers in the country. Our estimate suggests that the fertilizer supplied in 2018/19 was only 60% of the total effective demand in the country. With this estimate of the demand-supply gap and the price variability across provinces, short, medium, and long-term policy recommendations are made to improve the supply of chemical fertilizer in the country SAARC J. Agric., 20(2): 223-234 (2022)
The participation of beneficiaries in development programs is widely seen as a potential means for empowerment and inclusion of socially marginalised peoples, and democratisation of the grassroots. International development agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, and critics of conventional centralised 'top-down' development approaches, emphasise the role of participatory practices in social transformation through inclusion and empowerment. However, some empirical studies scrutinising the unequal power relationships between external development experts and marginalised peoples in participatory development processes, point out the potential risks of strengthening unequal power relationships, despite the emphasis on empowerment and inclusion. A key research gap was identified: that the experiences of the socially marginalised people themselves, who have increasingly been involved in participatory development programs are generally underexplored in development research. This research set out to examine whether participatory development programs targeted at socially marginalised poor communities of Nepal did in fact contribute to their inclusion and empowerment. A qualitative multiple case study research design was employed in three highly marginalised rural poor communities-Madhesi Dalits, landless fishers' community (Fishers), and Chepangs of South-Central Nepal. An actor-oriented perspective and social interface analysis approach was adopted to comprehend the marginalised peoples' experiences of development interventions in their particular contexts. The case study methodology involved in-depth interviews, focus groups and observation. The study findings showed that various state and non-state agencies have increasingly adopted and promoted participatory approaches and invested resources for the socioeconomic development of marginalised peoples; however, the equity and empowerment implications of these efforts for the local communities were limited. Collaboration of marginalised peoples' organisations with external development agencies, particularly non-governmental organisations (NGOs), provided opportunities for them to access development resources, engage in networks and develop leadership. On the other hand, NGOs also contributed to the 'professionalisation' of community organisations by valuing leaders with professional or academic knowledge, rather than those with indigenous wisdom. In several instances NGOs advocated on behalf of those they considered 'ignorant' people and displaced them from their prior collective participation in social struggles against systemic discrimination and oppression. Interactions of community groups with NGOs led to the co-option of community leaders, creating elite groups and turning them into local brokersa different social categoryrather than facilitating their roles as active agents to encourage grassroots mobilisation for social transformation.
Agri-food systems have increasingly faced complex socio-economic and biophysical challenges. Poverty, inequalities, low productivity, food insecurity, resources degradation, loss of biodiversity, and climate change are some of the pertinent challenges demanding immediate attention. There is an increasing realization that current dominant model of development characterized by excessive use of resources, constantly poses negative externalities to the environmental health, climate and human welfare. Since agricultural development policies and practices are key to addressing these issues, there have been compelling calls for adequate policy environments for the profound transformation of agri-food systems to achieve better nutritional, environmental, and sustainability outcomes. Circular economy and agroecological approaches are widely recognized as providing credible pathways to develop inclusive, sustainable and resilient agri-food systems. While there is plethora of studies on agroecology and circular economy in international arena but studies on potential application and implications of these measures in Nepalese context remain unexplored. Furthermore, the circular economic framework is mainly used in industries and yet to be adapted in the agriculture sector. Based on systematic reviews and analysis of academic literatures we propose a framework for sustainable transformation of agrifood systems that encompasses both the circular economic and agroecological principles. We argue that the framework offers plausible solutions to the pressing need of reducing negative externalities of agri-food systems. However, agricultural research, education and development systems are traditionally entrenched by reductionist traditions that poorly accommodate the complex epistemological issues of circular economy and agroecology, and hence are the potential barriers for effective application in Nepalese context. SAARC J. Agric., 21(1): 1-12 (2023)
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