NEW AGRO DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN OFFING

NEW AGRO DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN OFFING
Kathmandu, 29 Nov.: The ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is preparing a new Agricultural Development Strategy, RSS reports.



The Ministry is developing the strategy with the financial and technical cooperation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to contribute to the Agricultural Perspective Plan.



According to the Ministry, the goal of the strategy is to how the overall agricultural productivity could be increased.

This was informed at a discussion programme organised by the Ministry on Tuesday. At the programme, all aspects of the strategy were discussed with the experts concerned.



Officials and experts from the Ministry and the donor agencies working in the agriculture sector in the country are attending the two-day discussion programme.

Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dipendra Bahadur Chhetri declared open the programme. Speaking on the occasion, he said although the production of rainy season crops like paddy, maize, millet and buckwheat has increased, production of vegetables and fruits have not increased.

Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nathu Prasad Chaudhary, former Vice Chairman of NPC Dr. Prithvi Raj Ligal and NPC former members Dr. Dilli Raj Khanal and Dr. Pushpa Shrestha said the new strategy should identify the main problems in agriculture and address these and that it should also be geared towards contributing to the country’s economy.

ADB’s Nepal chief Barry Hitchcock said the strategy will pay attention to minimizing the adverse impact of climate change on agriculture sector in Nepal.
Nnnn
PAC SUMMONS TOURISM MINISTER TO DISCUSS PERCEIVED IRREGULARITIES
Kathmandu, 29 Nov.: The meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament on Tuesday has decided to call the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation to take information about irregularities seen in the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), RSS reports.

Committee’s Chief Ram Krishna Yadav said that meeting decided to invite Minister Lokendra Bista to take information about the missing wheel of the plane, flyover kit and landing gear. The meeting also issued a directive to the Ministry to resolve the dispute over the post of executive chief at the NAC.

On the occasion, lawmakers urged the Secretary at the Ministry Dr. Ganesh Raj Joshi to resolve the dispute over the executive post, saying that the NAC was on the verge of collapse due to conflict between Executive Chairman Manrup Shahi and General Manager Kul Bahadur Limbu.

Lawmaker Lal Babu Pandit said both Shahi and Limbu should step down soon on moral ground. He demanded stern action against those involved in irregularities in the NAC. Similarly, lawmaker Narayan Dahal alleged that a group of people was active to make the NAC a shambles.

Lawmaker Keshav Nepal urged to book the criminals working inside the NAC. Also speaking at the meeting, lawmaker Kamala Panta suggested that all the ministers appointed after 1989 and stakeholders should be invited to hold an interaction to improve the condition of the NAC.
nnnn