It is needless to say that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has been detrimental to the world economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described the global decline as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to deal a severe blow to Nepal's economic sector as well because the country has been forced to go for various restrictions, including the nationwide lockdown, to contain the spread of the virus. However, a positive aspect is that the country has been successful in controlling the transmission of the virus. While the number of people dying from the deadly virus has already surged past the 200,000-mark worldwide, Nepal luckily has not reported a single fatality related to COVID-19. The situation would have worsened if the Government of Nepal had not resorted to preventative measures like the lockdown and suspension of domestic and international and domestic flights. Assessing Nepal's successful handling of the coronavirus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently upgraded the country to the list of 'high risk nations' from the category of 'higher risk ones'.

With the enforcement of the lockdown, even the agriculture sector in Nepal has been facing problems. Most of the agricultural activities have remained affected across the nation. Farmers have been unable to continue farm activities and supply their food, vegetable, dairy and poultry products, among others, to the market. News reports had it that many farmers involved in livestock farming were recently found pouring milk on roadside in several areas to show their resentment. Other farmers were forced to feed milk to their livestock as they failed to sell it. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has come up with a plan to provide relief to the farmers affected by the lockdown. According to a news report published in this daily on Sunday, the ministry has started preparing a modality of relief packages for those farmers. The ministry has been collecting suggestions and losses of the agriculture sector from State and local governments to announce relief packages for the farmers. The relief packages are expected to be helpful for mitigating the losses faced by the farmers. As a major sector of the national economy, the agriculture sector contributes about 33 per cent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

The ministry is in the process of incorporating the suggestions and ideas forwarded by all the seven states in the proposed relief packages in order to address the problems of farmers. Realising the fact that the farmers were in dire need of relief packages, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Ghanashyam Bhusal had held discussions with the agriculture ministers of all the states about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agriculture sector. They had also discussed the relief packages to be offered to the farmers. The ministry must assess the losses in a proper manner and introduce more effective relief packages so as to revive the agriculture sector. Since other sectors of the national economy are now in the doldrums, the government must accord high priority to the agro sector. If due focus is laid on this sector, the country could save a lot of money by at least substituting the import of food.