Put Irrigation In Priority

Despite being an agrarian nation, Nepal lacks robust agriculture infrastructure necessary for its modernisation and commercialisation. No doubt, industrial and service sectors are crucial in leapfrogging the pace of economic development. But agriculture is key to the sustenance of human life.  Humans need food grains, vegetables, fruits and meat, which are produced from the farming. No matter how advanced their economy, the industrialised nations have given top priority to the agro sector, providing hefty subsidies to their farmers, which have at least three positive implications – farmers make good income, consumers can buy agro products at affordable rate and the exports of agriculture items are promoted. They invest in every component of agriculture and incentivise farmers to boost agro outputs. 

Improved soil, irrigation, hybrid seeds, fertilisers and modern equipment are prerequisite for the bumper food production. Then, finances, supply chain and market access are equally important to increase the commercial prospect agriculture. But, Nepal’s agro sector still lags behind although it has policy and strategy in place. The country does not have enough arable and irrigable land. Only 14 per cent of the arable land has access to irrigation facilities round the year. This results in the sharp reduction in the productivity of the land. Several studies have shown that good irrigation increases outputs by 30 to 60 per cent. Nepal has thousands of rivers originating from the snow-covered mountains but the country is unable to exploit them to irrigate land in the absence of investment, technology and strong willingness. This has forced farmers to rely on rainfall that has become unpredictable over the years. As a result, the drought and disasters hit them frequently.

Almost two hundred years ago, the country constructed Chandra Nahar, perhaps the first irrigation infrastructure. In 1950s, steps were taken to construct modern irrigation system. With the establishment of multiparty system, the successive governments have taken initiatives to build mega irrigation projects such as Sikta Irrigation Project, Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose, Mahakali Irrigation Project and Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. But there have been inordinate delays in completing these projects owing to the lack of budget, new technology and coordination among the concerned agencies and chronic political instability. Once these projects are completed, the productive potential of land will be greatly enhanced. Irrigation is available only for 1.535 million hectares (60 per cent) of total 2.54 million hectares of irrigable farmland in Nepal.

Of the total 3.557 million hectares of arable land, only 2.536 million hectares can be irrigated. Only 32 per cent of the total irrigable land and 14 per cent of the total arable land is irrigated round the year. As most of the irrigation projects are based on the run-of-the-river, the irrigation facilities are not effective throughout the year as water sources deplete during the winter season. Authorities said at least Rs. 50 billion is needed annually to finish ongoing irrigation projects and expand new ones but the government has been allocating only around Rs. 20-25 billion in the fiscal budget annually. Importance of irrigation facilities has further increased as the climate change has worsened the monsoon-dependent agriculture system. Farmers have been unable to plant paddy in time due to the long spell of drought. Thus, irrigation should be in the priority to attain self-reliance and self-sufficiency in food production.