Women leadership agriculture summit begins in Chitwan

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Mar. 31: The Women Leadership Agriculture Conference-2024 kicked off in Chitwan on Saturday. Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Jwala Kumari Sah inaugurated the two-day summit organised by the Women Leadership Forum under the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) amidst a function.

She said that the government has prioritised the agriculture sector citing that agriculture is a foundation for economic prosperity. Minister Sah said that she is committed to the development of the agricultural sector, respect for agricultural occupation and encouraging the farmers.

She said that agriculture should be modernised to build a self-reliant economy and the ministry is ready to facilitate policy in this regard. The main theme of the conference is ‘Transformative future of agriculture: Promotion of innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship in agriculture-based businesses’.

CNI president Rajesh Kumar Agrawal said that a large amount of agricultural produce is being imported and emphasised on modernising agriculture and paying attention to marketing. "Our dependence on agricultural products has also increased. It is necessary to pay attention to increasing domestic production and its consumption in order to reduce dependence," he said.

"The upcoming budget should adopt a policy to encourage domestic production and consumption as well. It is necessary to modernise agriculture and increase production and consumption.” He urged them to respect the agricultural occupation, encourage farmers and adopt policies to increase production and productivity. He expressed his belief that the upcoming budget will focus on the strategy of promoting domestic industries.

Birendra Raj Pandey, vice president of CNI, emphasised on the commercialisation of the agricultural sector and said that the farmers should help in the marketing of the agricultural yield produced by them with hard work.

Chairman of CNI’s Women Leadership Forum Chhaya Sharma said that there would be in-depth discussion on the issues of women-oriented agricultural mechanisation, soil-based agricultural development, farmers' concerns for sustainable agricultural development, respect for women's involvement in agriculture and the necessary steps to be taken for entrepreneurship in the summit.

According to Sharma, it is believed that this conference will motivate people to understand the importance of agriculture and to make it sustainable. "At present, agriculture is not a priority of the government and the farmers are also neglected. We have held this conference to encourage the farmers," she said.

The conference will find out the existing problems, challenges and opportunities of agriculture and suggestions will be submitted to the government regarding the policy arrangements that should be taken to advance women farmers in the agricultural sector.

President of Chitwan Industry Association Surya Prasad Neupane said that the Association has been working on Chitwan's tourism and agricultural entrepreneurship. The two-day conference will discuss women's participation and leadership in entrepreneurship.