REPORT

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN 13TH AND 14TH

THREE YEARS PLAN PERIOD.

SUBMITTED TO
THANESHWOR BHANDARI, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
AGRIECONOMIES, LAMJUMG KRISHI CAMPUS
SUNDARBAZAR, LAMJUNG

SUBMITTED BY
GROUP 7 (61-70)

June, 2020

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ABSTRACT
Planned development in Nepal started in 1956. Time and again different periodic plans were
implemented for the development of the nation. Nine five-year and three three-year plans have
already been implemented, each leading to significant strides in social and economic
development but due to the unstable political condition as well as corruption the plans were not
implemented to its full potential so still we are in the list of least developed countries. Although
the plans weren’t executed to its full phase but there has been certain distinct improvement in the
economic condition and the living standard of the Nepalese people. Being an agricultural country
and engaging about 65.6 % of people Nepal is still not independent in agriculture. It provides
about 33% of the gross domestic product. Since the formulation of the Fifth Five-Year Plan
(1975–80), agriculture has been the highest priority because economic growth was dependent on
both increasing the productivity of existing crops and diversifying the agricultural base for use as
industrial inputs.
In twelfth periodic plans, Nepal undertook to continue a planned development process which set
the goals and priorities of overall national development. The Thirteenth Plan (APTP) (2013/14–
2015/16) was to attain the millennium development goals (MDGs) and other development
commitments and to upgrade the status of the country from its current least-developed status to
that of a developing nation within the next decade. The thirteenth plan expected to reduce the
poverty from 25 % to 18 % which was not successful but it reduced the poverty was reduced by
2.4%. The fourteenth plan (2016/17-2017/19) includes the development plans guided with the
constitution along with the sustainable development goals. The first and the second sustainable
goals are no poverty and zero hunger respectively. The country aims to achieve this goal by
2030. The government aims to reduce the poverty from 22.6% to 17%.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction to 13th three-year plan with the objective in the agriculture sector 4
1.2 Introduction to 14th three-year plan with the objective in the agriculture sector 5

BODY
2.1 Policies in agriculture sector within the 13th three-year plan along with poverty alleviation
efforts 5-6
2.2 Policies in agriculture sector within the 14th three-year plan along with poverty alleviation
efforts 6-8

DISCUSSION
3.1 Discussion on the challenges and obstacles and achievement of the 13th three-year plan on the
agriculture sector 8
3.2 Discussion on the challenges and obstacles and achievement of the 14th three-year plan on the
agriculture sector. 9

CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATION

4.1 Conclusion 9-10
4.2 Recommendation 10

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

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INTRODUCTION
Development planning is a deliberate effort of the government to influence in the major socio-
economic variables like GDP consumption, saving, investment, prices and employment etc. of a
country for a specific period of time to achieve its desired objectives. Planned development in
Nepal started in 1956. Time and again different periodic plans were implemented for the
development of the nation. Nine five-year and three three-year plans have already been
implemented.
Being an agricultural country and engaging about 65.6 % of people Nepal is still not independent
in agriculture. It provides about 33% of the gross domestic product. Since the formulation of fifth
five-year plan (1975-1980) to tenth five-year plan (2000-2005), the priority for poverty reduction
was given to agriculture through increasing productivity of the existing crops and diversified
production of horticultural crops. However, the growth of agriculture sector remained short of
population growth requiring rapid transformation of subsistence farming to more commercialized
and diversified. Agriculture Perspective Plan (1995-2015), arguably the first comprehensive
sectoral plan; identified agriculture sector as engine of growth. It envisaged a multiplier growth
effect of agriculture sector to other sectors of economy and envisioned input-output model of
agriculture growth and identified fertilizer, technology, rural infrastructures and irrigation as
major factor inputs for achieving broad based agriculture growth. APP forecasted the per capita
AGDP growth to 4% from existing base of 0.5% in 1995. With implementation of the APP the
incidence of poverty was expected to come down from 42% in 1991/92 to 14% in 2014/15,
whereas the latter figure without the APP would have been 29%.
The 13th three-year plan (FY 2013/14- FY 2015/16) was an overarching national development
plan set by the National Planning Commission NPC. It was the third interim plan as the country
was unable to have full five-year plan due to the protracted political transition. It had a long term
vision of graduating Nepal from least developed country to developing country status by 2022. It
also incorporated the goals of eradicating economic poverty and human deprivation prevalent in
the country and improving living standards. In meeting these goals, the APTP would also ensure
that Nepal achieves its millennium and the SAARC development goals and addresses the issues
of sustainable development, human rights, climate change and other matters it committed to at
the regional and international levels. The APTP also aimed to promotes green economy. It had
set a goal to decrease the proportion of population living below the poverty line to 18% from
24%. The main priorities of this plan are electricity and other energy development, agricultural
productivity improvement, diversification and commercialization, social service and good
governance. The agriculture sector aims to achieve the objectives as:
 To increase production and productivity of agricultural and livestock products.
 Attract the private sector investment in agriculture.
 Agricultural commercialization.
 Cooperatives development and mobilization.
 Development of agricultural infrastructures- irrigation, agri-roads.

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  Promote and extend climate change smart agriculture technology development.
 Conserve, promote and utilize agricultural bio diversity.
 Mobilization of agricultural credits.
 Research and support on technology transfer.
Likewise, the fourteenth three-year plan, which was endorsed by the two days meeting of
National Development Council remain in effect from 2073-74 to 2075-76 (FY 2016/17 FY
2018/19). This was the fourth consecutive three-year plan since the fiscal year 2007-08. This
three-year plan had set a target of attaining 7% economic growth rate. It had aimed to increase
domestic production by transforming the agricultural sector and expanding tourism, industry and
small and medium enterprises. It had the vision of self- reliant, prosperous and socialism oriented
national economy and affluent Nepalese people. The main priority of 14th three-year plan was to
achieve economic and social transformation by rapid poverty reduction through high economic
growth rate along with employment oriented and just distribution. The agriculture sector aims to
achieve the objectives as:

 Increase agricultural production and productivity and making Nepal independent in its
own product
 Development of agro-based industry and increasing employment and productivity.
 Transforming subsistence farming system to beneficial, sustainable and commercial
system
 Increasing the competitiveness of agriculture sector and promoting the national
economy.
BODY
In the path of achieving the objectives of the agriculture sector development different policies
were introduced in the 13th three-year plan. The major policies were:
 The capacity of farmers, youths, entrepreneurs and specialists to use appropriate
technology in fields such as the commercialization of agriculture, quality testing, and
monitoring will be enhanced.
 High-value, low-volume commodities will be selected for areas with potentialities and
increasing their production will be encouraged.
 Commercial production will be accelerated by using youth-friendly modern technology.
 In order to address the shortage of agricultural labor, a policy on mechanization will be
formulated and implemented.
 An enabling and investment-friendly environment complete with knowhow, skill and
capital will be created in order to encourage youths and agro entrepreneurs to develop
rural agro-tourism.
 The process for providing year-round irrigation facilities will be initiated by using surface
and underground irrigation, rainwater harvesting and other appropriate techniques of
irrigation.

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  The infrastructure needed to increase agricultural and livestock production in rural areas,
including wholesale markets, agro-roads, electricity, communications, warehouses, cold
storage, collection centers, and animal fairs will be introduced.
The distribution of poverty seems to be unequal not only geographically / regionally but also
ethnically. At the same time, there are problems such as lack of identification of poor households
for poverty alleviation, inability to focus on social security programs in targeted households, lack
of coordination among poverty alleviation programs run by various agencies, inadequate
capacity building activities and inconsistencies in policy, planning and budget programs. Despite
this, economic inequality persists. As seen, the task of poverty alleviation has become more
complicated. 15 years of programs which placed poverty alleviation at the center stage of
development efforts, considerable improvements in the indices of poverty and human
development have been recorded. By the end of the FY 2010/11, the ratio of people living below
the poverty line had dropped to 25.16 percent. Despite this progress, 1,250,000 households, i.e. 7
million Nepalese were still living below the poverty line. The 13th three-year plan for poverty
alleviation was executed with objectives as:
 To decrease the proportion of the population living below the poverty line to 18 percent.
Similarly, the policies adopted to achieve the objectives were:
 A National Poverty Alleviation Policy focusing on productive employment will be
framed.
 The use of labor intensive technologies to run development projects will be incentivized.
 A Minimum Employment Guarantee Scheme and Act will be formulated and enforced.
 Balanced management and utilization of natural resources for poverty alleviation will be
emphasized.
 Programs to build capacity, promote employment and generate income will be carried out
targeting unemployed youth
 The poverty alleviation programs undertaken by different agencies will be effectively
coordinated
 The effectiveness of programs implemented to alleviate poverty will be evaluated.
 Programs targeting both urban and rural poverty will be launched.
 After poor households are identified and classified, they will be issued poverty identity
cards.
The fourteenth three -year plan was addressing no poverty and zero hunger under the sustainable
development goals. Zero hunger can be achieved by making the country independent in
agriculture as mention in its objectives. The major policies that were adopted to achieve the
objective were:
• Necessary policy act and rules for sustainable agricultural development will be
formulated and amended and implemented effectively. Emphasis will be given on farmer
oriented and farmer friendly policy formulation. Program operation guidelines and
guidelines will be revised in a timely manner.

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 • In order to increase the production of agricultural commodities in the rural areas, access
to the necessary infrastructure including suitable and sustainable irrigation facilities will
be increased in the commercial production of agricultural commodities. By increasing the
production and processing of exportable crops, it will be made competitive in the
international market.
• Appropriate plan for sustainable use of barren agricultural land will be prepared and
implemented by discouraging the tendency to keep arable land barren.
• Bee rearing, mushroom farming, seed production, potato producing farmer are provided
with special economy and technology service
• Product pockets, blocks, zones and for self-reliance in food and other agricultural
products. Intensive commercial farming system will be promoted by developing super
zone.
• Young and agri-entrepreneurs will be attracted in the development of agro-based
industries, services and rural agro-tourism.
• By increasing the involvement of private and cooperative sector, programs from
production to marketing will be conducted in an integrated manner based on contract
agreement and giving priority to cooperative farming according to the value chain
system.
Major events included:
 Increase agricultural production and productivity
 Commercialization and marketing of agricultural commodities
 Agricultural Information and Communication, Dissemination and Training
 Research and survey of agricultural sector
 Quality regulation, human and animal disease management and disaster management
and awareness
During this period, Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project was launched. Prime
Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP) is largest existing project under the
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. This is the only project of the Government
of Nepal formulated by the internal vision, internal investment and internal institutional
manpower. The project duration is of 10 years starting from FY 2073 to 2082 and the estimated
cost of the project is NPR 130 billion. The project has four components; small commercial
agriculture production center (pocket) development program, commercial agriculture production
center (block) development program, commercial agriculture production and processing center
(zone) development program and large commercial agriculture production and industrial center
(super zone) development. Currently the project has 2776 pockets, 336 blocks, 106 zones and 16
super zones throughout the country. Now the pocket and block development programs are being
implemented by Ministry of Land Reform, Agriculture and Co-operatives of respective
provinces through its satellite offices, Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC). However, the

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zones and super zone development programs are being implemented by 75 Project
implementation Unit (PIU) across the country.
It aims to address the needs of the farming community and other related stakeholders (such as
service provider, farming entrepreneurs, rural youths, agricultural sector officials, agri-service
agencies, etc.) through provision of up to dated information and services of the PMAMP
activities through the various delivery channels available in their vicinity.
After the end of thirteenth three-year plan that there was reduction in poverty but a was not
expected. The aim was to reduce the poverty from 24% to 18% but the percentage was limited to
21.6%. so during the fourteenth three-year plan the government objective to alleviate poverty
was:
 Bringing the population below the poverty line to 17 percent
The policies brought to achieve the objectives were:
 A national poverty alleviation program will be implemented with productive employment
at the center. (1)
 The use of labor-intensive technology will be encouraged in the formulation and
implementation of development projects. (1)
 Emphasis will be given on balanced management and utilization of natural resources to
reduce poverty and lay the foundation for economic prosperity. (2)
 Capacity development will be done to the identified poor through social security. (2)
 Poverty alleviation will be given to agriculture, tourism, energy, infrastructure
development and small enterprises. (2)
 Poor and destitute in the high hills of the Mid and Far West and in the Central Terai
Capacity development, income generation and employment oriented programs will be
implemented targeting households. (2)
 Effective coordination will be made between the programs run by various agencies for
poverty alleviation. (3)
 The effectiveness of poverty alleviation programs will be evaluated. (3)
 Coordination and relations will be expanded with international / regional organizations
and development partners to assist in poverty alleviation. (3)
 Poverty alleviation operated by various governmental and non-governmental bodies
Effectiveness will be brought in the implementation by coordinating the programs. (3)
Wise Investment will be increased in those areas by identifying the areas of economic
prosperity. (3)
 Identity cards will be provided after identifying and classifying the poor households. (4)

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DISCUSSION
The three-year plan (2010/11-2012/13) aimed for an overall annual economic growth rate of 5.5
percent, with growth rates of 3.9 and 6.4 percent in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors
respectively. The average annual economic growth at constant prices during the TYP period was
just 4.0 percent, with 3.6 and 4.2 percent growth in the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors
respectively. It is estimated that the average overall annual economic growth rate in the TP
period will be 6.0 percent, with growth rates in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors
maintained at 4.5 and 6.7 percent respectively. It was estimated that the average annual inflation
rate for the entire TP period will be 7.0 percent and that per capita income and employment will
grow by 4.6 and 3.2 percent per year respectively. Efforts to alleviate poverty; boost
employment, especially among targeted populations; and high economic growth were together
predicted to reduce the proportion of people living below the poverty line to 18 percent.
While reviewing the Thirteenth Plan, the economic sector has not been so satisfactory, but there
have been some satisfactory achievements in the social and infrastructure sectors. Expected
achievements could not be achieved in the agricultural sector due to untimely availability of
fertilizers and seeds and arable land remained barren due to lack of agricultural laborers. Despite
the situation, the contribution of the previous two years has reduced the poverty rate by 2.2
percentage points to 21.6 percent during the plan period.
13th three- year plan failed to achieve the majority of its objectives. Achievements was less than
50% due to various challenges it faced while working on it such as:
 Political instability, constitution writing process
 Lack of compete budget and discrepancies between annual budget and periodic plan
 Absence of elected representatives in local bodies
 Absence of progressive report in performance appraisal of employees
 Incompetent high-level authoritative coordinating agency
 Difficult in carrying out result-oriented and participatory monitoring and evaluation of
targeted objectives
 Disaggregated data by sex, age, social groups, disability status, geography, income
 Haphazard resource mobilization
 Earthquake (25th April ,2015)
 The 2015 Nepal blockade caused by India.
14th three-year plan also faced several challenges while tackling with poverty, making
significant contribution on human development and taking entire economy on the path of
sustainable economic social development such as:
 Failure to address structural problems in the economy, such as inequitable access to
productive means and resources
 Inability to ensure good governance and lack of political stability and commitment
 To revise policies like taxation, monetary, foreign investment, trade and FDI
 Heavy dependence on foreign assistance

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  Limited data availability, poor data consolidation platform
 To ensure resource availability and collaboration with international and national
institution
 Unfinished MCG agenda which need to get high priority and other intervention which
ensure employment generation and poverty alleviation (MTEF)
 To develop SDGs forum in federal and provincial level for SDGs related policy dialogues
The Fourteenth Plan aimed at economic and social transformation by rapidly reducing poverty
through high economic growth with productive employment-oriented and equitable distribution.
Accordingly, the target for average economic growth was 7.2 percent, which was 7.7 percent in
2073/74, 6.3 in 2074/75 and 6.8 in 2075/76, the average economic growth was 6.9 percent. On a
regional basis, the total value added of the agricultural sector during this period was 4.2 percent
per annum and 8 percent of the non-agricultural sector.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

CONCLUSION
The thirteenth and fourteenth three-year plans could not achieve the overall objectives aimed but
they have made the situation better than before. Political instability, corruption, lack of
transparency, top down system of plan and execution of plan lead to its failure. Nepal become a
federal democratic republican state since 3rd Aswin, 2072. According to the concept of a federal
system, Nepal has been divided into 7 provinces. Now each province has a separate government
along with its federal government at the center. The new system was an opportunity and
challenge at the same time. Now the government is planning form the local level which we
address the actual needs and problem of the people. Nepal is blessed with resources. Lack of
vision, technology and monetary resources had lead the resource left unused.
Plans and policies brought by the government for the development of our country is satisfactory
but the satisfaction level start to falls when it comes to the implementation of the policies. The
unstable government has always hinder the development plan. The time and again occurring
uncertain disasters has also affected the plans. When the country was planning to reduce the
poverty to 18% from 24% it was hit by the earthquake of 7.8 magnitude. With a per capita
income of only $1,000, Nepal was one of the world’s poorest countries at the time of the 2015
earthquake; its economy still lags. This time too pandemic has affected the overall economy of
the world and its more difficult for country like Nepal. And many people have lost their job in
this period. Importantly for poor country like Nepal remittances are the most important buffer for
unexpected life expanses and investments in shaping a better future but the crises will decrease
the flow of remittance as many people have lost their job and now are returning to their own
land. According to the Nepal Rastra Bank, the remittance income of Nepalese working abroad
was 879.3 billion rupees in the fiscal year 2018/19. The household survey (2010/11) reported the
percentage of households receiving remittances increased from 32 percent in 2003/04 to 56
percent in 2010/11. According to a World Bank report, Nepal was the top recipient of

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remittances as a share of GDP in South Asia and the fifth-most remittance-dependent economy
in the world in 2019.

RECOMMENDATION
Nepal is blessed with resources and if it will be able to utilize its resources to its potential then
nothing can stop it from being the developed country. The thing that the government should
focused is onto the development of agriculture sector as about 65.5% of people are engaged in
agriculture and geographically too Nepal is suitable for farming. It need to transform the
subsistence farming system to sustainable and commercial one. Increasing the export and slowly
decreasing the import of agriculture product as like the situation of 1974 AD when Nepal was the
largest exporter of rice. Similarly, the government plans and policies must not be limited in the
paper or in the speech of the leader but also must be implemented to the lower level and all the
people should be benefited with it. Dedicated and partial government is the most. Now this time,
the crisis has created an opportunity as well as challenge in the development of the nation. About
10,000 people are coming back to Nepal after losing their job in the period of lockdown. The
challenge is going to be employing all of them and opportunity is going to be utilizing their
labor, skills for the development of the country. So government should bring such policies that
would encourage them to engage in agriculture. The major recommendation to improve the
production and productivity in agriculture are:
 The complete organizational structure in agriculture sector has not been finalized yet, the
critical judgements are required to finalize the structure so that needful functions do not
get disturbed. The seed sector channel developed by existing DADO offices need to be
carried out by similar structures which can link farmers to seed companies.
 As Agriculture is diverse sector, it requires specialist services from different disciplines
like crop/horticulture/ livestock extension, business plan and market oriented production
schemes; disease and pest management, soil and seed testing; special units to link local
bodies to provincial and central government are essentially required.
 The Agriculture Knowledge Center could be developed as coordinating bodies and
representatives of both central and provincial governments to lead and backstop the
agriculture functions for achieving national priority.
 The structures should be developed in such a way that highly essential services will be
provided by local bodies, development functions by the provincial government and policy
and regulatory functions by the central. In such direction; Ministry, Department and other
central offices will prepare, analyze and approve policies while province government try
to implement national policies aligning to their own policies; the AKC and farm centers
under provinces implement the central and provincial policies through appropriate
budgeting and program; while local bodies should be engaged in extension education
services and implement their prioritized program.

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  The provinces are interdependent to each other for agriculture products requirements; the
surplus province in one commodity is exported to others according to their needs; while
they also depend each other for marketing of the products and input supply.
 As the practice of federalism takes pace, the inter-dependency will grow deeper and
deeper. The central government should coordinate between all provinces for uniformity
in taxation and incentives to harmonize the fair trade amongst the provinces.
 It is recommended to regroup in agriculture services. The joint secretary level should be
without any groups; and to follow the specialization similar groups can be applied from
undersecretary level and below onwards. It is also recommended to revise the groups and
merge extension group in other groups. In doing so the carrier path of each personnel
should not be disturbed. The senior most officials regardless of group should be promoted
first.

REFERENCE
NPC, 2013. The 13th three-year plan
NPC, 2016. The 14th three-year plan
Development Vision Nepal P.Ltd. (DVN), july, 2018, Inter Provincial Dependency for Agricultural
Development
OPMCM 2073. Federalism Implementation and Administration Restructuring Coordination
Committee, ToR. Office of the Prime Minister‘s and Council of Ministers, 2073.

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