‘ Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.’ -Samuel Johnson’

Traditionally Nepal is known to be a landlocked country. Around 65% of the population is found to be involved in the agricultural sector either directly or indirectly.

It contributes 27.6% of total GDP 1 . Although the majority of the population are involved in agriculture, Nepal has not been able to ramp up its production and bring about a significant leap in this sector.

This year the imports of agro-products has crossed 200 billion1 with the majority of the imports from India. Currently Nepal highly depends upon its neighbours for its food supply.

Countries across the world have gone into lockdown to prevent further spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. While this measure is an essential one, it is sure to affect the food security and economic sector at large.

As the ratio of import and export of agricultural goods is 15:1 1 , the 200 billion or more of agricultural products that we used to import for 2 consumption is under threat.

Amidst all this the question of food security and threats of famine as well as the scarcity of raw agro-materials for industries, this pandemic has highlighted the need to be self reliant in

Agriculture.

The Coronavirus has hit the manufacturing industry the hardest, as most raw materials come from China and India, its supply has decreased drastically or stopped altogether.

Now industries will not be able to operate as the agro-based raw materials they need, cannot be fulfilled by local production.

So not only will the dependence of the country for agricultural products most likely cause shortage of food but the industries which can

1. Economic Survey 75/76

2. https://kathmandupost.com/money/2018/08/07/agro-products-import-bill-crosses-rs200b bring Nepal’s GDP back on track will most likely be paralysed.

This is especially troublesome as the influx of money from the major GDP contributors like the Tourism Sector and Remittance will be severely limited due to the global pandemic.

So, in this time of crisis Nepal along with its neighbouring countries is highly affected due to the lockdown and import of most of the agricultural products and raw materials for industries have stopped. All this could be mitigated to a great extent if Nepal was self reliant in agriculture.

The main concern today is food insecurity, which wouldn’t have been a concern if Nepal had invested in the development of the agriculture sector. Moreover national GDP wouldn’t have affected to the extent it is, as reliance on home grown agro-products would help to overcome most of the problems related to the national economy.

Seeing all these drawbacks during this pandemic, the development of the agriculture sector seems to be key to the development and stability of the national economy.

So, to overcome the crisis, various measures on development on agriculture should be applied so as to address the many challenges presented by this pandemic. Investments in rural agricultural programmes can help people become more self-reliant, mitigate the impact of severe events, increase rural prosperity, ensure more sustainable food systems and food security for all the crisis and pandemic like COVID-19 and create greater resilience in fragile states.

Economic growth in agriculture is two to three times more effective at reducing poverty and food insecurity than growth in other sectors.

Investments in small-scale agriculture can help revive food production and create jobs following a crisis and enable rural communities and our country to recover.

Nepal’s current reliance in its neighbours for agricultural products, will severely affect reviving the economy in the post COVID-19 society. The threat of Nepalese who have battled the pandemic facing a famine and the industries being unable to operate due to lack of raw materials seems plausible.

Nepal needs to ramp up its effort to develop its agricultural sector not only to combat the problems to the economy but also to address the basic need of food.

The Corona virus has shown that relying for something as basic as food on other countries can lead to a big question mark on the existence of the country itself.

So it is eminent that Nepal be self reliant on agriculture to be a successful economy and be ready for any crisis. After all food is life.
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Swastika Paudel

Bsc.AG , 2nd Sem

Agriculture and Forestry University