KATHMANDU: The Sanjeevani Group has urged the government to withdraw its decision regarding letting foreign direct investment in the domestic agriculture sector.
The Group said the government’s recent decision of bringing in foreign investment in agriculture would not benefit the farmers but rather have an adverse impact on food sovereignty.
A press release issued by Group urged for protecting the Nepali farmers, respecting the food sovereignty, preserving biodiversity and environment, protecting the self-dependent indigenous cultivation process, and safeguarding human’s health from maximum use of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), arguing that agriculture is the basis of life and not a trade.
The Group drew the attention of stakeholders to protect the agro system based on Nepali culture, to protect partial or full self-employment of farmers, to reduce climate change, not to allow foreign intervention on land and natural resources and to maintain an overall nature-friendly agriculture system.
The group coordinator Uddhav Adhikari viewed that foreign investment in agriculture would have a direct impact on the unique identity of Nepal, the ancestral occupation of two-thirds Nepali people and their livelihoods and dent the country’s original agriculture system.
It also causes various setbacks wherein not only small and medium-scale farmers, big and professional farmers could not compete in the market, the whole agriculture sector would get affected and the food system of the country would be in the hands of foreigners, according to him.
Various ways like state’s investment in agriculture, ensuring fair price and the market for products produced by farmers while discouraging the import of agricultural products from foreign countries, and promoting indigenous crops could erase the need to bring in foreign investment, he suggested.
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