Agricultural Sector Study on Commercialization, SPS and Quality Control for the proposed Agricultural Commercialization and Trade Project

Project Description

Fostering more efficient and competitive agricultural marketing system (both crop and livestock systems), greater value-addition, and mechanisms to enable the large numbers of small agricultural producers to become better linked to domestic and international markets is essential to promoting more rapid agricultural growth and competitiveness in Nepal. This is also key to the government’s agenda of promoting diversification to higher value, and often perishable, agricultural products, which frequently require more sophisticated and modern supply chains. The overall objective of this assignment was to: (i) examine the structure, operations, and performance of the agricultural production, marketing and processing sectors in Nepal; (ii) identify major bottlenecks and constraints (policy, technical, infrastructure, and institutional), and (iii) explore options for improving performance, drawing on national and international experiences.
The scope of this assignment was to analyze the supply chain and identify the potential high value commodities, prepare the financing options for supply chain development, prepare a strategy and plan for creating and strengthening producer organizations, review the on-farm performance of small scale irrigation schemes, surface as well as groundwater, assess the existing models of extension delivery, review and evaluate existing research institutions in the public and private sectors, prepare an inventory of providers of services, develop component design and institutional arrangements, develop monitoring and evaluation mechanism, undertake financial and economic analysis. Similarly, the scope of the study covered the assessment of SPS and quality control requirements in the context of Nepal’s accession to WTO.

The study team undertook an extensive process of consultation with key informants including public sector, private sector, NGOs, INGOs, farmers groups, cooperatives, and key individuals. Primary and secondary level of information were collected through field visits, focus group discussions, observations, case studies (3 case studies), SWOT analysis etc.

Assignment Description

Following were the major tasks undertaken by the consultants: a) Commercialization of Agriculture: • Carried out Value Chain Analysis of potential high value • Developed financing options for value chain development • Proposed strategy for producer organization in realizing commercialization of agriculture • Reviewed existing on-farm water management practices • Assessed existing models of service delivery system • Assessed service providers capacity • Developed options for component design and institutional arrangements • Developed project monitoring and evaluation system • Undertook financial and economic analysis of the proposed project b) SPS and Quality Control (related to food safety and quality, animal health and plant health controls): • Analyzed strength and weaknesses of policy and capacity, • Identification of institutional and resource constraints/requirements that limit the capacity • Assessment of the role of public and private sector in enhancing capacity • Developed a prioritized and time-scaled action pan for public and private policy regarding the enhancement of capacity. The output of the assignment are: • Report on Agriculture commercialization (Total project cost about USD 61 millions) including project costing and financial and economic analysis • Report on SPS and Quality Control • Reports on value chains • Sector reports on: Irrigation/ water management, Livestock, Agriculture Research and Development, Post Harvest Management.