Share
of expenditure in agriculture and agriculture growth rate in Nepal
The
secondary data analysis provided by Ministry of Agricultural Development
(MoAD), Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) over
13 years (2002/03-2013/14) shows that share of expenditure in agriculture and
agriculture growth rate goes in same direction.
The
annual growth rate of agriculture sector in FY 2007/08 (2064/65 BS) was decade
highest reaching 5.8 percent while it was just 1.0 percent in its preceding
year FY 2006/07.
One of my study on government
expenditure in agriculture (MoAD) and its contribution showed that it is
significant to contribute national economy. In spite of the government's
priority to this agriculture sector, budget allocation is not sufficient enough
to address the ever increasing demand of farmers. The major share of budget is
allocated in recurrent activities and lesser to the capital formations.
Fertilizer subsidy has consumed more than 25 percent of total MoAD budget in
last five years. Please contact me for further information!
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ReplyDeleteSometimes statistics can be misleading. The share of agriculture budget to national is more or less constant (2.41-2.51%) from 2002/03 to 2009/10 while the agriculture sector growth rate has been highest at 5.8% and lowest at 1% at the same time period. If the trend is dependent on the budget %, then growth should have been consistent as budget share. Similarly, from 2010/11 the agriculture budget share has been increased (2.75-4.14) but at the same time the growth rate is at the second lowest at 1.1%. So, I think the budget increase will definitely help to increase the agricultural growth rate as you have tried to say from your analysis, but it would have been nice if you have explained with some more insightful analysis of those low points agriculture growth rates on year 2006/07 (1%) and 2012/13. Why with same level of financial resources we are not achieving the same result? Is it also because of low winter rainfall as finance minister always says in his fiscal budget announcement? I want to thank for your blog (http://go-to-santosh.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/blog-post_14.html) for trying to answer these questions to some extent. Keep on posting. It will definitely help to improve agriculture sector.
ReplyDeleteThank you Guna for your constructive compliments. I have tried to show a scenario and it is a part of my present study based on the secondary data. As you have mentioned, rice could be the major factor for agricultural growth because it contributes about 20 % to AGDP and about 6 % to GDP. However, it is decreasing with the decreasing area of cultivation in recent years.
DeleteThank you so much!