National Agriculture Policy 2018.

This National Agriculture Policy is a nationwide cross-sectoral document aiming at achieving safe, profitable agriculture and sustainable food and nutrition security. The main objective of the Policy is to ensure food security and improve socioeconomic conditions of people by increasing productivity and production of crops, farmers' income, crop diversification, ensuring nutritious and safe food production, improving marketing system, and ensuring profitable agriculture and efficient utilization of natural resources.
To help eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the Policy focuses on the double track of (1) increasing production and (2) improving the quality of the food produced. Consequently the main actions will have to aim to (i) increase availability of food, right to food and purchasing power by increasing productivity and production of crops; (ii) ensure safe food production by following proper follow-up of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP); (iii) adopt and implement food production plans to meet the needs of nutritious, safe and demand driven foods; (iv) strengthen development activities on unconventional and unseasonal nutrient-rich crops; (iv) develop agricultural extension services and institutional capacity to achieve nutritional security through technology transfer and agricultural commercialization; (v) ensure the scientific use of sustainable natural resources for different environments to achieve food and nutritional security, such as discourage use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.
To make agriculture more productive and sustainable, the document encourages, among others, to (i) promote the principles of good agricultural practices to maintain the fertility of land and preserve the sustainable environment; (ii) ensure quality materials; (iii) modernize agricultural research, education, extension, input management and develop skilled manpower for sustainable technology innovation; (iv) increase knowledge, skills and capabilities in agricultural research; (v) increase productivity through proper management of natural resources; (vi) develop varieties suitable for adverse environmental conditions; (vii) establish and preserve gene bank and agricultural information of agricultural crops; (viii) use nanotechnology to determine crop diseases; (ix) strengthen research in the production of low greenhouse gas emissions crop technology; (x) develop early and late maturing varieties of fruits for increasing their year-round availability; (xi) identify new pest and environmentally friendly pesticides and, in general, strengthen pesticides registration; (xii) encourage the use of green fertilizer/organic fertilizers; (xiii) encourage use of pipelines instead of irrigation drains and prepare an irrigation management zone plan for the entire country; (xiv) accelerate the farm mechanization process.
Rural poverty shall be reduced by increasing of farmers' capability and income through institutional infrastructure development and efficient technology services. It is also suggested to (i) reduce the use of physical labor and introduce cost saving farming system through farm mechanization; (ii) provide incentives for farm mechanization and profitable crop cultivation; (iii) provide assistance for bulk purchase of seeds agrochemical; (iv) establish agricultural tourism for attracting domestic and foreign tourist and generate income.
More inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems can be enhanced by (i) developing agricultural research for promoting export of products through coordination with local and international partner organizations; (ii) providing assistance to the farmers in increasing agricultural production and ensuring marketing facilities of agricultural commodities and obtaining fair prices; (iii) creating new sectors of agricultural commercialization and employment generation through demand driven and export-oriented agricultural development; (iv) developing cash earning, high value, nutritious and short duration crop varieties and technologies to meet the demand of local and export markets; (v) strengthening research activities related to the development processing, packaging and transportation including use of hybridization system for vegetables, spices, flowers, and cosmetic plant species; (vi) promoting community-based farmer organizations and provide encouragement to take technology services; (vii) forming 'water management organization' in the management and involvement of local beneficiaries in water management; (viii) ensuring active participation of local people, particularly women and taking initiatives to increase awareness about the benefits of agroforestry.
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the need is (i) ensure proper use of water resources through active participation in the formulation of strategies and their proper implementation, at institutional and non-institutional levels; (ii) strengthen activities for determining impact of climate change on various crops and natural resources; (iii) provide emergency special services for expansion of new agricultural technology based on urgent need; (iv) increase use of groundwater and good use of limited underground water; (v) increase availability of ground water through the collection/storage of rain water; (vi) use recycled water used for industrial purpose; (vii) improve forecasting and preparation for adverse weather condition and pest attack; (viii) encourage agricultural forestry in the mitigation of natural disaster.