Machineries, tools worth Rs. 30 million booked in two days of Pokhara Exhibition

 Pokhara, Jan. 6

The first two days of the first province-level first province-level Agri-Mechinery Exhibition 2080 being organised in Pokhara has witnessed a booking of machineries and tools worth Rs. 30 million and footfall of more than 20,000 people.

Machines and tools worth Rs. 4 million have also been sold in the first two days of the expo that will run till Sunday, informed the organiser, Nepal Agricultural Machinery Entrepreneurs Association (NAMEA). The expo features more than 70 stalls of 60 companies involved in production, sales, maintenance, training and application of agricultural machinaries and equipment.

On the second day of the exhibition, an interaction programme was organised on agricultural machineries and sustainable farming where the stakeholders emphasized on the need for the government to make a flexible policy to promote mechanisation in agriculture.

Chief of National Agricultural Engineering Research Centre, Dr. Shrimat Shrestha, said that the use of machines in agriculture has been gone up significantly as the number of farmers using power tillers has reached 11.4 percent from just 2 per cent a decade ago. Similarly, the number of farmers using tractors has gone up to 40 per cent from 22 per cent. However, mechanisation of agriculture is better in Tarai than the hill region.

There is a situation where a tax of 15 to 40 per cent has to be paid on the raw materials of machine production, while ready-made goods can be imported with a tax of 1 per cent, said Dr. Shrestha. He also said that lack of human resources in the field of research and development in agriculture has also adversely impacted agriculture.

Likewise, Gaurav Shrestha, Secretary of NAMEA, said that more than 95 per cent of agricultural mechineries are imported from India and China. He informed that there is no clear law or provision of facilities and the businessmen are in a wait-and-see situation to operate the industry.

Ritesh Dev, Chief Mechanical Engineer of National Innovation Centre, who is currently managing the Birgunj Agricultural Inputs Factory, said that if the tools are produced according to the needs of the farmers, more jobs will be created.

"It is necessary to increase investment in innovation in the country. In addition, research and development should be prioritised institutionally," he said.

Similarly, Director General of the Department of Agriculture Dr. Hari Bahadur KC, discussions are being held on the need to bring clarity to the current provisions in matters such as imports of agricultural machines. "If there are any matters related to the customs tax on raw materials and machinery, I request you to submit them to the ministry now as we have started the work for the preparation of the budget for the next year," he said.

Under Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies of the federal government, Prakash Acharya, assured that the government will discuss further to solve the problem in the repairing of machines provided by the government. According to him, reducing the customs tax on the import of raw materials of machinery goods is not something that could happen with the wish of the Ministry of Industry. "We will take the necessary initiatives with the relevant agencies in this matter," he assured.

President of NAMEA, Krishna Sharma, urged the farmers not to buy machinery from traders who do not have a written contract and repair guarantee.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 January 2024.