UNDP Program to Benefit 14,000 Nepali Farmers

In a move supporting Nepali agriculture sector, the United Nations is coming up with the Cooperative Market Development Program (CMDP) to ensure fair market opportunities to thousands of local farmers.

The initiative, a joint implementation of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Government of Nepal, aims to come up with innovative solutions to ensure fair market opportunities for the country’s farming community and their agricultural produce.

CMDP is expected to form a strong base for an effective market chain for Nepal’s agricultural produce including thus enhancing farmer income and their living.

“The active engagement and financing from the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation shows strong commitment, leadership and ownership of the program. This partnership will directly benefit thousands of Nepali farmers over the next five years, through crucial support in modernizing their production and market chain,” says Renaud Meyer, Country Director, UNDP Nepal.

The program will focus on six districts near Kathmandu area owing to the prevalence of poor infrastructure, improper storage and transport facilities, inadequate market access and regulatory concerns issues.

This situation prevails despite a good number of farmers’ cooperative groups in the area.

Supporting UN Goals

Besides supporting market infrastructure, the program also aims at quality and quantity enhancement, while also ensuring consistency in supply of the agricultural produce.

As part of skill development, the initiative also focuses on training farmers on better techniques, building their marketing and institutional capacities.

Overall, the initiative is expected to benefit around 14,000 farmers and their families, thus also supplementing to the South Asian country’s implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2 on fighting poverty and achieving food security.