Nepal has proposed to spend 5.5 billion U.S. dollars in 20 years to increase agricultural productivity, according to the country's blueprint on agricultural development, officials said on Tuesday.

The recently finalized Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) was handed over to the minister for agricultural development Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti on Monday, according to Dr. Prabhakar Pathak, joint secretary at Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD).

The ADS, a road map for a 20-year vision and a 10-year plan for commercializing the country's farm sector, has targeted increasing agricultural growth to 5 percent a year in the medium term of first decade, and 6 percent by the year 2035.

The agricultural sector has an annual growth rate of 3 percent.

The ADS has focused on the measures to increase the productivity of farm products, draft several laws and regulations to ensure farmer's rights and their food security, Prem Dangal, a member of ADS steering committee, told Xinhua, "ADS has envisioned the plan to achieve a food surplus of 5 percent by improving land and labor productivity."

The strategy, which will replace the ongoing Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP 1995--2015), has targeted limiting the agriculture trade deficit to 181 million dollars in the first 10 years from the existing 350 million.

ADS has proposed to reduce poverty by half in less than 10 years by increasing the growth of agricultural sector at the rate of 5 percent a year. At present 23 percent of the people are below poverty line in a country of 26.3 million people.

"It will take some six months to review the report and ADS will be put into action from the fiscal year 2014-15," Dr. Pathak said. Nepal's fiscal year begins in mid July.

The formulation of ADS is supported by 11 donors including Asian Development Bank, World Bank, European Union, Food and Agricultural Organization, USAID, DANIDA, and DFID.

Government of Nepal has allocated 2 million dollars for developing ADS. Endi

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