Enhancing Nepal’s Vegetable Subsector: Strategies for Import Substitution and Export Promotion
摘要
The vegetable subsector is one of the prioritized areas in the Government of Nepal’s agricultural transformation initiatives. Despite increasing production during the past three decades and the government’s high prioritization to enhance this subsector, the Nepali market largely relies on imports to fulfill national demand for vegetables. This chapter outlines strategies to reduce trade imbalances within Nepal’s vegetable subsector. Key challenges facing this subsector, particularly focusing on the vegetable trade, are discussed and potential interventions identified. To tackle current challenges, recommendations are made that include optimizing costs, improving value chain efficiency, strengthening institutions related to smallholder farmers, redesigning subsidy schemes, increasing investment for contextualized innovations, developing linkage of production pockets with (inter)national markets, strengthening quarantine and (phyto)sanitary measures, enhancing trade negotiations, and promoting interagency collaboration.