Kathmandu, Sept.11: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has stressed the need to double the agricultural production. 

Addressing the 13th general assembly of the Agriculture and Forestry University organized in Baluwatar today, PM Oli urged to be involved in modern and production-based agriculture rather than depending on the traditional form of agriculture which is done to make a living out of it. 

He said that productivity can be increased with the participation of cooperatives, collaboration, and the private sector with the study of finding the right crops to plant on the land that yields the most benefit and by expanding the market for the produce. 

PM Oli asked the university to produce skilled manpower including agricultural scientists, and engineers, taking into account the needs of the country. 

The PM said, “The modern system and large-scale production has a market. Trade losses will continue until our production increases. The trend of trying to reduce the trade deficit and run the economy on exports and remittances needs to be reversed. We are deciding on whether agriculture and fruit cultivation can be done in vacant areas that are marked as forest areas. In this way, the contribution of agriculture to the national economy will increase and self-reliance will increase.”