IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The agricultural sector in Nepal is confronted with the major challenge of increasing production to feed a growing and increasingly prosperous population in a situation of decreasing availability of natural resources. Factors of particular concern are water shortages, declining soil fertility, effects of climate change, rapid decrease of fertile agricultural lands due to urbanization and dislike of the younger generation to involve themselves in agricultural activities. This has made the youths give priority to foreign employment rather that to the agricultural sector which is labour intensive in Nepal’s context. The farmers should be made aware of cash crop cultivation instead of traditional farming of food crops. They should be trained well to sharpen their skills so that agriculture productivity could be increased. The main barrier to achieve this result is unavailability of technical manpower in villages. The service of agriculture experts from the urban areas or district headquarter can be made available even in remote villages virtually at any time through the ICT Information and Communication Technology) Network. New approaches and technical innovations are required to cope with these challenges and to enhance the livelihoods of the farmers. The use of ICT would be a milestone to enhance food security and support rural livelihoods. Agricultural productivity could be increased qualitatively and quantitatively.

Read more: Nepal: Banking on ICT - For increased agricultural productivity

Government plan to develop Government Enterprise Architecture that aims at providing e-governance through a single portal has failed to move forward for the last three months, thanks to bureaucratic and political unwillingness.

According to High Level Commission for Information Technology, the US$ 30-million project funded by Asian Development Bank kicked off three months ago.

The government portal is an electronic system that delivers all the its services through a single portal.

Read more: Nepal: Plan to get into cyber governance hits snag

The E-village programme, with the help of wireless computer network, has been launched in the remote villages of Makwanpur to provide local people and students with the access to information, education and health services.

The programme was begun in the initiative of Makwanpur District Development committee in the support of Magsaysay Award winner Mahabir Pun. Constituency Development Program, E-Network Research and Development Nepal and local schools are supporting the program.

The wireless network has been connected with Nepal Telecom's tower, stationed at the top of Mahadev Hill.

Read more: Nepal: Wireless Internet in remote Makwanpur villages

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is launching e-governance in two wards in the current fiscal year.

KMC consists of 35 wards with more than one million population.

According to KMC, about Rs 9 million has been allocated for connecting networks with the two wards. “The wards are yet to be selected though,” said Tribhuvan Man Singh Pradhan, chief, Information Technology Section, KMC. “We are preparing plans and designs to execute the programme within the current fiscal year.”

Read more: Nepal: e-governance in two Kathmandu Metropolitan City wards in the offing