Kathmandu Declaration on Agroforestry
A consultation workshop was jointly organized by the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MOAD), Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MFSC) of the Government of Nepal, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bio-resources (ANSAB) at Hotel Himalaya, Kathmandu, Nepal from 26-28 March 2015 on “Present Status and Future Prospects of Agroforestry in Nepal”.
Participants realize that Nepal needs strengthening agroforestry research and development (R & D) and its application in the areas of classification and documentation of agroforestry practices for various agro-ecological zones, developing new and fine tuning of existing good practices and scaling up of promising agroforestry technologies for enhancing trees, shrubs, crops, livestock and fisheries production and productivity. These areas together with capacity strengthening would contribute to the socio-economic development and food, nutritional, energy and environmental security of the country.
Participants recognize the indigenous practices and traditional knowledge, existing policies and initiatives on agroforestry from various government, non-government, farmers organizations and private sector. In order to have a more focused and coordinated strategy and approach to promote agroforestry among various actors and stakeholders, participants agree to develop a National Agroforestry Policy for Nepal. It is expected that the policy will encourage the easing of regulatory constraints and will facilitate the development of feed and fodder resources, income generation, food, nutritional and energy security, germplasm conservation and production of quality planting material, arresting of land degradation and restoration of soil health, and the development of appropriate agroforestry models for different agro-ecological zones. Furthermore, the policy will contribute to the environmental security. Appreciating the development of the National Agroforestry Policy of India and ICRAF’s contributions to it, securing assistance from the international agencies, such as ICRAF, and the Indian experience could be useful to this initiative.
We further agree to let this document be known as “Kathmandu Declaration on Agroforestry”.
The “Kathmandu Declaration on Agroforestry” is released on 28th of March 2015 at Kathmandu, Nepal by Honorable Hari Prasad Parajuli, Minister of Agricultural Development, Government of Nepal.