Aug 20, Kathmandu- Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Dr. Beduram Bhusal has said that the land should not be left barren to prevent rice import. Mentioning that there are around 1.3 million hectares of arable land in the country, he said that they should be utilized.

Minister Bhusal emphasized on the need to cultivate in barren land to stop the import of rice in the Bagmati provincial level meeting of the Samajwadi Cooperative Organization of Nepal, and said that appropriate provisions have been made in the budget for that purpose.

Assuring that barren land will be made cultivable by arranging irrigation even in places where irrigation has not reached, he said that it is necessary to advance the concept of collective farming. He said that while selling fertilizers to farmers, some co-operatives had misbehaved.

Meanwhile, Keshav Prasad Dangal has been elected as the chairman of the Bagmati Province Committee of Samajwadi Cooperative Organization, a sister organization of CPN (Unified Socialist). A meeting of cooperative operators of 13 districts of Bagmati province formed a 35-member committee under the chairmanship of Dangal.

Niru Kharel has been elected as the vice-chairman of the committee, Basanta Mali as the secretary, Nar Bahadur Shrestha as the treasurer and Resham Malal Shrestha as the joint secretary.