Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP) is the project of Government of Nepal (GON) with the loan and grant support from International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). ASDP applies the ADS principles to the development of the Agriculture Sector, building on the successful experience of the previous IFAD-financed High Value Agriculture Project in Hill and Mountain Areas (HVAP) in Nepal. ASDP aims to contribute to the achievement of Nepal’s SDG1and SDG2 targets by reducing poverty and nutrition insecurity amongst women and men in hill and mountain areas of Karnali Province. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) is the main executing agency of ASDP, with total funding of USD 68 million and implementation started from July 2018 for a period of six years. Goal of the ASDP is to contribute to the reduction of poverty and food insecurity among women and men in hill and mountain areas of Karnali Province. The Development Objective is to contribute to the income and food security of smallholders and disadvantaged rural groups involved in commercially-oriented production and marketing system in selected high value agriculture value chains.
The programme will be implemented in Dailekh, Dolpa, Humla, Jajarkot, Jumla, Kalikot, Mugu, Rukum (Western), Salyan, and Surrket districts in State 6, located in the mid-western area of Nepal along (i) Chhinchu-Jajarkot–Dolpa (ii) Surkhet-Kalikot-Jumla-Mugu (iii) Surkhet- Dailekh road corridors (iv) Salyan-Rukum West (Rapti corridor) and (iv) Mid-hill highway (figure 1). The programme will select about 50 municipalities in the road corridors, orient them and form MADC. The value chains commodities of ASDP are ginger, turmeric, timur, off season vegetables (OSV), potato seed, apple, goat, honey, dairy, walnut, citrus and highly nutritious indigenous crops, such as bean, buckwheat, barely.
Programme has two components: (i) Value chain development, and (ii) Programme coordination.Component 1 includes four subcomponents (outcomes): (i) Inclusive and sustainable value chain expanded and diversified, (ii) Market-oriented rural infrastructure functional, (iii) Rural financial services for value chain development strengthened, and (iv) Agriculture services sustainably support innovation and value chain development. Component 2 has single outcome: Stakeholders manage and integrate programme outcomes creatively, efficiently and effectively.