FAO in Nepal

Nepal at a glance

Agriculture sector engages around 66% of the total population in Nepal. It contributes one-third of the nation’s GDP with significant contribution to national economy. It creates a diverse array of jobs and employment from farming to small-scale enterprises. Nepal is vulnerable to food insecurity and recurring natural disasters like floods, drought, landslides, earthquake, diseases and pest outbreaks. The agriculture sector in the country is still dominated by subsistence farming resulting in low productivity and production of agricultural commodities.

FAO Nepal is working in close coordination and cooperation with the Government of Nepal (GoN) from 1977 A.D aiming to promote agricultural development, achieving food and nutrition security, uplifting livelihoods of rural farming community and promoting sustainable natural resource management through policy support, strengthening institutional capacity and providing technical assistance in the implementation of projects and programmes aligning with government strategy and priorities. 

FAO incorporates a gender-responsive approach in the project cycle management to safeguard the sustainability of the intervention and ensuring equitable growth. It focuses on the ecosystem restoration, adaptation and mitigation actions against the impacts of climate change in the agriculture and forest sectors encouraging synergies and trade-offs between the two.

FAO Strategic Framework

The FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031 seeks to support Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) through the transformation of agriculture into more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food system for better production, better nutrition, better environment, and better life, leaving no one behind.

The four crosscutting “accelerators” to speed up the progress and maximize efforts in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are:

• Technology,

• Innovation,

• Data and

•Complements (Governance, human capital, and institutions) in all its programmatic interventions.