Book Review | Agriculture & Economy

Book: Value Chain Analysis of Nepalese Agricultural Commodities
Authors: Kam Raj Pant & Badri Prasad Dahal

While agriculture remains the bedrock of Nepal’s economy, a stark paradox persists: millions of farmers continue to grapple with meager returns and market volatility. In Value Chain Analysis of Nepalese Agricultural Commodities, authors Kam Raj Pant and Badri Prasad Dahal offer a timely and incisive examination of why this contradiction endures and, more importantly, how it can be resolved.
Moving beyond the traditional focus on cultivation, the book dissects the entire lifecycle of agricultural economics. It explores how value is generated, distributed, and frequently eroded across the supply chain. Through detailed case studies of key commodities including cardamom, ginger, vegetables, meat, floriculture, aquaculture, and dairy the authors illuminate the structural bottlenecks that stifle grower prosperity. The text vividly illustrates how exorbitant production costs, infrastructure deficits, limited technological adoption, and the hegemony of intermediaries systematically diminish farmers’ incomes.
Kam Raj Pant, an expert in agricultural communication, succeeds in distilling complex economic dynamics into an accessible and engaging narrative, making the work intelligible to experts and layreaders alike. This accessibility is bolstered by the technical acumen of co-author Badri Prasad Dahal. As a Senior Agri-Economist with the Government of Nepal, Dahal brings policy insight and empirical rigour that lend the book significant depth and credibility.
The book’s central thesis advocates for a paradigm shift: the urgent necessity to transition Nepalese agriculture from a subsistence-based model to a commercial, value-added, and market-centric ecosystem. The authors argue convincingly that this transformation relies on data-driven decision-making, expanded financial inclusion, the strengthening of farmer cooperatives, and the implementation of synergistic government policies.
Published by Kam Raj Pant, this volume serves as both a wake-up call and a strategic roadmap for policymakers, development practitioners, and the farming community. At a critical juncture when food security and rural regeneration are national imperatives, this book offers vital guidance toward building a more productive, resilient, and prosperous agrarian future for Nepal.