The Kankai Municipality has allocated Rs8 million for several projects under the heading of agriculture. But six months into the current fiscal year, none of the projects has taken off.

The reason: the municipality’s agriculture department doesn’t have a single staff. In fact, the department has been vacant for the past one and a half years. Last fiscal year, the municipality failed to fully spend the allocated budget.

“For the past one and a half year, we are launching the pro-agriculture programmes on our own,” said Parshuram Giri, chief of Ward No. 2. “We don’t have much technical knowledge, so we haven’t been able to launch programmes that require technical knowledge.”

Giri added that many of the ward’s agricultural programmes are either stalled or ineffective due to the lack of staff.

The municipality’s department is solely run by an office assistant, Lakshmi Rai.

“I haven’t been able to provide any service other than simple referrals,” she said.

The department has vacancies for three positions—including an agriculture officer and a technical assistant.

The department’s former technical assistant, Hiralal Sah, retired in October last year, while former officer, Roshan Mehta, is on an educational leave since April last year.

Chief Administration Officer Kharudev Chudal said that the department is vacant because the officials deployed according to the government’s employee adjustment programme didn’t report to their assigned jobs.

“The agriculture sector of the municipality hasn’t borne any results because several key programmes could not be started,” said Chudal, adding that many farmers flocking to the office seeking solutions to their problems have to return disappointed. “In case a technician is absolutely necessary, we ask the Agriculture Knowledge Centre for help.”

The municipality had allocated Rs6.2 millions for agriculture and animal husbandry in the fiscal year 2018/19. Of which, only Rs2.9 million was spent, which is less than 50 percent of the allocated budget.

Kankai Municipality is considered among the most developed local units in Jhapa, with about 70 percent of arable land. Agriculture is still the most widely-adopted profession. But with the lack of projects and expenditure on agriculture, local farmers are worried.

“Even the subsidies promised to us are not forthcoming,” said Shyam Rajbanshi, a local farmer.