Under the new constitution adopted in 2015, Nepal embraced the federal structure of government comprising seven provincial and 753 local governments, each with their own legislative, judicial, and executive powers. Nepal’s agriculture sector provides livelihoods to about 60% of the population. However, its bottlenecks are rooted in poor implementation of agricultural policies and plans, low levels of investment, uncertain political commitment and weak governance, especially a lack of an effective service delivery mechanism to farmers. This study analyzed the impacts of federalism on the institutional arrangements and governance of the agriculture sector through both review of literature and field-level information gathering, particularly focusing on extension service delivery to farmers in Province 2. The findings highlight the impacts of federalism on agricultural governance mainly in functional overlapping, resource allocation, priority setting, coordination, human resource management, and extension service delivery. The lack of coordination and collaboration between the three tiers of government and the line agencies results in less-effective extension service delivery, especially in providing integrated, specialized technical services to farmers which is the main responsibility of local governments. Lack of poor understanding of governance, institutionalization, and human resources management is found to be one of the most serious problems with the provincial and local governments. The consequences are that despite a huge potential to improve service delivery leading to increased production and a market surplus, the province remains food-deficient and lacks food and nutrition security. The study recommends a strong political commitment, better policy and institutional coordination and coherence, and good governance in all tiers of government by providing demand-driven agricultural services leading to higher cropping intensity and productivity potential for which it is well recognized.

中文翻译：

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新的国家结构与农业治理：以尼泊尔东部恒河平原为当地农民提供服务为例

根据2015年通过的新宪法，尼泊尔采用了联邦政府结构，包括七个省级政府和753个地方政府，每个政府都有自己的立法，司法和行政权力。尼泊尔的农业部门为约60％的人口提供了谋生手段。但是，其瓶颈根源在于农业政策和计划的执行不力，投资水平低，政治承诺不确定以及治理薄弱，尤其是缺乏向农民提供有效服务的机制。这项研究通过回顾文献和实地信息收集分析联邦制对农业部门的制度安排和治理的影响，特别是侧重于向省2的农民提供推广服务。调查结果强调了联邦制对农业治理的影响，主要在于职能重叠，资源分配，优先重点确定，协调，人力资源管理和推广服务提供。三级政府与直属机构之间缺乏协调与协作，导致推广服务的交付效率降低，尤其是在向农民提供综合，专业技术服务方面，这是地方政府的主要职责。缺乏对治理，制度化和人力资源管理的了解是省和地方政府最严重的问题之一。结果是，尽管改善服务交付的巨大潜力导致产量增加和市场过剩，该省仍然缺乏粮食，缺乏粮食和营养安全。该研究建议通过提供以需求为导向的农业服务，从而提高耕种强度和生产力潜力，在各级政府中作出强有力的政治承诺，更好的政策和体制协调与连贯性，并在各级政府中实行良好治理，这已为人们所公认。