Nepal brings in pre-season minimum support prices for major food crops
Nepal is introducing a system to set minimum support and procurement prices for major food crops before planting begins, giving farmers price signals earlier in the production cycle.
Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment has announced a new system under which the minimum support price and minimum procurement price for major food crops will be set before the planting season begins. The move is part of the government’s 100-point governance reform programme, which includes setting minimum support prices for key agricultural commodities in advance rather than after production decisions have already been made.
The legal basis is the Directive on Determination of Minimum Support Price and Minimum Procurement Price, 2026. According to the ministry, the directive was approved by ministerial decision on April 29, registered with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and then published on the ministry’s website. In effect, Nepal is trying to shift price support for staple crops from a reactive mechanism to a pre-season planning tool.
Agriculture, Forest and Environment Minister Geeta Chaudhary said the system should help farmers make more informed decisions on crop selection. The idea is that, with prices known in advance, producers can compare production costs, expected returns and market conditions before planting. That gives them a clearer basis for deciding whether to grow a specific crop or switch to an alternative with better assured returns.
The government has already published concrete price points for paddy. It said minimum support prices for wheat and spring paddy for fiscal year 2025/26 have already been approved. For fiscal year 2026/27, the Cabinet fixed the minimum support price for monsoon paddy at a meeting on May 25. The decision set the price for coarse paddy at Rs 3,660 per quintal and for medium-grade paddy at Rs 3,860 per quintal.
The ministry also said the process of determining a minimum support price for monsoon maize for the coming fiscal year has begun. Previously there was no such provision for maize, and the ministry plans to submit a proposal to the Cabinet by the end of March. In sugarcane, the minimum procurement price for fiscal year 2025/26 was already fixed by a Cabinet decision dated December 8, 2025, while the proposal for fiscal year 2026/27 is due to be submitted by the end of November. Together, those steps show an attempt to extend pre-season price planning across several key crops at once.