Integration of climate change adaptation into agricultural policies in Nepal: A diagnostic assessment

Successful implementation of climate change adaptation (CCA) actions in the agriculture sector requires comprehensive policies that have specifically focused aims and targets. Integration of CCA into agricultural policy can provide an enabling environment for planning and implementing CCA actions in a coordinated way. This work undertook an assessment of the integration of CCA into agricultural policies in Nepal. In total, 23 policies, plans, strategies, and frameworks published over more than two decades were assessed. Content analysis and knowledge mining were conducted based on five proxy criteria: focus, adaptation strategies, institutional setup, financial management, and monitoring and evaluation. The results indicate that the focus of the policies in terms of agricultural adaptation to climate change vary from protection of the environment to climate-smart agriculture. Agroforestry was found to be a highly prioritized CCA action in the documents. Most of the policy documents (16) make provisions for three tiers of institutional setup, while only 10 specifically allocate their required budgets with clear identification of their sources and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms at the national and subnational levels. The results also show that overlapping roles and responsibilities across ministries, the prioritization of adaptation action without quantified outcomes and a low priority being given to climate action—particularly at subnational levels—are major constraints on the implementation of these policies. In light of this, programs, activities, institutions and legal provisions are essential components in achieving the goals and objectives of any policy. So, each policy should have implementable programs and activities, institutional provisions with clearly defined responsibilities and legal provisions to overcome the obstacles.