The 11th annual meeting of Asia-Pacific countries, aimed at establishing standards for quality and sustainable agricultural tools and machinery, began in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Participants highlighted the urgent need to address the alarming fatalities caused by substandard agricultural equipment, with Nepal Police reporting one machine operator death every two days.

The three-day meeting, which is being organized by the Asian and Pacific Network for Testing of Agricultural Machinery (ANTAM), has brought together 55 participants from 19 countries. Discussions are focused on developing a legal framework to regulate and ensure the quality of agricultural machinery in the region.

Addressing the inaugural session, Dr. Govinda Prasad Sharma, secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development of Nepal, emphasized the role of high-quality agricultural machinery in modernizing agriculture. He also shared plans to introduce legal provisions to restrict the import of substandard machinery into Nepal.

Shreemad Shrestha, chief of the Nepal Agriculture Engineering Research Centre and President of ANTAM, stated that the meeting would establish universally accepted standards for agricultural tools across 23 member countries. Machinery tested in one country would be recognized as compliant throughout the ANTAM network.

Participants called for immediate government intervention to regulate imports and prevent further fatalities linked to unsafe machinery. (With inputs from RSS)