Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC)'s day-to-day activities have got affected with the shortage of required human resources.
It is said that the NARC has lacked an atmosphere to motivate employees and sustain them as the government is yet to fulfill its promises made in the NARC Act-2048 BS (1992).
The NARC Act has defined the functions of NARC as formulating policy required for carrying out study and research works on agriculture, determining the priority of study and research works on agriculture and granting approval to the organizational structure and positions of employees of the office of the Council. The Act has been rarely revised since its enforcement.
It is said remuneration, terms and conditions of service and facilities of the employees promised by the Act have not been totally implemented, thus impelling employees to seek better options and eventually affecting the smooth operation of its business.
Besides, the 1992 Act had accepted the 1,823 quotas for the organization and no increment in such quotas since then.
Despite increasing areas of working and growing responsibilities, the NARC is running with the limited human resources, said NARC Khumaltar-based Communications, Publications and Archive Division chief Harikrishna Upreti.
In the past, NARC had 53 areas of working and over the course of time, the areas have got expanded and presently the NARC covers 65 areas of working. It has five regional research centers and the posts of scientists in the NARC has been classified into various categories from S1 to S8 and 413 quotas have been officially allocated for such posts and currently 160 seats are lying vacant. Similarly, the quotas for 387 technical officers have not been fully occupied.
Many other posts in different services are also lying vacant. The 27-year-old Act has not been revised since then.
NARC is a good platform for people to gain experiences so as to fit themselves in the global market. Employees are apparently forced to search for better opportunities in future and the problem is that it lacks charming perks and facilities to sustain its human resources thus leading to a shortage of human resources. NARC scientists will easily get fit in the worldwide markets.
The trend is that qualified people join the NARC for a certain period of time to gain experiences and choose to go abroad seeking better opportunities. Besides, growing political interference has somehow plagued the organization which legally is an autonomous body corporate with perpetual succession and to tackle this unwanted situation, the Public Service Commission is preparing to conduct examinations to hire required human resources for the NARC.
Nepal sees the annual production of around 450 Bachelor graduates in Agriculture Science and 25-30 Master graduates. The provision of Rs 200 daily allowance and eight sorts of perks and facilities promised by the Act are yet to come into force, employees complained.
