Nepalese Youth and Organic Agriculture

10th May 10, 2013

Organic Agriculture for Fighting Youth Unemployment in Nepal Nepal is a landlocked country between India and China. Not only the land is locked but the economic growth is also constrained in the shadow of two fast growing economies due to several reasons like 12 year conflict, illiteracy, political instability, poor infrastructure development etc. Nepal has agriculture based economy where 65.7% of the total population is dependent on agriculture however agriculture only contributes 35% to the GDP (Census, 2011). About one fourth of the total population is living with a tag of poverty. Youths are the foundation for development of the country. According to Census, 2011, fifty five percent of the total population of Nepal is below 25 years of age but the youth are seldom considered as the asset for the country, and their innovation and energy are not utilized towards nation building tasks in organized ways. Nowadays most of the youths leave country for employment. Statistics reveal that more than 3 million youths are working as migrant workers in countries except India. The number of migrant Nepalese working in India is even larger. According to statistics, about 400,000 youths hit the employment market every year. Government of Nepal is able to provide less than 1% employment to the youths. If this situation persists it may result into another long conflict. Nepal has altitude range of 70m to 8848m in a very small area and four distinct seasons in year, which provides us the possibility of cultivating almost all crops in almost any time of the year. Despite the climatic diversity and suitability for agriculture, Nepal has the poorest economic growth and lowest agricultural productivity among its neighbors. Nepalese agriculture is characterized by subsistence farming where illiterate farmers cultivate their fragmented and marginal lands in traditional way and the new generation is not ready accept agriculture as a profession. The main problem is; more than half of the populations of a country are relying on agriculture for their livelihood and one third of the GDP comes from agriculture but people are not ready to accept agriculture as a respectable profession. Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP, 1995) targeted an ambitious agricultural growth through Green Revolution based agriculture which resulted into haphazard use of inorganic fertilizer and pesticides in Nepal. In the early stage, agriculture production increased in dramatic fashion but in the later stage productivity of soil decreased drastically associated with soil degradation, ecological imbalance, desertification,
By: Subash Dahal (subash.dahal@studentclimates.org) M.Sc.Ag. (Horticulture) Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS, TU, Nepal)

SDahal

Nepalese Youth and Organic Agriculture

10th May 10, 2013

health hazards loss of biodiversity etc. It is always said that the Green Revolution is for rich farmers and poor farmers will become ultra poor. Government policies are not conducive for improving livelihood of the poor and the ultra poor farmers. Government has accepted a methodology which is not designed for the upliftment of the poor farmers as the major policy for agriculture development and poverty alleviation. Expensive inorganic fertilizers and pesticides are increasing the cost of production and farmers are not able to compete with the products of India; where huge subsidies are given to the agriculture sector. Agriculture is still not considered a respectable profession due to low return; also the productivity is decreasing day by day due to chemical farming. Soil degradation, desertification, ecological imbalance and health hazard are major problems created by chemical agriculture. Organic farming; a high value agro enterprise has not got recognition and farmers do not get the real value of product due to lack of certification bodies. The possibility of improving livelihood of young farmers through indigenous knowledge of organic farming is solely ignored. Poor certification mechanisms, lack of technical knowhow and poor marketing channels are constraints for who are already involved in organic agriculture. To tackle with above mentioned problems, government should provide a huge subsidy to agriculture sector to compete with foreign agriculture and market; which is not possible at this time due to poor economic growth of the country. The only way is to exploit the local knowledge, potentialities of youth and comparative advantages provided by climatic and topographic diversity within the country. Organic farming can be an important tool for upliftment of poor farmers and make agriculture a respectable profession. Organic farming is a new concept for the modern world but it is a farming which was practiced by mankind from the dawn of civilization. Organic farming is practiced in Nepal in many rural areas without being recognized. Farmers of rural areas have no access to external output and are practicing organic farming from many generations; they only need recognition for their organic products. Organic agriculture is high value agro enterprise and it has many advantages for Nepalese farmers. Farmers do not have to rely on external inputs (use of local resources helps to reduce cost of cultivation), the price of product is higher as compared to inorganic products and the market is broad for the certified organic products. National Agriculture Policy, 2004 has also considered organic agriculture as a profit oriented high value venture. Few success stories are seen in the
By: Subash Dahal (subash.dahal@studentclimates.org) M.Sc.Ag. (Horticulture) Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS, TU, Nepal)

SDahal

Nepalese Youth and Organic Agriculture

10th May 10, 2013

field of organic agriculture but lack of certification mechanism and poor marketing channel are identified as the major setbacks. Here come some shocking facts; More than half of total population is based on agriculture for their livelihood but agriculture is not a respectable profession, More than 50% of the total populations are youths but they are not readily considered as the assets for nation development, Less than 1% of the youths are employed by government, Organic farming; a high value agro enterprise practiced by Nepalese farmers since time immemorial has not got recognition and farmers do not get the real value of product. Possibility of improving livelihood of farmers through indigenous knowledge of organic farming ignored. Nation development is not possible by excluding the half of its population i.e. youths. The future of any nation heavily depends upon the present productive force of youth, but In case of Nepal, their productiveness and role for nation development is heavily ignored. Less than 1% of the youths are provided employment by government. Educated youths are being victims of brain drain from the developed countries while uneducated ones are being the victims of low waged hard work in countries of Middle East. Those who are living in the country are victims of unemployment. This unemployment in long run results into conflict, theft, drug addiction and other social disharmonies. Nations overall development is only possible by mainstreaming youths in the development. In a country with agriculture based economy, the best solution for unemployment is to attract the young and energetic portion of population to high value agriculture and related enterprises. Organic farming is an indigenous practice for us. It is profit oriented high value agro enterprise with broad range of market, which makes Nepalese produce competitive in world market.

SDahal
By: Subash Dahal (subash.dahal@studentclimates.org) M.Sc.Ag. (Horticulture) Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS, TU, Nepal)