The world is facing myriads of challenges brought about by the rapid population growth, food insecurity, natural resources degradation and climate change. The likelihood of addressing these problems is increased if the youth is empowered to become real catalysts of change.  Promoting sustainable agriculture to the youth will help fortify their capacity as productive partners of agricultural development. Youth’s contributions to sustainable development are important to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Youths should be able to explore new frontiers of knowledge and innovation in the field of agriculture and exchange ideas and technologies with encouraging youths to adopt agriculture as an economic activity by equipping them with knowledge and expertise on agro-enterprises, agro-product management, and standardization as well as branding and marketing. Empowering youth towards agriculture is necessary to tackle food insecurity, climate change and enhance the agro economy of the nation.

I will be sharing few youthled initiatives and my activities to promote sustainable agriculture in Nepal

Youthled Sustainable Agriculture Initiative in Nepal

Metro Kheti: With the spirit of transforming the urban cities of Nepal into a sustainable, clean and green urban environment, a group of young people from diverse educational backgrounds have teamed up to form metro kheti. This startup has a vision to create self sustainable cities and encourage the urban household in Nepal to start growing their own food at the unutilized spaces of their houses. The team dreams of a pollution free, lush-green and organic city.

Best Mad Honey: Best Mad Honey, is a team of young Nepali entrepreneurs who are working closely with the honey hunters in nepal. They serve the highest quality of authentic mad honey with no added preservatives. They aim to employ more youth in villages and create opportunities with micro enterprises, so that they can stay locally and make their living.

Smart Krishi: Small krishi is a smartphone application that caters every aspect of farming activities and a large pool of relevant information for empowerment of professional Nepali agriculture with services like interaction with experts, daily market and weather updates.

My Activities: I have been involved in agriculture projects such as Community Based Agriculture Project, Knowledge Replication and Integration for Sustainable Agriculture in community and Let's Hear Our Farmer. It is necessary for the youth to be involved in agri entrepreneurship and also work in harmony with the other farmers to promote sustainable agriculture. I Have worked as Emcee in Asian Agriculture Summit 2019 which was conducted with the motto to revitalize Agriculture Entrepreneurship in Nepal and as a dais member of the World Food Program Committee in National Youth Conference, Lamjung Model United Nations with sharing knowledge and hearing experience of youth of different parts. I am among the developer team of android applications: Bsc Agriculture Entrance Preparation and AgriKit. I have also been involved in research activities in agriculture. I performed research on the use of locally available plant extracts and essential oil for the management of pests which can be the alternative for pesticides for sustainable agriculture. I have also been involved with organizations like Youth Thinkers’ Society Lamjung as Vice President ,  program coordinator for Youth Innovation Network local representative in Youth Professionals  in Agriculture Research and Development (YPARD Nepal) and regional ambassador to asia for tunza ecogeneration to raise awareness among youths and farming  communities. 

References:

https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/sustainability 

https://metrokheti.com/  

https://bestmadhoney.com/  

https://smartkrishi.org/