I have been running an online campaign on “Plant Heath Awareness” to aware people about plant, food security and environment. Here is the third article of the series on mushroom cultivation enterprise help to minimize the effect of COVID-19 in the sector of increasing unemployment among the youths in Nepal.

Agriculture sector is central to Nepalese economy and plays a vital role to increase income, ensure food security, alleviate poverty and uplift the living standard of Nepalese people. It contributes about 27.1% of GDP and employs 65.6% labor force in Nepal. As a country with strong agricultural background, fertile soil, diverse and favorable climatic conditions, agribusiness entrepreneurship offers high potential for economic growth. Young people are driving innovation in agro-food systems and have a key role to play in achieving global security and nutrition.

Due to COVID-19, the world is currently in a pause and Nepal government has also enforced lockdown since 24^th march 2020 which has severely affected the food supply chains and markets of Nepal. Lockdown has not only disrupted the consumption of nutritious and sufficient food but has also kicked thousands of humans into the unemployment arena.  Increase of unemployment, terrors of food hunger and starvation and mental burden faced by youth demands for an immediate and effective incentive and support from local government.  The current situation has brought both new challenges and opportunities for youths to transform the sector and enjoy financial independency. Local government should provide necessary financial and business enabling environment for youth in order to foster their transformative ideas.

 Assessment of the impact on food security, livelihood and agricultural economy is the immediate need as it can access the potential food crisis and lay the groundwork for sustainable solutions. When pandemic subsides, millions of Nepalese might return from abroad which would further increase food demands and aggravate the already critical unemployment problem. Hence Local government should formulate and implement proper policies, allocate sufficient budget, provide subsidies on inputs, products and make provision of assured markets in order to increase involvement of youth in mushroom cultivation and revitalize the agricultural economy of Nepal.  

Mushroom cultivation perfectly fits to the current scenario as it requires minimal land, small investment, provides widespread employment to youth and also ensures the availability of nutritious food for balanced diet.  In addition to providing employment opportunities, mushroom possesses numerous health benefits with anti-viral, anti-bacterial, immunity booster properties and help ensures food security. Mushrooms are rich in crude fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals, contain low fat and provide carbohydrates of high quality enhancing the human health. Mushrooms are considered as substitute for meat and its nutritional value is comparable to several vegetables. Mushroom growing is also a potential activity to convert waste into best nutritional food with high protein efficiency. Mushroom cultivation is a great tool to empower youths, provide with additional incomes to the farming family and tackle with the lack of nutritional requirement and unemployment scenario raised due to the havoc of COVID-19. Youths are the most productive workforce in the economy, raising the need to strengthen and improve their socio-economic status. A low-cost small scale mushroom production unit can generate income through the sale of spawns, in addition to the sale of fresh mushrooms in a sustainable approach by utilizing farm by-products as their raw material.

 Though Nepal possesses huge potentiality in mushroom industry but it is far from realizing the maximum output. In order to increase youth involvement in mushroom cultivation, local government should provide trainings and technical advice regarding commercial mushroom cultivations. Local government should put enough effort for the localization of exotic technology, build environment for well-organized market channels and distribution network. Inadequate scientific research on mushrooms and lack of well-equipped mushroom specific laboratory center is one of the major drawbacks of Nepal. Local government should promote mushroom cultivation through widespread public awareness and ensure adequate co-ordination between public institution providing services to the rural population. Financial incentives should be provided. Local government should also launch project for the collection and domestication of locally available germplasm suitable for various agro-climatic conditions in order to ensure sustainability. This would be an enormous opportunity to create an environment for the youth to stay in the country. To energize youth to be agri-entrepreneurs, loan at subsidized rates should be provided on easy terms.

Implementation of plans, policies and work on relief packages on such a great level will necessarily call for a strong will and high morale together with strict monitoring and discipline. If all three strata of government work in an integrated manner, bring agricultural education, research and technology dissemination under one umbrella, and adopt an effective agricultural extension and development strategy, the famine and unemployment that the pandemic threatens to deliver can be avoided.

References: Regmi, S. and Naharki, K. (2020). A SWOT ANALYSIS OF AGRIBUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NEPAL. Food & Agribusiness Management (FABM), 1(2): 60-65

Thankur, MP. (2020). Advances in mushroom production: key to food, nutritional and employment security: A review. Indian Phytopathology

Dey et al. (2020). Small-scale Mushroom Production Unit for the Upliftment of Rural Economy and Women Empowerment in India: A Review. Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology

Timilsina, RH. And Ghimire, S.K. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on Nepal’s Agriculture: The Road Ahead.  Agricultural Extension in South Asia.