Friday, May 17, 2013

My Sustainable Dream: Rural Urban Youth Nexus to promote organic farming as a GREEN ENTERPRENEURSHIP

Ms. Suchita Shrestha
In past one year of handling the project of Organic Farming, I have met with many youths from urban, peri-urban, sub-urban and rural region whose dream is to be an organic entrepreneur. But they don’t know how and from where to start. Some youth are devoid of resources like land and investment while some has no idea about marketing and few don’t have information on farming process. However, I have also met few rural youth and few urban youth turning towards rural area for farming purpose who have already started their ventures on establishing their organic farm at around Kathmandu like Lapsiphedi, Sanga, Sankhu, Kapan, Gundu (Bhaktapur), Gokarna and neighboring districts like Sindhupalchowk, Rasuwa, Dhading, etc. I believe that when all these experienced and inexperienced youths come along in the form of group, a dream of green entrepreneurship is possible.

What does urban youth have? 
- Market/ Customers 
- Technology developer 
- Agriculture graduates for technology transfer 

What does rural youth have? 
- Land where organic farming can be done commercially 
- Resource center where urban youth can learn what it takes to be an organic entrepreneur 
- Indigenous knowledge of farming 

Approaches of Project 
  • Series of workshops: rural-urban and experienced-inexperienced youth interaction for knowledge exchange and inspiration
  • Sharing forum: to address regular challenges and opportunities and to learn a new topic from expert
  • Visiting resource center: for hands-on practice
  • Training on institutionalizing of the farm and business plan development
  • Group Marketing: Farmers' market at weekends, organic market outlets at various urban centers ( green marts, supermarkets) online marketing, home delivery, green marts
Technological Innovation: Creative mechanism for marketing organic products would be Mobile phone and Web Apps development. The application will be developed by a team of urban youth software developers which can be used by young producers from rural part can feed the information of agro-products they produce and the customers can order their required products. 

Problems addressed: Food security, rural outmigration, marketing, rampant intermediaries, shrinking suburban areas into sustainable farm 

Sustainability: Privatization of farm

28 comments:

  1. Wish you all the best for your great idea.. Suchieta !!

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  2. Seems like practical and long term project. If Implemented carefully one can bring considerable behavior change with this concept. I guess!

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  3. amazing.... wonderful concept :)

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  4. Thats seems really interesting! To inform you, UN-Habitat Nepal is currently doing a project called Green Homes. On its kick-off program, one of the issue raised was integration of organic agriculture as a part of sustainable architecture. Your ideas and approach can be precious contributor.
    Regards
    Sameer

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  5. nice concept dd.....:)

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  6. Sustainable Agriculture means biodiversity based ecological farming. As its practices increase that support to improve the climate change. Thus it is a good idea to discuss on it.

    Shree Ram Shrestha

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  7. Thats great stuff, too bad you guys couldn't find and hook-up with someone starting, designing a sustainable community project. With their sustainable agriculture background and skills they would be perfect candidates to run a truly sustainable community.
    Good luck!
    Cheers

    Mark Moritz
    http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=63019402&authType=name&authToken=1vYl&goback=%2Eamf_77194_63019402&trk=anetppl_profil

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  8. Woow...great

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  9. This type of program really gets youth involved. They can learn how to grow indoor and outdoor crops, then transfer their skills to a new sustainable program.

    Glenn Howland

    http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=77194&type=member&item=242084112&trk=hb_ntf_LIKED_GROUP_DISCUSSION_YOU_CREATED

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  10. Best time to start! Congrats!

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  11. gr8 initiative..good luck !

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  12. Amazing idea! There are an incredible amount of youth interested in returning to urban agriculture as a means of livelihood generation. The lack of access to inputs, land and training has hampered this process and with effective management this could be a highly economically, environmentally and socially beneficial project! By working to bridge the gap between urban and rural youth you will help eliminate the stigma of farming and help encourage a generation of urban sustainable ventures and entrepreneurship!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your wonderful comments. Pls write your name while writing comments. Suchita

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    2. Its great idea, and I wish you all the best. Looking forward for updates. Regards, Sameera Zaib

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    3. This is very practical and Sustainable initiation

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    4. Good Conceptual framework; It will be great to see in the regular practice.
      Anyways good initiation. All the best..

      Subash Duwadi
      President
      Society For Climate Change Study Nepal, SFCCSN

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  13. Good idea. Wonderful initiative!
    Subash Tuladhar

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  14. Very good initiative. Keep going. We are ready to provide help, particularly in technical aspect to go organic.

    Yogendra Shrestha
    Senior Agriculture Expert at NCDC, Ilam

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  15. This is an area with tremendous opportunity. I would suggest that you take a good look at what is already happening in the small farming area in Nepal. 90% of the farming is definitely organic. Increasing crop yields can also be organic. As you understand this at a deeper level it will then become easier to create a successful social networking solution around building on increased production at the farm levels. So really good reading would be "Out of poverty" by Paul Polak. The front 75% of the book is about the current reality and the later sections illuminate some things that telecommunication can be built into.
    Good luck and you are welcome to connect with me.

    William Ross W.
    Capturing synergies throughout the WAFEEC matrix. (Water, Ag,Food,Energy,Electricity and Communications.)

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  16. if you can make it, it will be a good idea.

    Kishore Sherchan
    Realtor
    Sacramento, California Area

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  17. Nepal's traditional agriculture is all organic. Only government's agriculture development through techno-bureaucratic approach has spoiled it with introduction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds through proselytization of farmers with a new dogma of technology. But one fact is true that the age old subistence agriculture is ruptured beyond repair as it can no longer compete with other aspects of economy in this globalized world. The only way at this time is to start new samll and medium enterprises on organic agriculture with new knowledge, technogy and managment. There is where innovation is needed and some efforts made so far are worth praising and supporting.

    Poorna Adhikary

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    1. Well explanation of our traditional system and intervention in the name of modernization.As well the suggestion for small and medium enterprises on organic agriculture are commendable.

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  18. A good idea to float, which should be implemented in near future. A true organic farming for the commercial scale still do not exist within the country. The prime cause is the availability of the genuine grade of the bio-fertilizer. Domestic scale production of the composted fertilizer can not meet the commercial demand. there is the demand of 400000 MT of chemical fertilizer imported from abroad every year, followed by the substantial complementary import of the toxic pesticides/herbicides. In case there is enough bio-fertilizer in the local market supported by the irrigation facility and the energy/mechanization supports you can go ahead towards the prosperous sustainable agriculture in due course of time.

    Rhiddi Singh
    Professor : NRPD / RETs Expert at RECAST / Hoste Hainse

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  19. Green Entrepreneurship, Green Economy, etc are the good idea but these are biodiversity based programs. Its success depends how you promote ans use the biodiversity resources for this purpose. Sustainability of its use is important for the success of the work. My concern is how you are going to manage and use the biodiversity resources for this purpose. I would appreciate if you kindly share with us, Thank.

    Shree Ram Shrestha
    Nepal Program Coordinator at ADRSA Nepal

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