‘Youth are the pillars, changers and builders of the nation. They have a huge power to change the system and develop our country.’ This is what the youth of YAD (Youth for Agriculture Development, Nepal) believe.
I still remember the initial days of the YAD organisation. The young people involved did not believe in their strengths, but longed for establishment; we lacked support from our parents, teachers, friends and institutions, we had a funding problem and a small number of members. Back then we did not think that we would succeed, instead believing that we would just become the playing cards of society. Our hope and strength was becoming weaker day by day. But the four of us stood up straight and said: ‘we will do, we will show them and we will become successful. We will make them understand and we will win them over.’
Our hope and strength was becoming weaker day by day. But the four of us stood up straight and said: “we will do, we will show them and we will become successful. We will make them understand and we will win them over.”
Using these motivational words, we found a way to work and spent more than twelve hours on documentation, planning and organizing the team. After all of this hard work, we developed our company bylaws, putting them into different objectives:
1. To train farmers and the agriculture-oriented public about agriculture and the environment
2. To conserve the environment and to develop the community seed bank
3. To continue to support research programs
4. To carry out productivity enhancement training, and possibly business management training
5. To develop a climate-smart agricultural system
6. To train the academic and non-academic youth for the enhancement of their skills.
After the first year we had the opportunity to work and research with the Forum for Rural Welfare and Agricultural Reform for Development (FORWARD Nepal) for three years in nutrient management for rice, wheat and maize. Local village development committees (VDCs) supported and funded our training programs, and the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) as well as other institutes provided us with Helping Hands volunteers. After we gathered a large number of young members and started working as team, we completed a variety of projects.
Read the full story by Abhishek Shrestha, Senior Advisor, YAD, on Impakter.com HERE.
This story is part of the #GFARImpakter Series, an exciting new online media campaign giving Partners in GFAR the opportunity to share their work and enable the public at large to engage with and reflect more deeply upon their work and impacts. By taking part, Partners will raise awareness and further the public’s knowledge on issues of global importance for agri-food research and innovation. To take part: 1) Become a Partner in GFAR! 2) Send an email to gfar.impakter@impakter.com with copy to GFAR-Secretariat@fao.org
Cover Photo: Group shot of all participants, members and helping hands after a workshop
blog.gfar.net 