KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Women and youth in agriculture in South Asia were the center of the discussions during the consultation meeting themed “Youth and Women in Agriculture: For Economic Development and Key to Food Security in Future” held on 9-11 June 2019 at Park Village Resort in Kathmandu, Nepal. Women and youth farmers as well as officials from the ministries of agriculture in SAARC states, academics, experts, and development partners actively engaged in the three-day discussion and learning visit to an agricultural cooperative in Lalitpur. Click here to view photos of this activity
Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development of Nepal Chakrapani Khanal addressed the participants and officially opened the program with the lighting of panash (lamp) while he was accompanied by other distinguished guests including Director ARD and SDF of the SAARC Secretariat in Nepal Ishrat Jahan, ActionAid International Manager Shameem Sheik Dastagir, who both delivered opening remarks, and agri-Economist Dr. Yam Bahadur Thapa who talked about the role of youth and women in agriculture for food security and economic development in South Asia in his keynote speech.
Officials from the government of Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka presented their country papers on the consultation meeting’s theme and discussed about the status of youth and women in agriculture in their respective countries. FO representatives under the MTCP2 program and development partners including ActionAid and AFA shared about their successful initiatives on youth and women in agriculture, best practices on adaptation of agricultural technologies lead by youth and women, youth and women empowerment through involvement in agriculture, strengthening agricultural based entrepreneurship of women and youth, and good practices on adaptation and mitigation of climate change in agriculture. Dr. Davendra Gauchan of the Biodiversity International Nepal discussed about the policies and practices for attracting youth to the agricultural sector and Dr. Suman Bisht of ICIMOD presented about the technologies, approaches and impact of youth and women development in agriculture.
The participants were divided into smaller groups per country to discuss and identify successful factors they can adapt for their respective countries/organizations, lessons learned, challenges, constraints and opportunities for youth and women in agriculture, recommendations, and ways to make agriculture become attractive to the youth and women.
On the third day of the meeting, the delegates visited Krishi Fresh Private Limited, a multi-purpose agricultural cooperative in Lalitpur, Nepal for a learning session on the field.
Some of the delegates pose for a photo with the farmers and members of the cooperative. The cooperative was led by a woman farmer (in the center).
This consultation meeting was co-organized by the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), SAARC Agriculture Center (SAC), ActionAid Bangladesh, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Department of Nepal, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Watch the videos below for the presentations and discussions. ###
VIDEOS
Country paper presentations
To start the second day of the consultation meeting, Sujan Dhungel and Sudip Devkota of MoALD Nepal gave a recap of the activities and highlights of the first day.
Plenary reporting of ways forward
Menuka Pradhan Prasai of CTCF,Nepal and Babar Zafar Malik of the government of Pakistan share their learnings from the visit to Kishi Fresh Private Limited, a multi-purpose agricultural cooperative in Lalitpur, Nepal.
Closing Program
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