Letter from Ramesh Nath Sharma

Dear Sir / Madam,

It is my pleasure to introduce myself as an Executive Chairman of a non-profit making organization named Sustainable Agriculture Development Program, Nepal (SADP - Nepal) and farmer of Setivalley Integrated Organic Farm. I have been working in the field of Organic Agriculture (OA) for 13 years for the promotion of organic agriculture in Nepal although my educational background is not from agriculture.

Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world. Nepal is known as an “agro based country” because nearly 80% people are solely dependent on agriculture living. About 70% of the total population is living in the rural areas of the country where the main occupation of the people is agriculture. In my personal opinion, we cannot focus on the development of our country as a whole, without focusing on the development of the agricultural sector.

According to World Food Program Nepal (WFPN), breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty in Nepal and meeting the goal of halving the number of chronically under-nourished by 2015 seems an elusive task. Twelve million Nepalese, about 47 percent of the population, of the country are chronically hungry. Nepal's stagnant economy, lack of employment opportunities, weak governance, infrastructure and the Maoist insurgency have ensured that a significant number of the Nepalese remain trapped in a cycle of hunger and poverty from which there appears to be little relief.

One child dies every five seconds, and in the context of Nepal the objective of halving the under nourished by 2015 seems very difficult.

About thirteen-thousand people lost their lives during the Maoist insurgency. Many women have become widowed in their young age; children have lost their parents and become orphaned. In the same way many old aged people have lost their caretakers. A large number of people have been migrated to neighboring countries for the food and shelter. A great number of people have become refugees with in their own country. Many youths are compelled to stay alive being lame and with other perilous problems. The agricultural sector is the only option for most of our citizens, as most of the population of rural areas are illiterate. Farm work is difficult, and often done in miserable conditions. Considering these problems, I reiterate, the country cannot be developed and thrive without developing the agriculture sector.

Over the last 35 years, the onset of modern technology has introduced the usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for higher agriculture production yields. Due to lack of knowledge these inputs have not being used properly, and the soil condition grows shoddier day by day. Even though the use of these chemicals has been curtailed by the lack of developmental infrastructure it could not spread out all over the country. Thankfully, due to lack of development, many people of Nepal, especially rural areas, have been spared of the negative impact of the non-organic methods. It is time to be observant that such agro chemicals should not reach those areas where they have not been used and utilize the land for healthy and safe farming. Therefore, we have to create awareness programs among grassroots farmers/activist/students/educators regarding the advantages of organic agriculture and the disadvantages of non-organic agriculture.

Keeping all these factors in mind, we established a non-profit making organization named Sustainable Agriculture Development Program, Nepal (SADP - Nepal ). This organization is working for the promotion of organic agricultural in Nepal. There is immeasurable potentiality of organic agriculture in Nepal even it is in its infancy stage in the lack of awareness among the grassroots farmers, activist, consumers. Lack of advance knowledge and technology is another barrier for the development of OA in Nepal.

Being a private non-profit organization, we are trying our hard to develop OA in our capacity and we look forward to your volunteerism to contribute to that. I hope you’ll join us in our mission!

Organically,

Ramesh Nath Sharma
Executive Chairman
SADP - Nepal