Nepal’s rural youth are increasingly choosing employment in areas other than agriculture. Women, children, and elderly people are forced to work in the agriculture sector due to out-migration of youth. Attracting and retaining youth in agriculture is a major challenge.
With financial support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), IRRI implemented a short-term project on the “Capacity Development of Women and Youth for Enhanced Employability and Efficiency in Rice-Based Systems to Facilitate Enhanced Food Security and Resilient Livelihoods” in selected provinces of Nepal from October-December 2020. The project capitalized on the opportunity for developing advanced technical and managerial skills of a new generation of workforce in agriculture specifically from smallholder farmers, women and youth to support them in improving their employability, efficiency and incomes for developing resilient livelihoods, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 1.3 million farmers are organized into 12,772 agricultural cooperatives in Nepal. In 2014, it was estimated that around 68% of these cooperatives are women-led and 53% of the members were women, and a significant number of the members are youth. However, despite their robust participation, women and youth have yet to gain technical and managerial skills that can help them respond to modern challenges and adapt to emerging innovations.
The project, which is probably the first in Nepal of its scope both in the number of trainees and the skills gained, was conducted around three themes: (i) machine operation, maintenance and servicing, (ii) rice nursery enterprise development and management, and (iii) agricultural enterprises development and management. All of the training themes are of strategic importance for transforming subsistence and traditional agriculture into knowledge-based and business-oriented agriculture in Nepal.
A majority of the participants were individual entrepreneurs and members of cooperatives, with migrant returnees and representatives of poor and vulnerable communities…