Prof. Dr. Binayak Prasad Rajbhandari
- Name: Binayak Prasad Rajbhandari, Ph.D.
- Profession: Professor
- Mail: Chairperson@hicast.edu.np; binayakprajbhandari@gmail.com
- Fax : (+977) 561230256
- Address: Kathmandu
The original idea of establishing HICAST was that of Dr. Rajbhandari. He devoted his two years (1998-2000) to convincing his fellows and government authorities about the viability of the 3P approach to establishing such a college as a public-private entity. His idea was realized only in May 2000. Thus, HICAST was the pioneer college of agriculture established with the 3P approach in Nepal. Today couple of colleges of agricultural sciences have been established inside and outside of Kathmandu Valley following the approach of HICAST.
The challenges that the least developed countries (LDCs) like Nepal have been facing today include hunger, poverty, depletion of natural resources, and discriminatory access and control to available natural resources and development opportunities. The country, where a majority of the population has been engaged in agriculture, has to find a solution to cope with these challenges through agricultural and rural development. However, we have not seen any remarkable positive changes during the past few decades. Obviously, we need to equip our new generation with a new vision, information, and skills to manage the available natural resources, indigenous knowledge, traditional technology, and human resources to address the problems associated with poverty, food insecurity, climate change, ecosystems, unexpectedly slow economic growth, and prevailing socio-economic discrimination for transforming our country into a New Nepal. Keeping these points in mind, we have founded the Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences & Technology (HICAST) employing a public-private partnership (3P) approach to bring about the anticipated change in our vision, attitude, living standard, and national dignity. It is in this background that our voice is for the “Agricultural Revolution through Quality Education”. That means Nepali youth need quality education and skills for transforming the country to new heights, and such achievement is possible only by joining hands and minds of both the public and private sectors.
HICAST is committed to ensuring the quality of education that is offered to its graduates. We have just produced some 1,800 plus graduates, both bachelor’s and master’s degree holders, and we feel encouraged that they have exhibited excellent performance in the field of their work. Some of them have been pursuing higher studies in technically develped countries on full scholarships. Some of the HICASTians have already returned to Nepal after completing higher studies and have been working with various national and international organizations quite successfully. Quite a good number of HICAST graduates have also joined Government service, and they have been working in different districts and projects in Nepal.