Agricultural education, research, and extension play a pivotal role in people’s livelihoods, and national economy of Nepal. There were only two agricultural colleges (campuses) of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS) under the Tribhuvan University when the Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (HICAST) was established. The original idea of establishing HICAST was that of Dr. Rajbhandari. He devoted his two years (1998-2000) to convincing his colleagues and government authorities about the viability of the 3P approach for establishing such a college as a public-private entity. His idea was realized only in May 2000. Thus, HICAST was the first college of agriculture established using the 3P approach. Today, around 30 colleges of agricultural sciences have been established in the country under various universities.
The challenges that the least developed countries (LDCs) like Nepal face include hunger, poverty, degradation of natural resources, climate change, discriminatory access and control over available natural productive 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, the HICAST was established employing a public-private partnership (3P) approach. 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 to transform the country to new heights, and such achievement is possible only by joining hands and minds of 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 2,000 graduates, both bachelor’s and master’s degree holders. We feel encouraged that they have demonstrated excellent performance in their field. Some of them have been pursuing higher studies in technically developed countries on full or partial scholarships. Some of the HICASTians have already returned to Nepal after completing their higher studies and have been working with various national and international organizations in the country 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.
