Message from Founder & Executive Chairperson

• Name: Prof. Dr. Binayak Prasad Rajbhandari
• Profession: Professor
• Mail: chairperson@hicast.edu.np
• 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 June 2000. Today couple of colleges of agricultural sciences have been established inside and outside of Kathmandu Valley following the approach of HICAST. We have been advocating that every district must have an Agricultural College.

The challenges that small developing countries like Nepal have been facing today include hunger, poverty, depletion of natural resources, and discriminatory access and control to available natural resources and opportunities. The country, where a majority of the population has been engaged in agriculture, has to find out solution to cope with these challenges through agricultural 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 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.

HICAST is committed to ensuring the quality of education that is offered to its graduates. We have just produced some 1,000 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 USA, UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, China, and India in full scholarships. Some of the HICASTians have already returned back 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.