Every time I travel to Countryside, I simply fall in love with nature. I find peace and
contentment when I see the harmony of nature and people. Well, if I ever get to be an Alice in
Wonderland and adventure a far-a-way land, I’d day dream right here right now and my imagination
would wander in the fascinating landscape of Switzerland.
I remember when I was told about Switzerland by an Indigenous Human Right Delegate who had been
to Geneva Conference. “Switzerland is somewhat like our own Nepal. It has incredibly similar
biodiversity, climate and richness of natural resources as that of our Country. However, Swiss
are successful to utilize and promote their natural resources to create a wonder. Switzerland is
undoubtedly the foremost pioneering country in organic farming and has remained so until today.”
More often I wonder Nepal can be like Switzerland of Asia as well. Nepal has an agriculture
dominated economy. In the late 1980s, it was the livelihood for more than 90 percent of the
population although only approximately 20 percent of the total land area was cultivable and
accounted for about 60 percent of the GDP and approximately 75 percent of exports. Since,
agriculture has been the highest priority because economic growth was dependent on both
increasing the productivity of existing crops and diversifying the agricultural base for use as
industrial inputs.
Now, let’s take an example of an Apple, by Apple I mean Fruit not Apple Mac,
Orchards in Mustang and about those delicious ripe apples scattered all over the ground. At the
same time the bitter truth that they go wasted and spoiled because of lack of proper storage and
commercial distribution, despite of good and quality production, they can’t be efficiently
transported to even Pokhara and Kathmandu. Ultimately, we have to eat cheap and tasteless Indian
or Chinese Apples. Had we proper technology, transportation, preservation of food products and
increasing no. of Organic Farms as well as livestock Farming, it would have been sufficient to
eradicate hunger and poverty prevalent in rural area. Only if agro-products could be distributed
properly, import of food from open borders could be stopped. We could cut a huge amount of
expenditure and utilize them for education and development.
While considering those few facts and figures, I’d let my thoughts drift to Wonderland again,
now I wonder would it be Switzerland or Nepal.. 😕 ❓
Cheers, great stuff, I like.
My brother recommended I might like this website. He was entirely right. This post truly made my day. You can not imagine just how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Great write-up, I’m normal visitor of one’s website, maintain up the nice operate, and It’s going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical points using this website, as I experienced to reload the web site lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high-quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my email and can look out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content. Ensure that you update this again soon..
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really well written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.
Wow! thanks BiswaK for reminding about those green apples, also golden delilicious and royal delicious are appetizing. Only, If we could have “an apple a day” then we would not have all sorts of diseases. But, that’s how the world goes on, thus we impose here a cliché “To Err is to Human”. 😳
About uranium and other possibilities of utilization of natural resources and about begining the Charity at Home like Anish dai, Samesh and Rajendra-Ji have mentioned, thanks for your thought provoking opinions and suggestions. If only we could influence and remind those planners or leaders about these issues and let them take the decision for the sake of development. No doubt, we could be Swiss of Asia in the near future.
Loona-ji, Well said. You are right, what we have we can do it and develop it, what we do not have also comes later; we can develop accordingly, but takes time and perseverance. As you said farming (organic like Switzerland) and the use of our vast natural resources like Aneesh-ji says and writes time to time in his opinion. This works, because we have it. We all understand it, but the so-called thinkers, leaders and planners have failed to do it. Let us start from our home, here individual need to be aware, not just looking our planner’s face and listening to them. Charity begins at home.
Well Said Luna, I sometime wonder whether we could ever enjoy our natural wealth in it’s fullest. whether this country be the next Swiss of ASIA. only time can tell. and that’s only after we build the required environment for the proper growth, the growth of this Nation.
A point well made. I’m pretty sure there’s potential for harvesting and developing sources of alternate energy also in Nepal. Maybe, there’s Uranium buried somewhere around us. There’s no doubt that opportunities for resource development are there. The main challenge is for people to see these opportunities and invest on such areas. If Nepal is land locked. Kathmandu is valley locked.
Last years figures showed that there were 60 odd finance companies in Nepal. Among them, 80% were packed in Kathmandu. And, the number is still rising. What’s the purpose of having a finance company and/or agricultural banks if apples from Mustang can’t be internally traded, possibly at low prices compared to their import prices.
I’ve been told by many tourist guides in Nepal that foreigners can’t keep from crying at the spectacular view of this country. Back home, these foreigners probably can’t see the sky line due to rising skyscrapers. Maybe, more of us Kathmandu based and those in major cities in Nepal need to visit the countryside often to understand what we’ve been gifted with. Hopefully we’ll recede to (excrete in the same plate where we get our food – my apologies for the imperfect translation of a very wise adage in Nepal)
Yeah,the thang abt Mustang Apples is really convincing.I had a friend from Mustang(harsit Grg),and he used to always tell me abt the same problems.He too owned Apple Orcharsd.Though,the green apples of mUsatang were,damn damn Del.i.cious. 😛
Besides,Agriculture could be major Infrastructure,for the devlopment,but the only Agriculture Engineering of Country,I.OE,Dharan,is in such a pittiful condition.After two months protest,the final 2 years were brought to Pulchwok Campus.But still that doesnt solve the problems of the students.