Despite being a Tribhuvan University topper in Rural Development, Rajan Binayak Pasha did not go looking for jobs. Several of his friends and teachers had offered him teaching positions at colleges but Pasha chose to implement in practice what he had learnt in the classes.

"With the completion of our master´s final year examination two years ago, we started mushroom cultivation in Chovar VDC of Kathmandu," Pasha said.

He said that he has been doing M Phil in Development Studies from the Kathmandu University with the profit he has been earning from the cultivation. Pasha, 40, who originally hails from Bangeshal-3 in Pyuthan, said that he has been earning sufficiently to run his family and support his as well as his four children´s education. All his four children, three daughters and a son, are enrolled in a private school. Apart from the mushroom, he also cultivates tomato and leafy vegetables on the land he has taken on lease.

While studying for their master´s degree, Pasha and some of his friends agreed to start their own business. "All of us were committed to the idea of innovative business, but my friends opted for regular jobs due to family pressure," he said. “Despite having innovative ideas and intelligence, a lot of university graduates cannot start their own business. They stay unemployed for years but hesitate to start their own business.”

Pasha said that his other friends took up jobs to feel financially secure. Such people do not act from their own mind and work under the influence of other people. Due to such mentality, unemployment becomes chronic problem in the country.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of youth head to the Gulf countries for employment. Instead of searching for jobs, be it within the country or outside, Pasha urges more and more people to start their own business. He said that he too had been to India for employment and worked as a waiter, store-keeper, manager for a while, before deciding to return to Nepal.

"If you invest Rs 100,000 in mushroom farming, you can make more than Rs 300,000 within three months," he added.

Pasha has engaged two students, Bharat BK and Santosh BK, from his own village as on the job trainees at his farm. "After the training, we will return to our village to start our own business," Santosh said. He said that he understood the importance of scientific farming for the development of the country. "Without bringing change in the ongoing agricultural system, we cannot be independent," he added.

source: republica,2 feb 2013