20th CEAPRED Day Celebrated

To mark the 20th Year of CEAPRED, a function was organized in Kathmandu on 23rd April, 2010. The event was chaired by Dr. Hari Krishna Upadhyaya, Executive Chairperson of CEAPRED. Dr. Jagdish Chandra Pokharel, Vice-chairperson, National Planning Commission, was the chief guest.

150 persons representing a wide range of governmental, non-governmental, donor and private sector partner organizations and farmer’s organizations attended the function.

Mr. Shambhu Saran Prasad Kayastha, Vice-chairperson of CEAPRED, welcomed the guests and participants. Welcoming the participants, Mr. Kayastha stressed the need of replicating the success stories demonstrated by the beneficiaries of projects implemented by CEAPRED under the financial support of donors. In 20 years of CEAPRED operation, the support and cooperation extended by the farmers is very praiseworthy, which will help this institution in shaping its future course of directions. Realizing this need, CEAPRED decided to assign “Revisiting CEAPRED’s past Initiatives” as a theme for the 20th CEAPRED Day celebrations. He expressed the evaluation of CEAPRED’s performance should be done by its beneficiaries rather than by ourselves.

Keeping this spirit, four representatives of farmer organizations, Ms. Tara Balami (Chetana Agricultural Group, Secretary, Naula Kunathari, Surkhet), Mr. Rudra Bahadur Mijar ( Jorsalla Vegetable Seed Producer Cooperative , Chairperson , Methinkot, Kavre), Ms. Ambika Sapkota (Chandrawati Vegetable Producer Cooperative, Vice –Chairperson, Kavre) and Mr. Megendra Gurung (Sidhuwa Multipurpose Cooperative Ltd., Manager, Dhankuta) were invited to deliver their own assessment of CEAPRED’s services to the community. They all appreciated the efforts of CEAPRED since its inception in raising their socio-economic status and overall improvement of their livelihoods.

Chief Guest, Dr. Pokharel highlighted that many agencies can learn lessons from CEAPRED’s experience, and replicate good practices. He expressed that technological innovations are necessary to move further and sustain the growth, which he thought CEAPRED would consider in shaping its future strategies and approaches.

Dr. Hari Krishna Upadhyaya briefly narrated the appreciative contributions of CEAPRED in agriculture sector. He emphasized that there is a need of right policy, right process and right benefits to bring the significant result in the lives of poor and disadvantaged groups. Lastly, he focused on the recognition of works of NGOs by government agencies and collaborative efforts for poverty alleviation of the country.