It’s been almost a year since Madan Poudel, former YPARD Web4Knowledge intern took part in TOCs 2014.
Thanks to two CGIAR sponsored slots for YPARD members and GFAR’s travel support, Madan had the opportunity to attend this workshop of ‘technical geeks’, which provided him with “a better understanding of the online ecosystem under which different CRP’s work.”
TOCs or Technical Online Communicators is a community of practice comprising webmasters, web developers and social media coordinators for all CGIAR entities, partner organizations and other non-profit institutions where people actively participate in online and face-to-face discussions to address common technical challenges.
Technical Online Communicators, IT professionals of different CGIAR centers and its partner’s organizations along with external experts on different web related matters participated in a five day workshop from the 15th to the 19th of September, 2014 at Bioversity International´s centre in Maccarese, Italy.
Was it all over after TOCs 2014? Not at all! Ever since his participation in the CGIAR training Madan has been applying the guidelines he learned for organizing different on-the-ground and online activities with better user engagement.
Thanks to the insights shared during the TOCs 2014, Madan managed to establish an online voting system in November 2014. This was part of the ‘YPARD Nepal Family Farming Photo Contest’ (YNFFPC), an online competition to mark the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) and the World International Youth Day.
After this first contest, Madan contributed to the organization of the National Youth Forum on Agro-based Entrepreneurship Development (#NYFAED15) from January the 9th to the 10th, 2015 in Lalitpur, Nepal. The event, which had as main scope bringing together around forty young professionals involved in agriculture and related areas to discuss the future of the agro-based entrepreneurship development in Nepal was indeed a successful initiative particularly from the promotion and reporting perspective.
AgriYouthNepal, a website run by Madan has recently launched an open blog contest for Nepalese citizens called “ICTs in Nepalese Agriculture.” This contest, as the one of YNFFPC will include as well an online public voting part where the top two blogs will be awarded based on the number of votes and comments.
Likewise, Madan has released a video produced by him on the success story of a Nepalese agripreneur.
Madan currently carries out a weekly program to spread ideas through short and inspiring videos on different agricultural issues. Besides, he manages an online portal named “YubaKrishi” to share news, updates on agricultural innovations, as well as resources to support Nepalese agripreneurs. Even though he’s running this online platform with his own funds, he’s already looking for sponsors in order to upgrade it.
Madan’s future is unpredictable. However, his bright past and present indicate nothing but that there’s a bold and exciting future ahead of him.
GFAR believes that special attention must be given to encouraging young people into careers in all aspects of AR4D. It is important that young people themselves help express what changes are needed in agricultural education and incentives to make careers more attractive and valued and better recognize the range of roles now required in AR4D.