The farm has a lot of other downstream benefits: the ostrich farm needs commercially grown grass and local farmers are growing it as a cash crop to sell to Sharma’s farm.
C P Sharma graduated from Shankardev Campus in Kathmandu in 1987 and did his masters from Russia. Despite an option to remain abroad, he returned brimming with ideas to create a viable agri-business that created employment, and in a small way reversed the outmigration trend.
“After experiencing life abroad, I felt the urge to return to Nepal,” he says. “My relatives all live here, and I wanted to work in my own country.”
The turning point came one day when he was traveling to America with a Japanese colleague. He was pulled aside to be questioned by US immigration officials, but his friend was permitted to pass through. After 45 minutes of questioning, he was finally cleared.
“It changed my whole outlook on life. I was no criminal, yet they treated me like one just because I came from a poor country,” Sharma recalls. “I decided to do what I could to live a dignified life in my own country.”