Dr. Ram Chandra Bhusal, President of the JICA Alumni Association of Nepal (JAAN) and Secretary General, JICA Alumni Association Forum of SAARC Countries (JAAFSC), who graduated from Rendai in March 2003, visited Ehime University and the Rendai Office on Nov.17.Dr. Bhusal was a Rendai student from April 2000 to March 2003. First, he enrolled in the Master’s Degree program of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University in April 1998 and continued his research until he was awarded a PhD in the field of pomology in 2003. After graduating from Rendai, he returned to Nepal and started to develop his successful career, which he continues to enhance today across Nepal and Japan.
Dr. Bhusal, through his activities and networks, recommends gifted students in Nepal to UGAS to help contribute to our goal of producing researchers who will forge the future and contribute to the building of a sustainable society in which people and the natural environment can co-exist. He has been a role model for graduates and reflects our educational principles to train talented, world class researchers who will assume roles in the regional development of their countries. It is very gratifying to see his success and developing career and no doubt we will see even more from him.
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- Presenting a gift to Hiroki Oue, Dean of UGAS
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- Gift from Dr. Bhusal
Mr. Bhusal kindly left a message about his memories of Rendai, his career, and an outline of his activities.
Message from Dr. Bhusal:
I was a graduate (PhD) student at Rendai from April 2000 to March 2003 and my research lab was at University Farm, Hojo. The farm was in an isolated place so there were very few students, but there was a lot of fruit on the farm and we enjoyed all the seasonal fruit very much during harvest time. My supervisor, Professor Fusao Mizutani, always encouraged me to take any remaining fruit to the Faculty of Agriculture in Tarumi after the experiments and distribute them to the international students. He also helped me take those remaining fruit from Hojo to Tarumi in his car. I gave a lot of fruit to many international students and sometimes to the Japanese students and professors. After getting those delicious fruit, all the international students wanted to visit Hojo Farm for fruit harvesting, but they didn’t know about the other fruit cultivation work that had to be done on very hot and cold days in the field. Like for the fruit cultivation work, students work very hard on their study and research and will be happy at graduation time. I think this is similar to fruit cultivation and harvesting. Fruit tree plantation, manuring, irrigation, pruning, etc., are difficult work but harvesting is satisfying and pleasant work. Likewise, research and experimental work are hard, but graduation day for students is like fruit harvesting day for farmers. After hard work on research and experiments, the happy graduation day comes like fruit harvesting day comes after a whole year of effort in fruit cultivation. I always compare my research and experiments with my graduation and year-long fruit growing activities with harvesting.
Personal History:
・ One year JICA Counterpart Training on Fruit Cultivation at Ehime Fruit Tree Research Station (1997/98)
・ Enrolled in the Master’s Degree program of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University in April 1998 and was awarded a PhD in the field of pomology from the same faculty (Rendai) in 2003
・ Returned to Nepal and worked for Winrock International, Nepal Agriculture Program (USAID-supported program) as a Monitoring and Evaluation Team Leader and Agriculture Program Coordinator from January 2005 to September 2009
・ Foreign Researcher in the Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University, Japan from October 2009 to December 2009
・ Agriculture Expert/Value Chain Expert in the Vegetable Seed Project (Swiss-supported program) from February 2010 to December 2014
・ Community Development Program Coordinator, JICA Alumni Association of Nepal JAAN from January 2015 to June 2016
・ Team Leader/Agriculture Expert in the Community Development Project (supported by the Japan Nepal Society & JICA) from July 2016 to present
・ Currently working as Team Leader/Agriculture Expert in the Income Generation Project (funded by JICA and implemented by Peace Winds Japan)
Affiliations:
President: JICA Alumni Association of Nepal (JAAN)
Secretary General: JICA Alumni Associations’ Forum of SAARC Countries (JAAFSC)
Goodwill Ambassador of Ehime Prefectural Government Office (to develop good relations between Ehime and Nepal)
Life Member: Japanese University Alumni Association of Nepal (JUAAN)
Executive Member: Nepal Horticulture Society, Kathmandu
Chairman: White Rose Cooperative, Kathmandu
Chairman: Tahachal Social Service Committee, Kathmandu
Advisor: Institution for Suitable Actions for Prosperity – ISAP
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- Commemorative photo: with Professor Fusao Mizutani and Yuichi Ohashi, President of Ehime University
