USAID Agriculture Higher Education

OVERVIEW

USAID Agriculture Higher Education strengthens the curriculum, research, and extension services of Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU). The activity is developing the entrepreneurial spirit of marginalized students and young professionals to become a significant force in Nepal’s agricultural transformation.

HIGHLIGHT

USAID Agriculture Higher Education is working with Nepal’s AFU to introduce student-centered curricula, innovative course materials, and experiential learning opportunities. This results in more agriculture-ready students, in addition to the university’s greater engagement in extension and research.

USAID Agriculture Higher Education Transforms agricultural higher education:

USAID is improving AFU’s capacity to develop, maintain, and update programs and curricula through experiential student-centered learning models and the use of the Positive Youth Development framework. Customized to the changing needs of Nepali agriculture and industry, these programs provide students with the opportunities to gain practical and soft skills through experiential learning with public and private sector employers.

Promotes women’s leadership:

USAID strengthens the capacity of women faculty members and faculty from other marginalized groups to take on leadership roles increasingly. It provides them with a voice in improving processes to increase enrollment of women and students from historically underrepresented groups and actively engages those students in academics, experiential service-learning, research, and extension.

Strengthens research systems to promote local technology transfer:

USAID is building the capacity of AFU faculty members in research and technical writing for high-quality publications while also increasing their engagement in agricultural extension services and technology transfer to rural communities. USAID support accelerates AFU’s engagement in sponsored research with technology transfer, creating linkages to a vibrant extension system linked to that research. This capacity is critical to AFU’s contributions to Nepal’s agricultural transformation.