Case #1: The Sustainability Dilemma

Leading scholars around the globe believe that the world is at crossroads: Humans vs Nature. In the last 400
years (post-Renaissance period in the Europe in particular), world has leapfrogged from a subsistence
agricultural economy to complex modern economies. Greg Hancock, a renowned scholar of Anthropology at
the University of Maine marvels what the world has achieved in such a short span of time compared to the
pre-industrial period in the western economies. He points out the advancements such as in modern medicine,
vaccines and surgical techniques for complicated diseases that have significantly boosted human’s lifespan in
this planet. He however cautions: “Yes, the world has amassed spectacular wealth, especially the western
world, yet it may not have necessarily resulted in overall well-being of humans in terms of happiness,
connection to each other and balance with nature.”

Dr. Durga D. Joshi, native of Bajura, and a retired professor of sociology at Tribhuwan University. Third of
the five siblings that survived (out of 12), he vividly remembers his two infant brothers died because of
diarrhea that also killed many children in his native village. After completing his primary education in his
village, it took him for another 3 years before he could come down to Nepalgunj to continue his school
education because his family didn’t have the money to pay for his school fees. He says he walked for more
than 8 days to reach Nepalgunj. Last year, he arranged a medical team of doctors for a health camp that
provided free treatment for eye problems, uterine prolapse and other minor medical problems. He shares that
it took him just 6 hrs from Nepalgunj to reach his native village which once used to take 8 days. He is happy
that roads and modern means of transportation have made travel so easy, remittance economy has brought in
cash into the village enabling people to pay for school, general medical needs and to even buy land and thus
enabling people to build houses for who would probably not have imagined until 40 years ago. He is however
sad that his native villagers seem to have lost connection among each other; more than 40% land seems
barren, village people have built roads in the middle of once lush paddy fields, and more than that the society
has become increasingly self-centered and short-sighted.

Narendra Biswokarma, is a native of Myagdi. His family has served upper class people of the village for
several generations as a ‘Halia’ (someone like a bonded labour who does farming work for menial returns in
the form of grains). He was enrolled at a local school but didn’t get a chance to complete beyond 7th grade,
that was when he got married at age 15 to a girl 4 years older than his age. Two years after his marriage, he
borrowed money from a local co-operative and went to Bahrain. As luck would have it, he got a very good
employment opportunity. He worked hard in scaffolding department at first, and later learnt driving skills and
drove 12 wheelers for his company. After working for more than 6 years in the Gulf, he returned back to his
village in 2010 with enough money to buy land (4 ropanis) where he has built a house and rest is used for
paddy and commercial vegetable production. After returning home, he drove a taxi for a while in his newly
built rural highway that connects district headquarter of Beni to Durbang. Recently he has started tunnel
farming for which he received grants and technical help from the local government. Last season, he also
raised 500 local chicken which he sold at a nearby marketplace earning more than 3 lakhs in profit. His eldest
daughter, Sima graduated +2 last year and now studies Bachelors in Commerce in Beni campus. He is very
proud that Sima is the first in his family and entire Biswokarma clan in his village to go to campus. He is
happy that foreign employment not only brought him wealth, but he was also able to visit and understand
other parts of the world and bring in global perspective to his village. He has however, now started realizing
that because of the pesticides he applies extensively to prevent pests in his vegetable farm, the health of his
land (soil fertility) has deteriorated lately; he was particularly worried last paddy season when the yield was
down by 40%. On top of that, his maize plantation was infected with “Fauji Kira” (American maize eating
insect-exported probably with Monsanto’s seeds) insects that killed both leaves and the steam of maize plants.

Co-Authored by Sushil Khadka, Hardik Subedi and Shilshila Acharya. Copyright owned by the Authors.
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 Case #1: The Sustainability Dilemma

Also, past Dashain festival, on the day of Tika, his entire village was struck by hailstone that destroyed paddy
plants 10 days before the harvest day, which destroyed 70% of that years’ paddy yield. Elders in his village
shared that the hailstone incident was unheard of in their generation especially during Dashain time.

Dr. T Rahman is a Director of Prosperity Institute based in Dhaka. Trained as a development economist
from Purdue University, USA, he returned to his country after doing his PHD in 1992 with a big ambition in
helping alleviating poverty in Bangladesh. He has served in multiple capacities in devising economic policies
for the government, advised foreign governments, policy makers, NGOs and other institutions. Dubbed as a
South Asian miracle in recent years, Bangladesh has maintained a robust economic growth for more than a
decade (>7% per year for 10+ years), thus moving several millions people out of poverty. Dr. Rahman is
happy that Bangladesh has achieved so much in terms of growth in the last 15 years, however, is very worried
where this unchecked growth might lead the country in the coming days. His home village, which was once a
booming shrimp production center has been facing unpredicted flooding during the harvest season. He
recalls when he was at his village last summer, elderly people shared that they had not witnessed such a
variation in off-season heavy rains and thus flooding in 70+ years of their life. He himself lost his ancestral
land due to flooding two years ago and now the areas is fully covered with sand. He shares that his country of
150 million population has no choice but move several millions people out of poverty, yet what socio-
economic cost and he is not sure if the country will be able to offset these costs?

Xao Ping is native of Wanxi province in Inner Mongolia, China. His hometown is considered as the richest
township in China in terms of per capita income. Xao’s hometown with less than 10,000 population in 2000,
which was named as the only 100% Millioniare township in China by Financial Times in 2008, has seen its
population size grown by 20 (200k) times in less than two decades. After the discovery of rare earth metal
reserves in late 90’s, his hometown was completely relocated by offering multimillion dollars worth
compensation for every household. Money that followed with the influx of booming mining economy was a
blessing early on; people like Xao were able to receive modern education at expensive English school and
local people who received compensation also had secured high paying jobs in mining companies that brought
enormous affluence not imagined in their lifetime. Xao, who went back to his hometown in 2014 to start an
English School after completing his Masters in Education from Vanderbilt University, feels that the economic
boom is slowly becoming a curse in disguise for the local people. According to him, a recent study by Peking
University Medical School found out that more than 70% of the local population has been diagnosed with
some form of cancer. He shares the local stream which he once used to swim with his friends when he was a
kid is now full of metallic waste. It doesn’t carry water anymore but a blend of metal, mud and industrial
waste. He said, the same magazine that once declared his hometown as Millionaire Village has named his
hometown as a ‘Cancer Village’ last year.

Dikshit is an emerging leader and entrepreneur based in Lekhnath, Pokhara. His family carries three
generations of public service in his locality: his grandfather was a Pradhan Pancha, father was member of
parliament in 2048 and he is an elected Wada Chairman of Lekhnath Municipality. At age 32, he is considered
one of the youngest Ward Chairmans and a future of his party. He studied in UK (IT) and returned home in
2012 and also started a poultry business while engaging in political affairs. His farm raises 15,000 chicks every
year and is a profitable venture. Corona crisis has forced a lot of self-reflection and re-thinking for him as an
individual as well as a policy maker. For instance, businesses like his poultry farm that source raw ingredients
for feed as well as antibiotics from India have been forced into a halt. Lekhnath being a tourist town because
of the majestic Begnas Lake, has seen no tourist activity for the last 3 months. Being a policy maker, he
organized a virtual town hall meeting with business community last Friday to discuss the pending business
Co-Authored by Sushil Khadka, Hardik Subedi and Shilshila Acharya. Copyright owned by the Authors.
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 Case #1: The Sustainability Dilemma

and economic issues post-corona days. One of the participants raised the need of more government support
for local farming because of the fact that though Indian vegetables have not been able to reach Lekhnath
market, local farmers are still able to fulfill the local demand for food. However, his concern was the higher
cost of production due to lack of subsidized fertilizers, equipment as well as tools. One hotel and restaurant
operator shared his frustration that his entire business model was based on tourist arrivals (both domestic and
international) and said he would be lucky if his business survived even six months’ after the lockdown started.
Dikshit himself contemplated diversifying his poultry business where he doesn’t have to depend upon
international supply chain. He well knows that capital can’t be created just by staying local; towns like
Lekhnath have to be connected with the outside world. Staying entirely local could be an option steer off
crisis like Corona yet the modern economic engine is so interconnected that a small event happening
thousands of miles away in the globe can come to haunt small towns like Lekhnath.

Dr. Abigail Larson has an interesting career. Born and raised in a small mountainous town of rural Montana,
she grew up herding cows and planting soybeans at her dad’s farm. A high achiever during her high school,
she received a prestigious Ben’s scholarship to attend Harvard University, where she graduated with a double
major in Economics and Environmental Science. Being a country girl, she wanted to work in countryside
before her graduate school, which would take her to working at Monsanto Seed facility in Arkansas. Working
for Monsanto Company was a great working experience; she met interesting people at her work including her
future husband, produced a lot of research works on how GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) could
feed the growing population of humans and she was quite proud that her work at Monsanto was going to
help humanity. Before she joined her PhD in Economic History & Anthropology at Princeton (1996), she set
herself on a tour of South Asia and visited places like Varanasi, Ladakh, Punjab and Bihar. She also visited
Nepal where she did a trek of Annapurna Circuit including Muktinath. The serene beauty of Mustang was
reminiscent of her native hometown of Montana; more than that she was very touched by the co-existence of
humans with nature. The way local communities were living with prosperity in harmony with enormous
respect to nature deeply inspired her (was quite contrary of Western thinking of considering nature for
human’s use only). This holistic way of looking at nature for human prosperity came as a trigger for her
future works. She incorporated Eastern Wisdom and Thoughts in her research. Now, a leading economic
historian and anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, her works have focused on holistic
human prosperity that considers balancing the Well Being of Humans and the Planet. She chaired a session
on Sustainability at Davos last year and she was asked multiple questions on the challenges of feeding the ever
growing population without using GMOs, raising the standards of living of another 2 billion population
without exploiting the nature and more. She says that the answer could lie in the way we think about our
environment while amassing wealth, but this may take a long time before we realize it since the mindset of
people in the current world is very human-centered.

Co-Authored by Sushil Khadka, Hardik Subedi and Shilshila Acharya. Copyright owned by the Authors.
For internal circulation purposes only. Further un-authorized circulation is STRICTLY prohibited.