Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Innovation in Nepal: Lessons on economic freedom from a farmer-entrepreneur
Innovation in Nepal: Lessons on economic freedom from a farmer-entrepreneur
Mar 31, 2025 11:15 PM

Agriculture is a way of life for the people of Sugauli Birta, a small village in Nepal. But while farmers invest much of their time and energy in their crops, they often spendlong hours traveling across the region to have their grain and rice ground by regional mills. Such journeys are a drain on productivity and opportunity, diverting attention and resources away from their land, families, munity.

Fortunately, a local entrepreneur, Lorik Prasad Yadav, had an innovative idea that would solve this problem—saving time, cutting costs, and creating more value in the “intangibles” of daily life. Lorik invested in a tractor and three threshers, constructing a “mobile mill” that would allow for streamlined, transportable service to individual farms. His business has thus far been a success.

“Food is a necessity, and Lorik has made it easier, cheaper, and quicker for thousands of people in and around Sugauli Birta to process their crops,” writes AJ Skiera. “He keeps his prices low, charging only 15 NPR per 10 kilograms of grain—and he even leaves the chaff behind so that local farmers can recycle it as organic fertilizer or feed for their livestock. His customers save their chaff, save money, and save themselves the exhausting, multi-hour trip to town.”

The bad news: Nepal’s enterprise laws won’t allow for it, requiring a permanent address for a business to operate. Soon enough, Lorik’s petitors (the regional mills) used these laws to threaten and pressure his business out of existence.

In a short filmfrom the Atlas Network, we learn more about Lorik’s story, as well as how local organizations and activists are working to change these laws and provide more economic freedom to the people of Nepal.

Lorik is still unable to operate legally, but with the support of his customers, he was at least promise with the regional mills, allowing him to still support local farmers as long as he doesn’t encroach on petitors’ terrain.

It’s an arrangement that works better than the previous status quo, offering a solution to those distant farmers. But the fact that a negotiated deal was even necessary shows how much creativity is being constrained and squandered by a dysfunctional government. What could Lorik’s business do for munities in the region if he were allowed to continue innovating and expanding his mobile model to new areas and economies?

“I would certainly benefit from being able to run my business legally, without being held back,” Lorik explains in the film. “It would help me raise my kids and provide for them. I bring all my earnings from the thresher operation to my family. We eat together. We share what we have.”

As Skiera explains, these barriers stem mostly from overall political instability, a reality that is driving many of Nepal’s aspiring workers and entrepreneurs to seek opportunities elsewhere:

Nepal has had 27 governments in the last 28 years, and the tentative reforms of one administration are often rolled back by the next. That lack of political stability prevents the modernization of laws that might otherwise encourage more people such as Lorik to create new ways to add value to munities.

That instability has put in place many barriers to prosperity and opportunity, and the lack of opportunity at home is driving a massive outmigration of Nepal’s youth. Today, about 1,500 of Sugauli Birta’s young men and women are living and working in the Gulf countries. In Lorik’s case, his business doesn’t have a stationery address, which it must have in order to be registered. Because he can’t register, he doesn’t exist—which means he has no access to credit or other tools that might help his business grow. Enterprising young people such as Lorik have e handcuffed by policies that destroy the value they’ve worked hard to create. And so they leave.

So what might we learn from such a situation?

Much of Lorik’s story reminds us of the creativity and resiliency of the human person. Despite harsh economic circumstances and a range of government barriers, Lorik continues to persevere and e those obstacles to better munity. Regardless of the restrictive actions of his government and arm-squeezing by petitors, he understands that his contribution can continue. It flows from someplace else.

But such a revelation also brings a political lesson, one that ought to inform how we unleash human creativity and meet human needs in any cultural or economic environment—whether amid the seeming simplicity of Nepal’s agrarian life or the plexity of Silicon Valley or Wall Street.

Lorik was not allowed to legally operate his business because the policymakers (at the time) never imagined that such a solution was even possible—a problem of the foreseen and unforeseen. That’s a policy challenge, but it’s one that stems from a stilted economic imagination.

What are we expecting from the people in munities? What are they capable of right now, regardless of their circumstances? What is their creative capacity, and how can we best allow them to apply that creativity to meet human needs and connect munities?

Only when we answer that question correctly—expecting the Loriks of the world to innovate and create and serve and grow, no matter the natural obstacles petitive threats—will we be able to channel that purpose and tailor our systems accordingly.

Image Credit: Bernat Parera/Atlas Network

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Negotiating “The Captive Mind” on American campuses
What does an ancient Islamic concept have to do with negotiating woke campuses in 2021? A Nobel Prize–winning Pole proves a fascinating guide. Read More… God being dead, Nietzsche warned us, meant that new gods had to be created to fill the void. Our age is godless in some ways, to be sure, but in other ways we have e polytheists with jealous peting for our allegiances. Just as Fate ruled over the gods in ancient Greece, so in the...
Despite displays of strength, China has key weaknesses
It’s easy to worry over China’s increasing bellicosity and economic strength, but its demographic woes, regional challengers, and declining productivity provide new opportunities for the West and its allies. Read More… The recent announcement that China had tested something akin to a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, which is launched into space and then orbits the globe before discharging a missile at its target, underscored yet again that America and its allies have serious grounds to be worried about China. Whether...
How China’s communist regime will outlast the USSR’s
Smart economics, Western goodies, and cruel politics have helped Beijing avoid a Soviet-style collapse—for now. Read More… The collapse of the Soviet Union 74 years after the Bolshevik revolution was supposed to herald the end munism. Yet the People’s Republic of China lives on, 72 years after Mao Zedong famously proclaimed the founding of the PRC in Beijing. That regime is on course to outlast the USSR. Why did one collapse and the other survive, even thrive? It isn’t because...
Journalist denied visa renewal by Hong Kong authorities without explanation
Sue-Lin Wong will no longer be able to cover news on China for The Economist in a move perceived to be one more crackdown on freedom of the press in Hong Kong. Read More… Hong Kong authorities denied a foreign journalist for The Economist renewal of her visa without any explanation, the magazine reported. Sue-Lin Wong, an Australian citizen, was a reporter based in Hong Kong but is no longer able to continue her work covering news on China and...
Does Hollywood love beauty more than profit?
Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve dazzles audiences and critics alike with genre films where you wouldn’t expect to find much love. What is his secret? Read More… Beauty has the power to spellbind everyone—the proof is Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. His last three movies, Dune (2021), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Arrival (2016), have earned him a reputation as a visionary and a sensitive director, despite science fiction as his genre, which normally is considered either too sophisticated for the broad audience...
Removing statues won’t erase the past, could mar the future
There is no option to erase the past and start anew; what we imagine we were will determine, in part, what we e, and a transformative grace applied to our past will secure a brighter future. Read More… Monuments have been created for thousands of years. The word monument itself finds its Greek etymological roots inMnemosyne, the name of the ancient goddess of memory and mother of the nine muses. It is from memory that human culture itself arises and...
Former Next Digital CEO denied bail after five months in prison
Cheung Kim-hung, former CEO of the pany founded by pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, must continue to sit in jail as he awaits his Dec. 28 court date, accused of violating the broad and oppressive National Security Law imposed by Beijing. Read More… After enduring five months in prison awaiting trial on conspiracy charges under Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL), Cheung Kim-hung, former CEO of Next Digital pany, was denied bail by the city’s high court. The presiding judge, D’Almada...
Lutherans are on the front lines of the battle for religious liberty
In the age of COVID lockdowns and anti-religious-conscience legislation, the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty is determined to change hearts and minds—and laws. Read More… If there’s something Lutherans are known for other than great hymnody and potluck dinners, it’s keeping their heads down. Lutherans typically are a staid bunch, not big on “revivals” or drum kits in the sanctuary. And they haven’t exactly produced many celebrity preachers (to their everlasting glory). They’re also not known for taking prominent, which...
“Political Catholicism,” liberalism, and the myth of neutrality
It remains unclear whom the neo-integralists and post-liberals are debating with, since there’s mon ground between the different camps than anyone would admit. The issue is specifics: What do they really want? Read More… On Twitter and in essays at The American Conservative, Sohrab Ahmari has argued that the debates about liberalism, post-liberalism, and integralism are “exhausted,” and that what he calls “political Catholics” are taking “these battles in other, more concrete dimensions.” In his most recent essay, coauthored by...
How “real” is a customized reality?
The use of digital technology to market goods and services does more than just appeal to our tastes; it can also distort our perceptions and dislodge us mon ground. Read More… In a market petition plays a crucial role. The capacity of both producers and consumers to outbid one another in selling and securing products allows for the optimal allocation of resources according to relative demand and supply. One aspect petition that has e more sophisticated over time is marketing....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved