By Baburam Devkota, Sindhuli, Sept. 28: Bijay Shrestha of Bijaychhap, Golanjor Rural Municipality-5 in Sindhuli district is now elated that he is reaping an income of about Rs. 80,000 a month by selling tomatoes from his farm which cost him less than half a million rupees to build.

"I started tomato production some six months ago by establishing some 10 plastic tunnels and I invested about five lakh rupees then. Now, I am selling about 90 kg of tomatoes a day at the rate of Rs. 70 per kg from the tunnel," shared Shrestha with smile in his face.

A hotelier for five years before May, Shrestha has been enjoying his new business as it has yielded much more profit and also given him satisfaction.

"My days go so swiftly after I enter the tunnel. When I start caressing the tomato plants, plucking the yield, time passes very fast from morning to evening," he said.

Shrestha was running a hotel in his own building at Dhungrbas bazaar before he came back to his birthplace for tomato farming as his hotel business did not go well.

He said that he had planted Srijana species of tomato and that it yields production for a year if it is well attended for. It starts yielding production within three months of plantation.

"In the beginning, I sold it for Rs. 30 a kg. Now, it is Rs. 70 per kg. There is no problem to sell the production as the merchants come to the farmland to purchase it," he said, adding, "I now make about Rs. 3,000 a day on average."

I know, tomatoes are sold at Rs. 150 per kg in the district headquarters. Price of tomatoes is so high because middlemen make a lot of profit. If we raise the price, the merchants do not buy from us. We need to sell things in the price the merchants fix for us," he complained.

Shrestha has also started farming of other vegetables such as cucumber and long gourd, but in a small scale.

Son of a pioneer commercial Junaar (sweet orange) farmer in the district, Shrestha has also followed his father's footstep and planted over 1800 saplings of the junaar plant in about 50 ropani of land.