By Our Correspondent, Kalikot, July 4: About 20,000 green tea seedlings have been planted at Subhakalika Rural Municipality Ward No. 6. Sprawling across 19,010 square feet of land, the tea estate belongs to farmer Hasta Bahadur Shahi.

Just last year, the enterprising farmer bought 50 kgs worth of expensive green tea and gold tea at Rs. 7,000 per kg and started cultivating his nursery and converting it into a tea plantation.

The concept of a green tea plantation hadn’t occurred to farmer Shahi until a couple of years before. “I got the idea from Birman Sherpa, a very good friend of mine when I met him in Kathmandu,” explains Shahi talking about the early conception of his venture.

“I took his advice and decided to use my private property to begin the plantation,” he added. Shahi has poured all of the funds into green tea farming out of his own pocket.

While beginning plantation, Shahi had initially bought 25 kgs of seeds at Rs. 5000 from his friend Birman. However, due to a lack of technical knowledge, the seedlings yielded no result at all.

“I called him (Birman) up and he taught me the proper way of planting the seeds. Now I am happy with my production,” claimed Shahi. Applauding Shahi’s new venture, Khadananda Chaulagain, Chairperson of the Rural Municipality expressed his exuberance over the prospect of a tea plantation at Shubhakalika. “It’s historic that large scale farming has been started by an individual.

The local youths in the village have been enthusiastically lending their hand to Shahi,” says Chaulagain while also providing assurance that the local level will be backing farmer Shahi on his new journey.