By Gyanu Pangeni, Kawasoti, Apr. 27: A farmer of Ranitar 8, Madhyabindu Municipality, Narendra Kumar KC has earned a plentiful profit by selling lemons.

He started farming lemons 5 years ago. He began harvesting his produce two years after he began farming lemons. With lemon farming, he has earned a net profit of 700,000 rupees a year.

KC has further mentioned that his yearly investment is 1.5 Lakh rupees a year making it profitable to farm lemons. “With less expenditure coupled with less manure, less effort and more profits farmers in this region have been attracted to lemon farming,” KC said.

Farmer KC used to farm vegetables and bananas. However, since his farm was close to a jungle monkeys would attack his produce, further his profit was not as much as he had expected. Along with that excessive use of pesticides which are harmful to health made him shift towards lemon farming.

In four Katthas of land, Narendra KC farmed golden lemon breeds. He has 110 lemon trees in his plot of land that include 85 large ones and 25 small ones. KC also mentioned that he produces equals to 55 quintals of lemons every year. The lemon trees in this land bear lemons for 12 months a year.

Golden lemons are a breed of mountainous breed grown in the mountains. The market for this type of lemon is good. No matter the product it is always flooding the markets. The lemons have been consumed in the major cities of Narayangadh, Kathmandu. The traders come to our homes to collect the product as a result of which trading becomes easier.

KC has also begun a nursery for his lemon farming. He started a nursery as according to the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation project under the citrus fruits category. Rather than buying seeds for his lemon farming, he believed it would be easier to start a nursery where he could make the seeds.

The modernisation project had contributed 85 per cent and the people operating the nursery pooled in 15 per cent of their money. With 100,000 rupees they constructed two nurseries. The head of the implementation branch of the modernisation project of eastern Nawalparasi, Bishnu Prasad Sharma had contributed 750,000 rupees and the operators pooled in 259,000 rupees of their money to build nurseries.

The nursery has planned to produce 1 and 2 types of saplings for the lemons. They have also set a target to grow 30,000 grafted plants. They will start producing seeds from next year. Due to the farmers' attraction to lemon farming, there has been a shortage of seeds. The seeds during transportation face various logistical challenges.