Farmers begin collective vegetable farming

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT Surkhet, July 21:  Seven groups combined have started commercial farming by creating vegetable block in Thulo Harre village in Bheriganga Municipality-4 of East Surkhet. A total of 182 households are there in the block, each with an average earning of five lakh per season. The total earning of the block in a season is more than ninety million rupees. 

Dal Bahadur Khadka, a local, had done farming in four ropanis of the land. He had earned 500,000 rupees in one season by farming tomatoes, cucumber, long beans, beans and other vegetables. Likewise, other farmers who had farmed fruit along with vegetables earned 700,000 rupees in one season, he said.

Coordinator of Vegetable Block Coordination Committee and a farmer, Hemanta Prakash Oli, had done farming by digging the slopes. He said that the farmers were attracted towards vegetable farming after the provincial agriculture directorate had began proving support and some subsidies to vegetable farming. 

The directorate had given 700,000 rupees in subsidies. Seven power tillers, seven fertilizer spray tanks and fifty crates were handed over to the farmers, said Oli.  

Anita Oli said that each household had produced a minimum of 15 quintals of vegetables. Stating that they had started commercial farming in 2020, she informed that this year the block had produced and sold 230 metric tonnes of vegetables. She said that there was no difficulty in selling vegetables as the Surkhet-Kohalpur road was nearby. 

Agriculture Development Directorate officer Dashrath Pandey said that the directorate had provided 600,000 rupees and one technical assistant to the vegetable block. He said that the farmers of Thulo Harre were encouraged for commercial farming by the directorate. 

Director of Agriculture Development Directorate, Chitra Bahadur Rokaya, said that a campaign had been launched to enlarge the vegetable block in the Thulo Harre area. He commented planned subsidy to attract the farmers for block farming in the coming year had been cut by the government. 

Harre area is one of the best vegetable-producing areas of Surkhet. Vegetables produced are sold in the local markets as well as Birendranagar, Nepalgunj and Bardiya. 

But farmers complained that they lacked technical knowledge required for block farming.