Onions reach market with transportation subsidy

By Sher Bahadur Sarki,Bajura, Oct. 31: Onions produced in Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality-1 in the north-eastern region of the district have reached the market.

Locals of Bahuni and Rudi stored onions in the village as they were not selling them last June.

At this time, due to the shortage of onions in the district, Bahuni and Rudi onions have been taken to the market for sale with the transport subsidy of the rural municipality and Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Bajura.

Due to road problems and lack of market, hundreds of quintals of onions produced by the farmers of Bahuni and Rudi are being kept in storage, said Deepak B.K., a farmer of Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality-1 of Bahuni.

Onions could not be transported to the market after the road was blocked due to incessant rains.

He said, "Now that the rural roads have been resumed, onions have been brought to the market with the transportation subsidy of the rural municipality and AKC, Bajura.”

There was concern that the onions produced in the village would rot if they did not find a market, he said, and added that now, with the help of the rural municipality and centre, this onion has reached the market and is being sold smoothly.

According to him, farmers here are happy after their produce reached the market.

He said that the onion produced by the farmers of Bahuni and Rudi was taken to the market due to the initiative of Megh Raj Shahi, Chairman of Sri Karthik Swami Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

Chairman of Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality Bharat Bahadur Rokaya said that now the rural municipality has re-opened the rural roads, the locally produced onions of Bahuni and Rudi have been supplied to different markets of the district with transportation subsidy.

He said that after the rural municipality has been motivating the farmers in agriculture recently to strengthen the economic situation, now they are attractive in the agricultural sector.

He said, "The farmers here have to take the agricultural products produced in the village to other districts for sale due to the problem of the market in the village. "

With the construction of an onion collection centre in Bahuni with the financial support of the Ministry of Land and Agricultural Cooperatives of the province, it became easier for the locals to store onions.

Chairman Rokaya said that about 100 quintals of onions produced by the farmers of Bahuni and Rudi are now being sold in Dhulachaur, Kolti, Martadi, Phalasain, Bamka and other markets of the district during Dashain and Tihar.

According to the Centre, farmers of Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality of Bajura are now producing abundant quantity of onions in the village after the Centre has been encouraging most of the farmers in Bajura to grow vegetables.

Meen Prasad Jaishi, information officer of the Centre, said that the transport subsidy has been arranged from farmers' fields so that onions produced in Bahuni and Rudi can be sold easily.