Farmers, traders busy digging yams ahead of Maghe Sankranti

By Our Correspondent,Sarlahi, Jan. 5: Farmers have started digging yam in Bagmati of Sarlahi, where commercial yam cultivation is carried out.

With the approach of Maghe Sankranti, farmers and traders are busy digging yam and preparing to supply it to the market for sale.

Yam traders, who had already purchased yams in bulk sometime ago, are now busy digging yams by employing workers. The yams here are mainly supplied to the federal capital, Kathmandu. In Sarlahi, this year, commercial yam cultivation has been carried out only in the land of the Bagmati River in Tekani, Bagmati Municipality.

It seems that yams have been cultivated only in some places elsewhere. 

Hybrid maize has been cultivated in the land used for yam cultivation in the areas of Soalti, Jirayat, Karmaiya, Rajghat and other locations of Bagmati Municipality, where yams are cultivated in abundance.

Farmers are cultivating yams in the sandy soil on the riverside in Tekani, where there is no irrigation facility. 

Trader Hridaya Mahara said that the yams purchased from farmers in bulk are now being dug up in large quantities and taken to the Kathmandu market for sale.

According to Mahara, yams are being sold for up to Rs. 60 per kg. 

Traders who have dug the yams all day long with the help of labourers load them into vehicles and transport them to Kathmandu at night.

They said that consumers prefer the yams produced in Sarlahi because they are delicious. 

Hit Bahadur Magar, a farmer from Bagmati Municipality-5, Tekani, informed that he has already sold the yams cultivated in around seven kattha of land on the riverside.

Although yam cultivation does not require the care as other crops do, many people are leaving yam cultivation due to the lack of labourers during the harvesting time.