Gorkha's farmers attracted to commercial coffee farming

By Gun Bahadur Roka,Sulikot, Feb. 16: The commercial coffee farming has been started in Gorkha district. 

Farmers of four municipalities of Gorkha have been attracted to commercial coffee farming. Farmers of Barpak Sulikot Rural Municipality, Gandaki Rural Municipality, Palungtar Municipality and Shahid Lakhan Rural Municipality in the district have engaged in commercial coffee cultivation.

Currently, farmers from Gandaki Rural Municipality and Shahid Lakhan Rural Municipality have planted more than 64,000 coffee saplings, while farmers from Barpak Sulikot Rural Municipality and Palungtar Municipality have planted more than 30,000 coffee saplings, according to the Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Gorkha.

It is said that farmers from Shahid Lakhan Rural Municipality and Gandaki Rural Municipality have planted coffee in a total area of 648 ropanis of land by incorporating 45 farmer groups. 

With the financial support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the technical support of AMDA MINDA, the Maya-Prem Memorial Trust has been providing necessary support and facilitation to farmers in all four municipalities.

The Maya-Prem Memorial Trust has been providing 70 per cent coffee saplings to farmers in subsidy and has also been supporting the technical aspects of the project, from site selection to soil testing, said the technical supervisor of the project Nabin Dhital.

According to him, the Trust has provided processing machines, pruning tools, plastic ponds for irrigation, and a dyer machine for separating coffee beans.

Dhital said the number of farmers doing commercial coffee production is increasing day by day after the support of the organisation. 

As coffee starts producing after two years of planting, it is said that around 7 kg of coffee can be produced in a single plant within a year.

The Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Gorkha said that farmers interested in cultivating coffee within the municipality have formed a farmers’ group and started coffee farming.

The farmers have increased their activity in coffee farming in accordance with the municipality's policy of providing financial subsidies to farmers based on production.

Katak Aryal, a farmer of Shahid Lakhan Rural Municipality, expressed his hope that coffee will become a good source of income of farmers if 100,000 coffee plants in the district begin giving yield.