Women learning to make crafts from cardamom fibres

By Nabin Raj Kuikel

Lamjung, Mar. 2: Farmers in Lamjung have started learning to make handicrafts from discarded cardamom fibres after harvesting the spice. Women are being trained to utilise waste cardamom fibres to create various handicraft products, enabling them to become self-reliant. 

The training is being provided by the Prime Minister’s Agriculture Modernisation Project, Project Implementation Unit, Lamjung (Manang).

According to Acting Office Chief Hari Bahadur Mizar, 10 women farmers from Marshyangdi and Kwholasothar Rural Municipalities have been trained in making handicrafts from cardamom fibres. 

“The harvested cardamom is sold easily, but its fibres were going to waste,” he said. “Now, with handicraft production, waste materials will generate additional income.”

Sunmaya Tamang, a cardamom farmer from Chhinkhola, Marshyangdi Rural Municipality-7, expressed her happiness at learning a skill that allows her to utilise waste cardamom fibres for income generation. 

She has learned to make door mats, pen holders, hats, slippers, and bags from the fibres.

Nainkala Gurung, a farmer from Kwholasothar, said she has learned to make pencil boxes, purses, bags, and flags. “We have been cultivating cardamom on 11 ropanis of land for the past 20 years,” she said. 

“Until now, we discarded the fibres after harvesting the fruit, but now they will be put to use,” she said. 

She plans to teach other farmers the skills she has acquired and start producing handicrafts, she added. 

Purna Bahadur Gurung, Chief of the District Coordination Committee, Lamjung informed that producing handicrafts from such discarded materials could help increase farmers’ incomes. 

This year, farmers in Lamjung earned Rs. 220 million by selling cardamom seeds alone. 

Farmers believe that turning discarded cardamom plants into handicrafts will further boost their earnings.