Commercial insect development firm selling 300 thousand mulberry saplings

Chitwan, June 9: The Commercial Insect Development Firm Bhandara has grown more than 300 thousand saplings of the mulberry plant for selling. The firm has prepared those seedlings on its 1.5-hectare land.

According to the Chief of the Firm, Suruchi Tripathi, currently over 300 thousand plants are ready for sale in the nursery. Among these saplings, farmers have already applied for the purchase of 20 thousand plants.

Last year, the office produced 350 thousand mulberry plants and sold 250 thousand.

Tripathi said that now is the best time to transplant the mulberry plant, so the farmers have started coming with the demand for the plants.

The firm has been selling the seedlings at Rs 5 each. With the displacement of farmers engaged in sericulture, the seedlings here have been sold for growing them as animal fodder.

"After the farmers who practiced sericulture were displaced, we are currently selling the mulberry saplings as fodder trees," she said, adding that coordination has been established with the local governments for the sale of the plants.

Kanva-2 variety of the mulberry plants is ready for sale at the firm. The firm is currently preserving 38 varieties of mulberry in the sample garden. The firm has been growing and preserving various species of mulberry plants under the mother seed conservation programme.

The mulberry saplings produced here are sold in districts including Chitwan, Makwanpur, Sindhuli, Gorkha, Kathmandu, Nawalparasi, Baglung, Tanahu, Kavre, and Sindhupalchok. Currently, there are no sericulture farmers in the Chitwan district. (RSS)