Farmers busy in harvesting black cardamom

Phungling, Oct 20: Irrespective of the festival time, the farmers in the district are busy in harvesting black cardamom. It is the harvest season of the cash crop here. So, the farmers are engrossed in the estate since early morning to late evening. 

Roshan Limbu from Phaktanglung rural municipality-6 informed most of the farmers stay at cardamom estate itself. Only few farmers having livestock return home in the evening. It is the peak time to collect the crop. It needs harvesting at right time.

Similarly, Khangdu Sherpa from ward no 7 of the same locality has been staying in the estate for nearly a month. He celebrated the Dashain festival with his family in the plantation itself. "I've been planting black cardamom for 40 years. The samplings were initially bought from Sikkim, India," he said, sharing that he would celebrate the Tihar festival as well in the plantation.

Sherpa has planned to collect the crop produced in 80 ropanis of land this time. After picking up the pods, they are dried up and processed later. It takes more than a week for processing.

The lower belt of the district collects the black cardamom in the first week of Bhadra month while the upper hilly region collects it till Mangsir month.

All wards except Olangchunggola of Phaktanglung-7 in the district cultivate black cardamom, a popular spice, which is consumed in the country and also exported in high amount. 

Currently, the commercial farming of black cardamom is done in some 4,450 hectares of land. The farmers have been elated with the increased price of the spice.

A trader in the district, Kamal Baral, informed that the black cardamom was sold at Rs 88,000 per man (40 kg) on Sunday.

The labourers employed in picking and processing cardamom is paid from Rs 500 to Rs 700 per day. (RSS)