By Tikaram Upreti, Jhapa, Feb. 11:  Sanjeev Kulung Rai was up to his neck in debt. There was not a single day when creditors would not come to his house and badger him for money. Things had gotten so bad that Rai used to leave his house before sunrise and spend the whole day in the forest simply to avoid his lenders.

Rai had taken a loan of Rs 250,000 in 2004 to go to Korea but his agent ran away with the money. “This put me at a desperate position,” he recalled his situation 16 years ago, “I was in crippling debt and had no income to pay it back.”

It was in such a situation that Rai bought his first piglet. “I used Rs. 500 which my wife’s parents had given to her,” he reminisced. Little did he know that his life was about to change.

“That one piglet yielded enough profits to buy more piglets,” he said, “And in 2008, I registered my farm and started commercial pig farming.” Rai achieved so much success in this business that not only did he manage to repay all his debt but today, his farm Kulung Pig Farm Pvt. Ltd., located in Sitapuri, Kamal Rural Municipality – 4, is one of the biggest pig farms of the country rearing more than 800 pigs.

In addition to selling meat, Rai also conducts artificial insemination of female pigs to produce improved breeds of piglets. “My farm produces 7,000 to 8,000 piglets every year which I then sell for profit,” he informed. All in all, Rai, 45, earns more than Rs 70 million annually through his farm.

Rai, who at one point was seeking to go abroad for work, is now an employer of more than 20 people. The person who used to run away from his creditors was recently awarded as the best borrower of Agricultural Development Bank.

“There is ample scope for people willing to enter the pig farming business,” he said. “People can earn a lot in Nepal itself and all they need is passion.”