Parbat (Phalebas), Oct 28: A village in Parbat district has fetched as much as Rs 50 million from the sale of vegetables. A total of 300 farmers in the village are involved in commercial vegetable farming, mainly thye off-season vegetables, in Dhairing sprawling across 1,000 ropanis area in the eastern part of the district. Farmers here prefer cultivation of vegetables to the cereal crops as rice, wheat and maize among others as vegetable farming secures them 10-fold higher income than that of crops.
Take for instance Nar Bahadur KC, a local farmer, who has been involved in commercial farming of off-season vegetables for two decades. He earns Rs 1.5 million to Rs 1.8 million annually from the produce. He mainly exports his produce to the districts outside of Dhaulagiri Zone for the vegetables fetch more price there than in the Zone. Lately the price of their produce has decreased due to the problem grappling its transportation resulting from the unannounced border blockade imposed by India on Nepal and the agitation waged by the Madhesh-centric parties in several districts in the southern plains.
Another farmer, Giridhari Poudel has found his fortune in the commercial farming of vegetables than toiling in Saudi Arabia. A returnee from the Gulf country, Poudel confided that he made three times bigger money in a year than what he had earned from a hard work in Saudi Arabia in three years. “I have made more than Rs 3 million in four years from vegetable farming,” shared farmer Poudel.
According to the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), Parbat, the sandy soil in the arable land in the district is the best one in the Western region. “This type of soil is conducive for the cultivation of off-season vegetables,” said Basudev Regmi, senior Agriculture Development Officer at DADO, Parbat. The farmers are receiving technical and financial support from the DADO, Parbat as well which further encourages the farmers for the same.
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