सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Parbat. Farmers from Pangrang, Phalebas Municipality-11, Pangrang, in the district have earned 60 million rupees by selling cucumber seeds. The farmers here, who have been producing cucumber seeds for the past 25 years, have earned 63 million rupees this year.
Farmers who formed the Narayansthan Seed Production Group in 2057 BS under the leadership of local farmer Surya Bahadur Kunwar and started producing seeds commercially have produced 63 quintals of cucumber seeds this year. Farmer Baburam Bhusal informed that they were able to earn this amount by selling them at the rate of 10,000 per kilogram. According to him, only 63 quintals were produced this year compared to 70 quintals of seeds produced last year. Last year, they earned 70 million rupees. According to him, the farmers have been producing Bhaktapure local variety cucumber seeds.
Farmer Bhusal informed that in the first year of the formation of the group, four kilos of cucumber seeds and 65 kilos of 40-day radish seeds were produced. He mentioned that the farmers who initially sold at a rate of Rs. 800 are now selling at a price of Rs. 10,000.
For some years, radish, advanced variety of pumpkin, chamsur and other seeds were being produced. Bhusal said that after the cucumber seeds started generating a lot of income, they started producing them commercially for a few years. According to him, 72 families here have been cultivating cucumbers commercially.
Every year, each farmer earns a minimum of Rs 500,000 to Rs 1.8 million by selling seeds, informed another farmer, Tuk Prasad Poudel. He said that this year he earned Rs 1.2 million by selling one quintal of cucumber seeds. Poudel was happy that the return on his investment was coming from seed production, saying, “Cucumber seeds are a cash crop. It has been possible to sell them from the village.” Along with seed production, winter potato cultivation and Pokhareli Jetho Budha rice have also been able to be planted. According to him, farmers here have been cultivating cucumber commercially in the fields that were previously used for corn cultivation.
Farmers prepare and store the cucumbers planted in the first week of Falgun in the month of Jestha, and sell the produced seeds by Asard. According to the district-based Agricultural Knowledge Center, most of the seeds produced here are purchased by traders from Kalimati Bazaar in Kathmandu.
Center Chief Parshuram Adhikari informed that cucumber seeds are being produced commercially in Pangrang, Phalebas Municipality-11, and Dhairing, Jaljala Rural Municipality-7, of the district. He said that the seeds produced are being recommended for various sectors through the Agricultural Research Center and NARC, and that the center is providing various subsidies and technical assistance to commercial farmers. Farmers in Dhairing, Parbat, have earned Rs 40 million this year by selling seeds.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्