सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Kanchanpur. Dal Bahadur Chaudhary of Pitambar, Shuklaphanta Municipality-7, has grown 12 quintals of potatoes in one kattha of land. Chaudhary has grown a lot of potatoes in a small area by cultivating advanced varieties of potatoes. For the first time, he has cultivated a variety of potatoes called ‘Komal Karp’. Chaudhary himself is amazed to see so many potatoes growing in a small area.
‘I had heard the name of a potato that grows a lot while taking training on potatoes,’ Chaudhary said. ‘I brought seeds from Kathmandu as a test to see how they would grow after planting, and they have grown as expected.’ He said that he planted eight kilos of potatoes in the field at the rate of five per seed, and the yield was 12 quintals.
Since it is a first-generation potato seed, he plans to keep the potatoes produced as seeds and replant them. The potato seeds produced range from half a kilo to two kilos. He said that this potato grows well in a small area, bears large fruits, and is delicious to eat. Chaudhary said that the potatoes planted in the second week of Mangsir were dug in the first week of Falgun.
Chaudhary is preparing to take them to external areas and store them as there is no cold storage facility in the district. ‘If you keep it at home, it rots and spoils,’ he said, ‘it has to be kept in a cold storage, and since the only cold storage facility operated by the private sector in the district has been closed, it is forced to be taken outside due to storage problems.’
Chowdhary has been involved in commercial potato farming for three decades. Stating that he has grown eleven varieties of potatoes during that period, he said that this is the first time he has cultivated such a high-yielding potato.
The production of other varieties of potatoes is five to seven quintals per kattha. Chaudhary has been cultivating potatoes on 12 katthas to one bigha of land every year. He has been producing two hundred to three hundred sacks of potatoes every year. Chaudhary’s entire family is involved in potato farming.
He says that if you grow potatoes with less chemical fertilizers and more cow dung, you can get more production. He says that even though he has been involved in potato production for a long time, sometimes the cost is not even incurred when you have to sell it at the rate set by middlemen and traders after taking it to the market.
He demands that the government should fix the rate of potatoes like rice and wheat so that farmers do not suffer. Chaudhary has been awarded three times as the best potato farmer.
Purbanagar Mayor Dil Bahadur Air says that the local level should make arrangements for cold storage to store the potatoes and vegetables produced by farmers and to sell them easily in the market.
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