Myagdi. Prakash Khatri, a 40-year-old youth from Kaulegauda, Ghatan, Beni Municipality-9, has become self-employed and self-reliant through banana farming. Khatri, who returned after working in Dubai for three years in the course of foreign employment, has succeeded in earning a lucrative income by farming bananas in his village and in Pakhapakhera.
Khatri, who initially farmed bananas in three ropanis, started commercial banana farming after the plants he planted started yielding income. ‘Now, I have banana farming in all my land, I have expanded banana farming to about 25 ropanis, I earn an annual income of 10 to 15 lakh bananas, I estimate that the income will also increase if the new plants start yielding’, said Khatri. Khatri has commercialized banana farming in his traditional paddy fields and fields used for growing grain crops such as corn and millet.
Khatri, who also raises chickens to provide the fertilizer needed for banana farming, has become an example of how traditional farming can be commercialized and that if you work hard, you can earn income even at home.
He has four banana farms. Banana farming has been on the rise in Kaulegauda for the past decade. Around 150 households here are engaged in banana farming. Commercial banana farming has increased in areas such as Thakan, Gauthale, Mulbari, Patarukh, Barahthan Tusare in Kaulegonda.
Rudra Chokhal, Deepak Khadka, Omkar Puri, Som KC, Bhagwati Basnet, Rudra Bahadur Basnet and others have commercialized banana farming in this village. Punya Chokhal, chairman of Kaulegonda Agricultural Group, informed that banana farming has expanded to about four hundred ropanis in various settlements of Kaulegonda.
Chairman Basnet has also cultivated banana on five and a half ropanis of land. According to him, in the current fiscal year 2081/82, under the Banana Pocket Area Expansion Program of Beni Municipality, 3,500 new seedlings of the variety have been planted on 120 ropanis of land in Kaulegauda.
The Kaulegauda Farmers Group, which is affiliated with twenty-five farmers, has expanded banana cultivation on 120 ropanis of land with a grant of Rs. 1.2 million from Beni Municipality and a partnership of Rs. 1.2 million from the farmers. The group’s chairman Chokhal said that irrigation arrangements have been made in the banana plantation area by constructing two earthen ponds and a sloping concrete irrigation pond, collecting water from the local sources and extending a 3,500-meter pipeline.
Agricultural tools and equipment including ladders and scythes have also been purchased and distributed under the Pocket Area Expansion Program. Bananas of Hazari, Dhurse and Murre varieties have been cultivated here. In the Kauledauda area, irrigation arrangements are being made by collecting local water sources. As commercial farming is expanding, there will be a shortage of irrigation for bananas in the winter months in the near future, so the demand for a lift irrigation project from the Raghuganga and Kaligandaki rivers has been made, informed Chokhal, the chairman of the farmers’ group.
Commercial cultivation of bananas instead of grain crops}
The locals started banana farming after the youth went abroad due to foreign employment and could not find the manpower to cultivate grain crops in their villages. Banana farming, which started to prevent the farmland from remaining barren, has now become the main source of income for the village. Local Kul Bahadur Basnet said that most people in the village have planted banana in their side gardens as well as in their cultivable land.
‘I have expanded banana farming to about eight ropanis of land, now it has started yielding results, there is no shortage of market for the bananas produced, and it is not difficult to cultivate,’ said Basnet. Basnet, who has been raising livestock and selling milk commercially, shared his experience of earning Rs 27,000 per month by selling milk and bananas at the Galeshwor market near the village.
Most households in the village have started earning cash income from banana farming. As there was no cash income from traditional farming and there was a shortage of labor, the expansion of banana farming in this village gained momentum as an alternative to grain crops. Local farmer Tek Bahadur Bhandari said that banana cultivation generates three times more income than food crops. Basnet, who has been cultivating bananas for about five years, has expanded banana cultivation to about eight ropanis of rice fields. ‘Banana cultivation has many benefits over growing food crops. If irrigation can be provided in winter after planting, the yield is good. Locals who used to grow food crops have now been attracted to fruit cultivation,’ he said.
Expanding pocket areas for self-employment and prosperity
Myagdi has not yet become self-sufficient in bananas. Kaulegauda in Ward No. 9, Khabara, Bagarphant, Beni Municipality-2 is considered a pocket area for banana cultivation. The municipality has emphasized on expanding the pocket area to increase the commercialization of potential farming and to make farmers self-employed, the district self-reliant, and the village on the path of prosperity.
In the current fiscal year, farmers were encouraged by running a banana pocket expansion program in Ward No. 3 Bhakimli and Ward No. 9 Ghatan. According to Akriti Dhungana, Agriculture Officer of Beni Municipality. According to her, at least 60 percent of the amount has been invested in expanding the banana area from the banana pocket area expansion program, which was run in partnership with the municipality and a farmer group of Rs. 1.2 million.
Chakra Bahadur KC, Ward Chairman of Beni-9 Ghatan, said that farmers of Kaulegauda have shifted from subsistence farming to commercialization of banana farming. Ward Chairman KC informed that after the success of the banana plantation started by the locals to prevent their fields from becoming barren, the expansion of banana plantation has now gained momentum as a campaign and it has also started helping in improving the living standards of the locals here.
The bananas produced here are now being consumed in Galeshwor Bazaar and the district headquarters, Beni. The attraction to banana plantation has increased as there is no need to search for a market and traders can reach the village to purchase bananas. Banana plantation has started to become the choice of farmers as it starts producing within two years of planting and can be expanded into dozens of plantations from one plant and requires less hassle in tillage and fertilizer compared to other fruits. Since bananas are still imported from outside in Myagdi, it is believed that the expansion of banana plantation pockets will help make the district self-reliant in banana production.
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