Ilam. There are 456 households affiliated with the Eco Tea Producers Cooperative in Kolbung, Rong Rural Municipality-4. Of these, 115 families are engaged in commercial tea cultivation, while 80 families have started tea cultivation.
The families of other members affiliated with the cooperative are partially engaged in diversified farming. Last year, the rural municipality provided training and subsidies through the cooperative to promote turmeric cultivation, and the farmers here have become attracted to tea and turmeric cultivation.
When the monkeys did not want to cultivate, the cooperative provided turmeric seeds to Urmila Gurung of Rong-4 Kiteni, and she planted turmeric throughout her field.
‘I planted 40 kg of turmeric in one ropani of land and it yielded 10,400 kg. The monkeys will not bother me. There is no need to look for a market, the cooperative will take it from the field itself,’ said Gurung, ’40 kg was sold at the rate of 1,600.’ She said that after starting commercial cultivation of turmeric, which was previously grown only for food, she started earning a lot of income.
Hem Lapcha and Ratna Lapcha of Gairigaun in Sohi ward also planted 40 kg of turmeric each. Excited after the good production, they announced their plans to expand the cultivation.
The cooperative has selected a place convenient for the farmers and designated a collection center. From there, the raw turmeric produced by the farmers is sold at the rate of 30 per kg, said Ganesh Aryal, the manager of the cooperative.
The cooperative has also been doing ‘packaging’, ‘branding’ and ‘leveling’. “Many even come to the cooperative office and take it,” he said. “The municipality gives local products as gifts to guests who come to the village municipality.”
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्