Kathmandu, 1 Oct: Prem Nepali, a 46-year-old from Resunga in Gulmi, has become an example that one can earn three hundred thousand rupees per month through agriculture. He earns this monthly income of three hundred thousand rupees by working the soil.
Nepali, who has been involved in agriculture for a decade, has been commercially farming vegetables through RNP Agro Farm. He has leased 140 ropani of land. On this land, he produces various types of vegetables in 26 plastic tunnels, while also cultivating paddy and fish farming.
He cultivates hybrid and Jiten variety paddy on 50 ropani of land. Of the approximately six thousand *bhura* fish reared in three ponds, about 70 kg have already been graded and sold. His farm has 120 local breed chickens. He is also advancing pig farming through three sows. He is also focusing on producing seasonal and off-season vegetables. Nepali shared that vegetables like pumpkin, cucumber, bitter gourd, sponge gourd, bottle gourd, broccoli, tomato, flat beans, and hyacinth beans are being sold, with a daily sale of three quintals. Depending on the season, he also earns a good income from strawberries and marigold flowers.
Last year, Nepali sold two quintals of strawberries at six hundred rupees per kg, and he now plans to sell five quintals this year. He uses unsold vegetables and leaves from cleaning vegetables for his pigs and fish. He sells fish at seven hundred rupees per kg. Since the pigs breed twice a year, selling the piglets earns him about one and a half lakhs rupees annually.
He mentioned that last year, he sold 120 *muri* of paddy in local markets as well as in Tamghas, Butwal, and Kathmandu, earning about one lakh twenty thousand rupees. On the farm, Nepali’s wife, son, and three other laborers work. Many others get work depending on the season for vegetables and grain crops. Being a top performer in woodcraft, Nepali was not tempted by foreign employment.
He said, “Farmers have their own pains and sorrows. By sweating on Nepali soil, I have been earning up to three lakhs per month until now.” Nepali mentioned receiving various types of financial and material support from the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, the Prime Minister’s Agriculture Modernization Project, the Veterinary Service and Animal Science Centre, and Resunga Municipality.
Before starting commercial vegetable farming, Prem Nepali used to sell milk. Around 2072 BS (2015/16 AD), he leased 18 ropani of land in Resunga Municipality-6, Simahaghat, and started raising cows and buffaloes and cultivating potatoes. At that time, he had three buffaloes and two cows, producing 30 liters of milk daily.
When a nearby cooperative refused to buy his milk, Nepali started carrying the milk himself to the Tamghas market. After selling milk in Tamghas for four years, as his caste identity became known, many people started making excuses and stopped buying his milk. He said, “The cooperative refused to keep my milk after considering my caste. When problems gradually arose in the market as well, I became disheartened, left the milk business, and started working towards vegetables.”
