Beni (Myagdi), 2 Push(December 17): Farmers of Malika Rural Municipality-7 Bim have no longer had to worry about finding a market after oranges were sold from their orchards. Farmers who have been cultivating oranges commercially in various villages of Bim are now overwhelmed with sell their oranges.
Krishna Sharma, a local farmer from Dule, Bim, said that the hassle of finding a market and customers for their oranges has been eliminated after businessmen started coming to the orchard to buy the oranges they produced. “Now, businessmen from Kathmandu have purchased oranges from the orchard and taken them away. Businessmen have come to almost all the orchards in the village to buy oranges,” he said.
Farmers here have sold oranges for Rs 65 per kilo. Sharma alone has sold oranges worth more than Rs 200,000 this year. He has more than 100 orange trees in his orchard. With the arrival of a motorway in the village, the locals no longer have to look for a market to sell oranges. Before the motorway arrived, locals used to sell oranges by carrying them on their backs and taking them to neighboring villages and Darbang market.
In the last few years, after oranges started being sold from the orchards, the farmers here have started commercial orange farming. Every year, businessmen from urban areas reach the villages with advance money to purchase oranges. Commercial orange farming is expanding in Arkala, Narale, Okhaldhunga, Dule, Tunibot, Naumane, Bharbang, Khar and other areas of Bim.
Local Bhim Prasad BK said that he expanded orange farming instead of growing cereals after the income from orange farming started to improve. “Rather than going abroad and suffering, if you can plant oranges in your own village, you can earn good income from it. There is no need to look for customers for the oranges you produce. I have planned to expand orange farming to new lands this year,” he said.
Farmers in this area have earned between Rs 50,000 and 800,000 from orange farming, bringing in millions of rupees annually to the village. Oranges produced in the district are consumed in big cities like Pokhara, Kathmandu, Butwal, Bhairawa and others. As buyers have started reaching most of the commercial orange farms, farmers will no longer have a shortage of orange markets and the hassle of transportation has also been eliminated.
