RUKUM WEST: Chaurjahari municipality-8 in Rukum West has laid emphasis on collective vegetable farming to make women self-reliant. The local level formed six groups of women in the ward and encouraged collective vegetable farming. Out of six groups, three have been doing commercial vegetable cultivation in six ropanis of land taken on lease in the […]
Farmers of Naya Basti in Bhimdatta Municipality-16 of Kanchanpur are engaged in vegetable farming after it proved to be more beneficial than growing other crops.
KANCHANPUR, July 18: Farmers of Simalphanta at Shuklaphanta Municipality-7 have been attracted to organic vegetable farming. A group of 21 farmers have cultivated vegetables without using the chemical fertilizer and pesticides in four bighas of land.
They have grown long bean, pumpkin, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber in plastic tunnels. Compost fertiliser and natural pesticides have been used in the farming.
The Simalphanta farmers supply 70 quintals of produces to the market on a daily basis and secure an income of over Rs 4,000 each day, according to a local Basanta Devi Bista.
Organic vegetable farming has been a reliable means of the livelihood for the people here.
Most farmers involved in the farming were shifted to her from the Shuklaphanta National Park's extended area. Each family owns 10 kathha of land.
SYANGJA, June 21: Former Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Padma Kumari Aryal, has urged the farmers to involve in commercial farming.
Inaugurating a training on commercial vegetable farming organized by Rural Agriculture Cooperative Association at Bayerghari here Monday, the former minister Aryal viewed once the land pooling was adopted for modern farming, it could enhance agricultural products and address the unemployment problems.
Twenty-five farmers attended the training organized with the assistance of Ministry of Land Management in the province, according to Association Manager Saraswati Adhikari.
The three-day training on commercial vegetable farming was organized under the entrepreneurship development programme, said Chairperson of District Cooperatives Association, Laxmi Pati Poudel.
BAGLUNG, June 20: Baikuntha Sapkota of Ratmata in Baglung Municipality-3 rears fish in a small pond and just above it, he grows vegetables for which no soil or manure is required.
The water from the same pond irrigates the vegetables and then recedes to the pond. This process is supported by an electric system and this is called the hydroponic farming. Sapkota is the first person in the entire village to successfully test this modern technology-based vegetable farming.
According to him, it is also called 'soilless' farming. Plants are fed micronutrients through water. As he believed, this is the first successful trial of hydroponic farming not only in the village but also in the district.
He is rearing 300 fish fries of Maur species. However, hydroponic technology is suitable for vegetables with fibrous roots. Onion, garlic, coriander plant and green-leaf vegetables flourishes in it.
Sapkota has used bamboo, plastic bottles and glasses to plant vegetables. "The water from the pond is pulled up by an electric motor to gradually reach it to all the bottles and drop it again into the pond," he said.
Sapkota said fish feces provide micronutrients to the water and it finally reaches to the plants above. Nutrients should be added to the water if we
want to grow plants without fishing.
Farmers are being attracted to the new method of farming which can be done in house roof and in balcony as well. Agricultural experts said hydroponic farming results in relatively faster and more produces than the soil-based farming.
Importantly, it has no risk of soil-based disease for the plants.
