We have seen different types of content and food being made on social media. It is also common to look up recipes on the internet to make your favorite dishes. But a 35-year-old man from Makwanpur has started producing paper from banana poles after looking on the internet.

Premprasad Timalsina of Makwanpurgadhi Rural Municipality-3 Babiodanda, who worked in Saudi Arabia for seven years during his foreign employment, is producing paper from banana poles after watching a video on the Internet. After driving a car while in Saudi Arabia, he drove a taxi in Kathmandu for some time after returning to Nepal. He returned to the village when he did not earn as much as he said by driving a taxi.

Timalsina, who has trained in animal technology in the village and also rears goats, says that he was encouraged by the video of him making paper from banana peels on his mobile phone. He said that he established the hand paper industry with the idea of ​​doing something with the wasted raw materials just by watching the video on his mobile phone. 

Timalsina has invested eight lakhs in making handmade paper. This industry, which started for the first time in Makwanpur, has attracted everyone's attention. When he started the industry, a total of 50,000 papers were sold in the first month. He said that the paper was sold in Hetauda market for incense. He said that the trial production of Nepali handmade paper made from Lokta, especially from banana poles, was successful and the production is continuing.

Timalsina said that he heard from Lokta that paper is produced by Nepalese hands and because it was being wasted in his village, he started the production out of curiosity. He said, 'Our village is a banana pocket area, banana poles were being wasted here, I thought that paper would be made from banana fiber, and I started to produce paper by searching through the internet.'

He started paper production by bringing a fiber extraction machine from Kathmandu for 150,000. As Makwanpurgadhi Rural Municipality will purchase the necessary Nepali paper for the municipality with him, he is engaged in the production of five thousand copies of paper as the first demand. Timalsina, which is producing paper from 200 frames in the first phase, is currently thinking of increasing the investment to produce paper from more than 500 frames.

On average, half a kilo of fiber can be extracted from a banana plant. Up to 25 papers can be made from it. He says that at present one kuri (two hundred pieces) of thin and thick paper is being produced daily. Since it is a pocket area of ​​bananas, he has thought of purchasing the banana poles here in the future by determining the price. There is no problem for the market of paper produced in this way. The produced paper is being consumed locally.

He says that if the local government and the state government provide technical and machinery support, a good income can be made from the banana poles that are being wasted at the local level. In the beginning, banana poles and stalks are collected. Then it is put in the machine and fiber is extracted and dried. Put the fiver in the casting soda and cook it with the babio for five hours and then wash it three to four times with water.