Farmers in Thaha Municipality, located in the northern part of Makawanpur, are busy from early morning until late at night, applying fertilizer, making dang, and planting potatoes in their fields.

Most of the residents here are found in the fields all day planting potatoes. Women are carrying cow dung on their heads. Men are engaged in making and planting in the fields.
‘The elections have not affected them yet, they will start the elections after the potato planting is done,’ said local former teacher Sanobhai Karki, ‘Currently, the residents of this area are busy planting potatoes.’

Farmers here have now started using organic fertilizers rather than chemical fertilizers. Farmers say that they have started using organic fertilizers because chemical fertilizers damage the soil and even dug potatoes rot quickly. ‘Residents of all 12 wards of Thaha are now busy planting potatoes,’ said Sanjay Tiwari, agricultural development officer of Thaha Municipality. ‘Right now, there is no time to talk to anyone.’

It is cold in the morning and evening in this area. However, the residents of this area are engaged in planting potatoes. The residents of this area have years of experience in cultivating potatoes. They make potato planting holes 60 centimeters apart and plant potatoes at a distance of 25 centimeters. ‘The residents of this area have general technical knowledge about potato cultivation,’ said Tiwari, ‘They also have a little knowledge about diseases and pesticide use. They have learned everything else.’ Tiwari said that even if the residents of this area have to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides in vegetable farming, they seek advice from agricultural technicians.

Farmers in this area are currently planting Cardinal, Dejure, Khumal Rato, Janakdev, Kukhure Jyoti and Sajita varieties of potatoes. The Daman Bagwani Farm of Thaha Municipality has been providing the potato seeds required by the residents of this area. The farm has been selling potato seeds at Rs 40 per kg. Some farmers here have been storing their potato seeds in cold storage in Kathmandu and now bring them to plant them. Since there is no cold storage in the area, farmers have been taking the seed potatoes to Kathmandu to keep them safely in the cold storage. A cold storage is under construction in Thaha-3 Ghartikhola with the joint investment of the provincial government, Thaha Municipality and local cooperatives. Thaha Mayor Bishnu Bahadur Bista said that the cold storage will be operational soon. Potato planting, which will start from the first week of Magh, will be completed by the first week of Falgun. Potato digging starts from the end of Baisakh. Potato cultivation is carried out in 6,300 ropanis in Thaha Municipality. Last year, nearly 7,000 tons of potatoes were produced. Last year, the potato production in Thaha Municipality was good and the farmers also got good prices. Farmers in Daman, Palung, Bajravarahi, Chitlang, Tistung and Agra areas of Thaha Municipality usually start digging potatoes in the first week of Jestha. Tiwari said that 15 quintals of potatoes are produced per planting in this area.

The lack of laborers has caused problems during planting and digging potatoes. Due to the lack of space to store potatoes safely, farmers have to dig potatoes and sell them from the fields.

According to the agriculture department, more than 500 million rupees worth of potatoes are exported from Thaha annually. The off-season potatoes produced here are exported to various cities including Kathmandu, Pokhara, Hetauda, ​​Butwal, Bharatpur and India. The municipality has been collecting about 57 to 60 million rupees in revenue from potato tax alone every year.
Local tax has been levied on potatoes and other vegetables exported from here for 51 years. Rupchandra Bista had started imposing a tax on potatoes in Daman and Palung since 2031 BS. The money collected from that tax was being spent on educational development and physical infrastructure in the area. The tax is now being levied by the municipality.