While candidates for the House of Representatives elections are busy campaigning door-to-door, farmers are busy with their farm work.
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Farmers in the Lekali region, including Umakunda, a mountainous rural municipality in Ramechhap district, are currently in a hurry to plant potatoes.
Candidates for the upcoming election of members of the House of Representatives on Falgun 21 are busy with door-to-door campaigning. Farmers, on the other hand, are more preoccupied with their farm work than their election concerns.
Potato is the main source of income and the main crop for farmers in Umakunda Rural Municipality, so this time is considered very important.
According to Olak Sunuwar, a farmer from Umakunda Rural Municipality-5, the farmers are currently busy in their fields as they have to plant potatoes starting from the first week of Magh and by the end of Magh. 'Our main crop is potato. Right now, there is no time for planting potatoes, even more than the elections,' he said.
Kul Bahadur Basnet, ward chairman of Umakunda Rural Municipality-5, said that the ward is continuously working on expanding irrigation facilities to increase potato production. According to him, budget has been allocated for the construction of irrigation canals in every fiscal year. 'The goal is to provide irrigation facilities to drought-affected areas within a few years. This will also increase the production of potatoes, corn and cardamom,' he said.
According to Abhijna Karki, head of the agriculture branch of Umakunda Rural Municipality, potatoes worth about Rs 140 million were produced in the last fiscal year 2081/082 alone. She informed that various assistance is being provided to farmers to further increase potato production.
Along with Umakunda, farmers from Gokulganga and Doramba Shailung Rural Municipality of Ramechhap are also busy planting potatoes. According to Dawasangbu Sherpa, a farmer from Doramba Shailung Rural Municipality-1 Daduwa, this is the main season for planting potatoes in the Shailung area. 'Farmers here are more in a hurry to plant potatoes than during the elections. Recently, due to the shortage of manpower in the village, it has become more difficult to work,' he said.
According to him, winter potatoes in the Shailung area are planted from Poush to Magh and dug from Asar to the end of Shrawan. Farmers here grow potatoes of Rosita, MS-42 Desire, Janakdev and Chinese-10 varieties. Local farmers say that about 80,000 metric tons of potatoes are produced annually in the Shailung region alone.
Local farmers say that potato production this season will be the basis of livelihood for the farmers of the Lekali region rather than election debates. Locals say that if there is snowfall and winter rain during the time of potato planting and harvesting, the farming will be successful. But this year, although there has been some snowfall in the higher areas of Ramechhap, there has been no winter rain.
According to the Agricultural Development Office, Ramechhap, potatoes are cultivated on more than 3,300 hectares of land in Ramechhap. Ramechhap, which has eight local levels, including two municipalities and six rural municipalities, produces a considerable amount of potatoes, especially in the upper reaches of Umakunda, Gokulganga, Doramba, Shailung, Sunapati rural municipalities and Khandadevi rural municipality.
