Although strawberry plants are being planted and fresh fruit is being sold, Nuwakot has been selling frozen strawberries from seedlings for the past two years.
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It is estimated that strawberries worth 500 million will be sold in the season from Kaule, Kakani, Hillebitta, Chitre, Kule and other areas of Nuwakot. 28-year-old Chesang Tamang from Kakani said that the work of picking strawberries and delivering them to the market is going on.
Chesang, who has been cultivating strawberries for 6 years, is cultivating strawberries in 6 plantations. He said that he is working on picking, grading, packaging and marketing strawberries from those areas.
Although planting strawberry plants and selling fresh fruit, Tamang says that for the last two years, Nuwakot has been working from seedlings to selling frozen strawberries. As the winter has increased, now the fruit is picked, graded, packaged and delivered to the market after a day. "We will prepare the packaging by 8/9 at night, the next day at 5 o'clock, we will send the strawberries to Dang, Pokhara, Dhading, Chitwan, Itahari, Dharan, Jhapa." , Lagankhel, Satdobato, Buddh, Chabahil, Naxal and other places including shops, marts and supermarkets. He said that he was delivering strawberries.
Mangali Tamang of Kokni-based Kaule started strawberry farming with 4 acres of land and has now spread to 1 plantation. He says that for the past 9 years, he has been saving Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 per month only from the sale of strawberries. Cockney became known from strawberry farming. But our situation is similar. I produced seedlings in the nursery myself and planted them myself, sold them,' she said, 'It was the same before, even after the local government came, it is the same.' They are cultivating strawberries from a minimum of 1 plant to a maximum of 10 plants. Strawberry has been the main cash crop here for almost three decades. Strawberries bloom for 7 months of the year. Chhesang said that strawberries can be picked from October to April. "In November and November, we will pick them on the same day and deliver them to the market. In May and January, it will be cold, so we will pick them on the same day," he said He said that he will get 500 rupees. From Baisakh to October, leaves of old plants are plucked, new plants and land are prepared. They say that the production of strawberries is especially high in the land that gets enough sun.
In 2046, JIT Nepal under the Japanese Cooperation Agency (JICA) started a strawberry farming project in Kakani. The project began testing by planting a few seedlings. But later, when the farmers themselves began to produce, the cultivation expanded. Now most of the farmers also produce new plants themselves. The demand for strawberries has been increasing in the domestic market for the past few years.
Strawberries produced in Kakani reach Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Birgunj and other cities. While selling fresh strawberries, farmers have not been able to make jam, jelly, candy, chocolate and other food products from it. He complained that even the municipality did not pay attention to the diseases affecting strawberries and market management. Chhesang complains that the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project has removed the Kokanee from the Strawberry Pocket and Zone without any program. "Strawberries are now being bought and sold fresh, we are going to make jam, but we could have made wine from small strawberries, but the government did not help," he said.
Less imported fruits include strawberries. In the six months of the current financial year, 424 kg of strawberries worth Rs 1 lakh 7 thousand have been imported, but exports are zero. According to the data of the Customs Department, 1,992 kg of strawberries worth Rs 3,49,000 were imported during the same period of the last financial year. Although the export seems to be zero, Chesang from Kakani said that during the season, 20 percent of the strawberry production is exported to India after evading the customs duty. 7 to 8 thousand kilos of strawberries are produced per day. Based on that, it is estimated that 14 lakh 40 thousand strawberries will be produced in the pocket area of Nuwakot in 6 months, 20 percent of which will go to India,” he said.
