Potatoes worth 12 crores grew in two wards of Bagchaur

He has been selling 70 to 100 quintals of potatoes every year and earns up to 5 lakh rupees annually. 46-year-old Birsingh Oli of Bafukhola, who has been producing more than 40 quintals of potatoes annually, earned 3 lakhs last year. He said that the income was 4 lakh more this year. After taking up potato farming, he has been employed at home for a decade.

Not only these two, but 600 families of Bagchaur-11 and 12 Bafukhola have been producing potatoes traditionally since the past. They have been planting potatoes on more than 1,000 hectares of land. Since the annual potatoes produced by the farmers started going to Kathmandu, Pokhara, the farmers of the two wards have been bringing in more than 120 million annually. Since the annual income of lakhs of rupees started coming in from potatoes, not only has the standard of living of the farmers improved, but the compulsion to go to different places of India along with their families for employment has come to an end.

Ratiram Oli of Bafukhola, who used to plant corn, wheat and barley on the arable land and save his expenses as a laborer in India, said that it became very easy to run his house after he started potato farming. Since two decades, he has been engaged in potato farming and has been earning two to two and a half lakhs annually. He has also added land from the money he earned by selling potatoes.

'When I went to different places in India and worked throughout the year, it was difficult to save the expenses of a family of five for 6 months. After starting potato production, the household expenses are now easy," he said. "There is an opportunity to save some money. Before the festival came, there was a situation where I had to take a loan from the moneylender. It is not like that now. He says that it is not difficult to sell the produced potatoes because the buyers come at home.

The farmers here, who have traditionally been cultivating wheat and barley, have now changed their cultivation and started producing three crops. Potatoes are planted in February. Corn is planted in the middle of the potatoes, and the potatoes are removed from the corn by the end of June. In October, they take out corn and put mustard again. According to the Agriculture Development Office, producing three crops in this way along with potato cultivation has helped farmers to rise from subsistence level.

Komal Oli, a local farmer who has been earning seven lakh rupees annually by selling potatoes at 30 rupees per kilogram, said that this year he sold them at 40 rupees. He said that there is a benefit of one lakh more than last year. By engaging in potato production, the standard of living of all the farmers of Bagchaur-11 and 12 Bafukhola has improved. Potatoes produced in Bafukhola are not only going to different places of the district but also to Pokhara, Biratnagar, Kathmandu, Birganj. He said that after a family started earning between 2 to 8 lakhs by producing potatoes, now all the farmers in the settlement are planting potatoes every year instead of planting food crops during the rainy season.

Tikaram Oli, Ward President of Bagchaur-12, said that the living standards of the farmers of Bafukhola have improved a lot since they started potato farming. He said that the locals, who used to leave their homes and go to different places in India for jobs when they had to raise expenses in the village, now do not have to go anywhere and all of them have found jobs at home. "Earlier in the settlement, no one had a house covered with stones and tin. All of them were covered with straw. "Now everyone is in tin-covered huts," he said, "Many of them have attached jimijagga, and are educating their children in the city." In 2018, Chairman of the Maoist Center Pushpa Kamal Dahal promised to provide budget for the construction of Chisyan Kendra building in Bafukhola, but Oli said that farmers are adopting the traditional method for potato storage because they are limited only to the speech. Resham Bahadur Basnet, Head of Agricultural Development Office Salyan, said that even though they could not arrange a moisture center for potato storage to the farmers of Bafukhola, they are providing technical and other support. According to Basnet, about 400 million worth of potatoes are produced annually in spring and winter potatoes in various places including Bafukhola in

district. He said that Bagchaur-4, 11, 12, Darma 5, Chhatreshwari 2, 3, 5 wards where potatoes are produced have been declared potato pocket areas.