Due to the transportation problem, the apple was stuck in Chumnubri

Apples have started giving seeds since two years ago. I sent 200 kilos of koseli to my neighbors and relatives last year," said Gurung, "This year, 3 to 5 kilos were produced on one plant, I carried 200 kilos on my back and took them to the hotel on Film, Manaslu road, the rest of the apples are stored inside the house.

Gurung said that he had started picking apples two weeks after the seeds had ripened, but there was a problem of not getting a market. I have laid around four hundred kilos of apple wood planks and kept them inside the house. There is still time to pick the plant, now if it is not picked, it will fall,' he said, 'there is no way to reach the market, it takes three hours for the film to reach the market from the firm.'

With the opening of the Larke road track, jeeps, tractor trucks have started running in winter till Pangsing. But Gurung said that there is a problem because the road is blocked during the rainy season. "Even if this apple was ripe for picking after two months, it could have been taken to the road by walking for three/four hours," he said.

Gurung said that during transportation through Khachhad, there is a risk of damage to the apple seeds and not being sold. He says that there is a risk that all the apples produced will not be sold in the village and will not be delivered to the market. Four years ago, Gurung, who started apple farming after registering an agricultural and animal husbandry firm, is worried about the lack of sales of the produced apples. He said that even though it is sold at 250 rupees per kg in the village, there are not many customers. "If you can't sell it now, you can't even eat it yourself, it will rot," he said. He says that the taste of apples grown in Palongkampa at an altitude of 2,000 meters is very sweet. "This year, the color of the apple has also come well, if we could bring it to the market, there would be no problem in sales," he said.

Gurung, who reached Malaysia for foreign employment, returned to the country in 1968 and started animal husbandry and agriculture. "After returning from abroad, I bought a khachad and ran it, now I have started apple and walnut cultivation to do something in my own soil," he said. He started apple cultivation in 078. "There are 300 walnut trees, about 50 million have been invested in khachad and agriculture," he said, "if the road was there, it would not have been difficult to deliver the firm's products to the market, the road caused problems." Commercial apple cultivation has started in Lho and other areas of Ward 2. Farmers who tried commercialization of apple cultivation are disappointed not to get the market.

There is an apple orchard of 12,500 trees in Chumanubri Rural Municipality-4 Namrung. Lakpa Dundup Lama of Namrung, who has started apple cultivation for four years, says that there is a problem of not getting the market for apples. "This year, twice as many apples have grown as in Pohor, we started picking them from yesterday," he said, "Since Pohor could not be delivered to the market, we sold them to tourists and hotels in Manaslu area, we made some sukuti, this year too it is difficult to deliver to the market."

Lama said that apples could not be transported due to lack of road network expansion. It takes about three days to reach Arughat market from Namrung. "It hurts to bring them from Khachhad. Previously, jeeps used to run up to Pangsing, but now the road has deteriorated and even jeeps are not running," he said.

Lamas who cultivated apples in an area of ​​about 300 plants complain that the risk of wasting apples has increased due to lack of market. Two years ago, Lama had delivered apples from Chumanubri to Kathmandu by helicopter. "Now it is not possible even by helicopter, one flight costs 250,000," he said. Lama plans to make fruit juice and juice from the produced apples. Lama has also done branding by giving 'Chumnubri apple'.

Golden, Fuji, Gala, Red Delicious, varieties of apples brought from Italy have been cultivated in the northern region. According to the locals, the apple production is good in terms of the climate, looking at the experience of four years in the area, which has an altitude of 2,650 to 2,700. Ashok Joshi, head of rural village agriculture branch, said that the number of farmers cultivating commercial apples in Chumanubri area is increasing recently.

'It has been four to five years since commercial apple cultivation started in this area, now 6/7 farmers have cultivated it,' he said, 'apples have grown more than last year. But in terms of geography, there is a problem to find the market, the cost of transportation to the market is also high, and there is also a problem in storage. Locals say that if marketing becomes easier, the number of apple growers will increase.