An agricultural ambulance was purchased without a basic plan of how much vegetables, fruits or dairy products would be produced and where to transport them.
The agricultural ambulance purchased by the Annapurna Rural Municipality in Hachuwaka Bhar without a plan has become useless. The municipality purchased an agricultural ambulance from the 2080/81 budget to deliver the agricultural and animal products produced in the village to the market. The air-conditioned agricultural ambulance that maintains moisture has been stranded due to the lack of transportable agricultural products.
The municipality purchased an agricultural ambulance without making a business plan and basic information about how much vegetables, fruits or dairy products are produced, where to transport them and what are the demands of the farmers.
The deputy head of rural municipality, Diwakumari Tilija, says that the agricultural products in the villages have not been delivered to the market as intended. "The municipality added 40 percent of the budget with the federal conditional grant and brought an agricultural ambulance," she said, "Many times, the agricultural products of the villages have become useless except for selling them in the local market. Farmers and farmer groups have not been able to be attracted.'
A 19 lakh 80 thousand conditional grant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and an investment of 1.5 lakh from the rural municipality was purchased last June with a 13 ton carrying capacity agricultural ambulance with moisture technology .
The municipality had issued the 'Agricultural Ambulance Operation and Management Procedure' on July 6. Due to the geographical situation, the lack of access to the market has resulted in the loss of agricultural products. And it said that it will be directed towards commercial agriculture .
It is the agricultural service branch that does not have the record of which crops are produced within the municipality, in how much area and with what results. However, potatoes, oranges and beans are produced within the municipality and exported outside the district.
'We don't have exact agricultural production data . But more potatoes and oranges are produced. Agricultural ambulances have not been used as expected because the traders buy only strawberry and orange orchards and take the crops themselves,' said the head of the agricultural service branch, Mejyan Khatri, 'agricultural products can be brought to the market in fresh form by managing the temperature in the agricultural ambulance. Farmer groups are gradually attracting . There has also been a matter of transporting cheese.'
Traders come to farmers' fields with money in their hands and pick up the produce in one lump sum, so farmers are reluctant to use agricultural ambulances by paying expensive fares.
Before operating the agricultural ambulance, the local level should collect the data of agricultural produce and animal products and determine the support price of agricultural products . But the municipality has not done this.
The locals say that the agricultural ambulance is now being misused to transport the employees of the agriculture branch to the fields with training materials. Agriculture Service Branch Chief Khatri said that they were taken to the field for the exhibition to explain the usefulness of the ambulance in farmer training, not to carry the staff.
