To utilize the barren land in the village, the Agricultural Knowledge Center, Dhankuta, is trying to implement a block development program for mango cultivation in a fifty percent partnership with farmers.
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After repeated public notices for the implementation of the Mango Farming Block Development Program failed to attract applications, officials from the rural municipality and knowledge center have entered the village in search of farmers to plant mangoes.
Under the National Agricultural Modernization Program, the Agriculture Knowledge Center Dhankuta is implementing a mango cultivation block development program on 1,400 ropanis of Chhatharjorpati rural municipality. Places such as Banchare, Simbuwa, Pathibhara, Piple, Karkale, Marse, Khamnera and Tamling in the lower areas of wards 3, 4 and 5 of Chhatharjorpati are potential for mango cultivation.
The Agriculture Knowledge Center Dhankuta is trying to implement the mango cultivation block development program in a fifty percent partnership with farmers to bring the barren land of the village into use. But after repeated public calls, no applications from farmers were received, the officials of the municipality and knowledge center had to go to the villages to find farmers who would cultivate mangoes.
Chhatharjorpati Rural Municipality Chairman Chhatra Bahadur Subba and Nagendra Rana, Acting Chief of the Agricultural Knowledge Center Dhankuta, along with a team of agricultural officers, are currently explaining the model of operation of the Mango Block Development Project, cost participation, farming methods and benefits in the village. 'We are going to the villages and explaining its importance to farmers who want to cultivate mango,' said Nagendra Rana, Chief of the Agricultural Knowledge Center Dhankuta, 'We are meeting farmers who want to engage in mango cultivation with this project, we are taking details of the land and farmers.'
Through the knowledge center, the federal government has a provision to provide 50 percent subsidy for farming expansion and 80 percent for irrigation in the Mango Block Development Program. The knowledge center has received 1 million rupees for operating the Mango Block Development Program. Acting Chief Rana informed that farmers should invest the same amount in this.
The Knowledge Center has issued public notices twice since November 10 for the operation of the program. Chhatharjorpati Rural Municipality Chairman Chhatra Bahadur Subba said that he entered the village to awaken the farmers' entrepreneurial spirit after the government introduced the 'Garikhane' program, but farmers were reluctant. He said, 'When the government did not do anything, they complained that it did not work, and when the program came, they showed no interest, so he had to enter the village to find farmers.'
If the farmers who cultivate mangoes do not come out, Subba says that he will cultivate mangoes in the community forest in coordination with the community forest users.
