”The compulsion to pay the bus and bolero fare and deliver the goods to the market is gone, we have started getting the price we get from selling in the market right at home”
'Agricultural Ambulance' has been brought into operation in Tripurasundari rural municipality to reach the farmers' homes and buy agricultural produce in cash and deliver it to the market.
Tripurasundari Krishak Group Sangh, which is running the agricultural produce sales room in Balefi Rural Municipality-7 Khadichour market, has started an ambulance service to prevent the farmers from wasting their produce and to deliver it to the market easily.
Vegetables, fish, honey, meat, curd, churpi and other products produced from all over the municipality are collected by ambulance and delivered to the sales room.
'After calling, the ambulance reaches the homestead, the farmers are also happy after getting a fair price for their products,' says Samratjung Bohora, president of the group and owner of the sales room, 'There is no problem in selling the products produced here because of organic farming. Customers have increased, farmers are also enthusiastic.'
Ambulance has been going door to door buying and transporting products from morning till 5 pm. "Now we don't have to sell our agricultural produce at home like before. We are excited because we have a sales room and transport facility near the village," says Sanomaya Thami of Tripurasundari-4.
Dolakha, Ramechhap and other local level farmers have also benefited from the sale room in Barhabise Lamosanghu market, the destination before reaching Tatopani. Every day more than 30 to 50 farmers' produce arrives in this sales room. Since there is only one ambulance, the nearby farmers also come with the goods themselves.
The sale room was started with a grant of five lakh rupees provided by the rural municipality. But the group said that the ambulance was put into operation after problems were found in transporting agricultural products. According to Bohora, a committee consisting of one/one leading farmer from all 6 wards of the municipality has been formed to manage the operation of the product purchase and sales center. The
group coordinated with the municipality and purchased an ambulance by taking a loan of 32 lakh rupees from the Agricultural Development Bank. Dal Bahadur Gurung of Tripurasundari-1 says, "It has become very easy since the ambulance came to buy at home. The compulsion to pay bus and bolero fare to take the goods to the market is gone. We have started getting the price we get from selling in the market in our backyard." He has also done beekeeping in the village. Bohora said that honey worth one lakh was bought in cash from the farmers of Ghorthali village including Gurung and brought to the sales room.
The rural municipality has also designated two pocket areas with a policy to plant fruit on barren land. In the last financial year, under fruit cultivation program on barren land, about three thousand saplings have been planted in designated pocket areas of orange in Ward No. 2 and Timur in Ward No. 3.
The municipality launched the 'Save Agriculture, Return Youth' campaign by focusing on the people who migrated abroad, and prepared policies and procedures for farming and marketing on barren land and conducted the program.
Bhaktadhwaj Bohora, president of the rural municipality, says, 'The sales room started with a budget of five lakhs from the municipality has been effective. There was no additional budget immediately, farmers have taken loans and run ambulances, we have felt that this has increased the enthusiasm of all farmers," he said.
