For the past few years, the farmers of Nisdi Rural Municipality-5 Galdha have been encouraged to plant ginger, make rice from the produced ginger and send it abroad. No matter how hard they work, they are not able to produce and export as much as the demand.

Before, ginger was cultivated in the village, but there was a problem with the market. Even if it was delivered to the market, it was forced to rely on middlemen, it was difficult to get the price. Later, farmers started burning firewood and selling it. When the Galdha Social Entrepreneurs Women Cooperative was established in 2073, the promotion of local agricultural products began. At present ginger rice is made using a machine instead of firewood.

Commercial ginger cultivation has increased in this village, 65 km from the capital Tansen. Since 2078, the co-operative has started buying ginger from farmers, there are 541 female share members in the co-operative. Ginger has been worn by 272 people.

Dilmaya Saru, the manager of the cooperative, says that about 900 plants of ginger have been planted in Ward No. 5. "Ginger used to be planted earlier, and it was sold in the market of nearby cities," she says, "Even if there was a market, the price was not available, now it has started to be exported to foreign countries." 

According to him, it has been three years since they started exporting to Europe. "In the first year, we sent 805 kg at the rate of 350 rupees, and in the second year, we sent 4,460 kg to Germany at the rate of 750 rupees," she said. "We have exported 14,560 kg at the rate of 493.9 rupees this year." According to him, 1 lakh 15 thousand kg of fresh ginger was purchased from farmers. Ginger has been purchased from farmers at the rate of Rs 60 per kg. She said that the excess sales amount will remain in the cooperative and will be distributed to the share members as a bonus.

'Processing 93 thousand 373 kg produced 14 thousand kg of rice,' she said, 'Again processing 6 and a half kg of ginger produced only one kg of rice.' She said that 8 thousand 690 kg of juice was sent to Germany this year, from which the cooperative earned 8 lakh 19 thousand 467 rupees. Akesta Nepal requested 20,000 kg of dried rice from ginger of the Nese variety with the help of Heifer International Nepal, which was produced in

village. Manager Saru says that it could not be delivered as per the demand. Saru says Heffer has financial and technical support from planting ginger to processing.

With the help of government and non-government organizations, the cooperative has given employment to women by collecting materials for washing, grinding, drying, grinding, and packaging of ginger. Germany's Ceres company checks the quality of ginger by going to the farmer's house to check whether it is organic or not. Saru said that it would only be eligible for export to Germany after it proved organic. Export to Europe is done through Akesta Nepal.

The chairman of the cooperative, Ammaya Mashrangi, said that raw ginger, which has been certified organic, was also exported this year. "There was a demand for 20,000 kg of raw ginger," she said, "but as the production could not meet the demand, we exported only a small amount." Dried rice is certified organic and has less ginger, so less is extracted. Narayani Dhungana of the cooperative organization said that they are encouraging the cultivation of ginger as a cash crop to make women self-reliant.

Since only the Galdha area is certified organic, the organization said that in the near future, the ginger of nearby Jamire, Mityal, Jhiruwas and Sahalkot will also be certified organic. The ginger produced in Nisdi was bought by local traders and earlier it was only transported from Butwal, Bhairahawa, Kathmandu to the neighboring country India. "We are ready to send it to other countries as well," Saru says, "The attraction in agriculture is also increasing." In 11 months of the current financial year, 32 lakh 44 thousand 176 kg of ginger worth 543.671 million has been exported to different countries.