BAJURA: They have started to breathe a sigh of relief since they adopted vegetable business as a new medium to earn.

They are smiling women from Bajura.

“After I left a volunteering job to grow seasonal and unseasonal commercial vegetables, everything has changed”, said farmer Nani Mahatara of Wai-9, Bajura.

“We do not have to worry for the next meal now, I earn early Rs 80,000 a year," she added with smiling wide lips.

Likewise, Rela Kattel of Kolti-1, Bajura had begun the business to fulfill her basic needs.

“There were not much offers that you could choose. But now, I earn good,” said Secretary of Kanak Sundari Krishak Samuha, Ridi Bohara.

There are altogether 14 members in the group, Bohara added.

The women from remote villages do not have much choice for income sources and there is always the shortage of food in the villages, said Phase Nepal's Agriculture Technician and Livelihood Supervisor, Sunita Tolangi.

Meanwhile, a vegetable farmer Bishnakali Thapa from Maila-9 of Humla district has been awarded with a cash of Rs 10,000 as a model of newly evolving business model.

The Phase Nepal, a local NGO, has been involving several women in vegetable farming and helping them solve food scarcity in the district.

They also provide training courses on organic farming, to grow healthy vegetables and to control diseases related to vegetables, Tolangi added.

Such initiatives are targeted to women, who husbands are in India or other nations for employment.

Agriculture schools operated by and funds for vegetable farming provided by the organisation also have attracted women from remote villages to adopt the business, said District Agriculture Development Office Chief Dr Ram Krishna Shrestha.