Sindhulimadhi, December 10

The production of organic vegetables has gone up in Sindhuli with the launch of the Integrated Pest Management Farmers’ Field School Programme.

Sources at the District Agriculture Development Office of Sindhuli informed that about 400 farmers from 10 VDCs including Bhadrakali, Kapilakot, Netrakali, Tamajor, and Kamalamai municipality have formed groups to produce organic vegetables after a 16 week-long training and technical support from the programme.

“The training has helped us a lot, because now we don’t have to spend money on chemical fertilisers and pesticides,” said farmer Krishna BK of Kamalamai municipality-4, adding, “Other farmers are also using the techniques learned in the training.”

According to BK, farmers are making good money from the production of cucumbers, beans, potatoes, cabbages and cauliflowers. “The training was beneficial as it not only helped us in selecting vegetable seeds suitable for the soil, but also provided us knowledge about different other things related to organic vegetable farming,” he said.

The DADO has been helping with the human resources needed to conduct the training, including IPM farmers’ facilitators and agriculture technicians. There are a total of 24 IPM farmers’ facilitators.

The DADO is running a field school by forming a group consisting of at least 25 farmers.