Khalanga, September 8:

Apple costs only eight rupees a kilo! Kathmanduites probably do not believe. But, it is true. One can buy enough apples for eight rupees a kilo in Jumla, one of the remotest districts not only in Karnali zone but also in Nepal.

“We have a good harvest of apple. But, what’s the use, when we do not get the right price due to lack of transportation facility? Apples could not reach the market and we hardly get eight rupees-a-kilo here,” Tara Devi Neupane of Kattiksami-5 Gauragaun, a village near the headquarters Khalanga told this daily.

“At present, the price of apple is eight to ten rupees-a-kilo in Khalanga, the district headquarters of Jumla,” Neupane said adding that it is much cheaper in the remote villages.

According to Rajendra Mahatara, a member of local Surya Samajik Sewa Sangh, “Dillichaur, Patmara and Nandannath village development committees (VDCs) are more fertile for apple cultivation. Apple is available at five to seven rupees-a-kilo in these villages,” he said.

The weather in Jumla is considered ideal for apple cultivation. According to Bal Bahadur Malla, chief district officer, “Even though the climate favours, people have not taken apple cultivation at commercial level due to lack of market and failure to get reasonable price.”

“Transporting apple to the bigger markets using labour is not feasible due to inaccessibility. It also costs high when we transport it by air,” Devi Prasad Pandey of Haku VDC Gidikhola said.

“People began cutting apples into pieces and dry it before storing underground,” Pandey said adding that however 40 per cent to 50 per cent of these stored-apples decays.

The transportation charge is Rs 15-a-kilo by air from Jumla to Nepalgunj. Many cultivators are now using apple for making wine as a better option instead of throwing them or let it decay underground. “However, the local apple wines do not have flavour,” said Mahatara.

Jumla was, for the first time, linked by road in July 2006. It is one of the most inaccessible districts in Nepal. And the only transportation that links this part has also been flooded recently.