Himalayan News Service

Palpa, March 25:

As coffee cultivation is more profitable than other more traditional agriculture crops, most farmers in the district are being attracted to it. According to the regional coffee development office Palpa, farmers in 35 out of 65 VDCs have now chosen coffee cultivation. In Palpa district alone, 190 hectares of productive land is covered by coffee plantation and 25 metric tonnes of cherry coffee is being harvested every year. It has become the second most popular cash crop after ginger cultivation, said head of the regional coffee development office in Palpa, Raghupati Chaudhary. Although coffee cultivation is good, farmers could not reap benefit according to their expectations due to the weak publicity and adequate market access, Shanti Ghimire, a farmer of the Madanpokharajhakra-7 Palpa said.

Though over 300,000 coffee plants have been planted in 35 VDCs, only 20 VDCs are declared as pocket areas and a plan is there to gradually expand them, head of the district agriculture development office Palpa, Ramananda Kurmi, informed. Due to the existing market problem, a lot of farmers are not persuaded right now to take up coffee plantation, Kurmi said. Since there is a regional coffee development board in the district, the agriculture development office has been subsidising 50 per cent of the coffee plants and providing free transportation, he said. Farmers in Palpa are helped to maintain the quality of coffee by installing 68 pieces of heavier machines with assistance from Nepal Coffee Entrepreneurs’ Association and Highland Coffee Promotion Company Ltd, central president of the Nepal Coffee Entrepreneurs’ Association, Dhakeshwor Ghimire said.