Dev Das Shrestha

Charikot, February 23

Jagat Bahadur Shrestha earns around half a million rupees annually from potato farming. The amount is more than what many of his contemporaries, who went for foreign employment, earn.

Shrestha, a resident of Lakuri Daanda-4, said that he also tried to get an overseas employment, but was unsuccessful. As a secondary recourse, he started potato farming, which has made him a contented man today.

He would have gone for foreign employment, had it not been for an agro tour in BS 2054, from where he learnt about potato farming. He was looking for foreign employment after it became difficult to sustain himself by running a boarding school at the primary level. He told THT that he used to earn around Rs 0.1 to 0.15 million annually which had fallen below Rs 0.5 million.

He added that he has been successfully running three schools in Charikot, where 250 students are enrolled. He said, "I have been providing scholarships to 50 destitute children in my schools."

Currently, he has planted potato on 10 ropanis of land at Lakuri Daanda, which produced eight metric tonnes of potato and 10 kg of potato seeds.

He added that from this year on, he would spread potato farming on an additional 10 ropanis

of land and would change his primary school to a secondary level in the next five years and add some physical infrastructures in the school.

He said that he would never ever change his occupation, even if he were offered Rs 0.15 million as his monthly salary.

"I have a good earning from my occupation and I am not interested to change it," he said. He said that he is proud to have been successful in potato seed and potato sapling production.