Dolakha, January 28

High Hill Agriculture Occupation and Livelihood Project jointly funded by Asian Development Bank and Nepal Government has turned out to be ineffective. Millions of rupees invested in the project have gone down the drain.

After the start of the project, 397 programmes were registered and 149 programmes were approved by the project. However, most of these programmes are limited to paper only. Of the 149 programmes, two had to do with goat farming, one with buffalo rearing and one each with dairy farming and mushroom cultivation.

The project has invested over 160 million rupees on various programmes till date. The outcome, however, has been very disappointing. According to sources, seven programmes did not even start after getting approval and two programmes failed to make any progress even after taking the first instalment for the programme.

According to Mountain Project District Coordination Unit, Dolakha, the investment made on animal husbandry is the worst compared to agriculture, forestry, etc. Of the 86 programmes of animal husbandry, only one dozen farms with yaks are successfully running. The dairy farms have already been closed down.

Of the investment made in goat farming, the progress of Jiri Chepte Goat Farming and Sunakhari Goat Farming has been satisfactory. Gauri Shankar Himalayan Dairy located in Jiri Municipality is producing cheese worth Rs five million per year and is exporting it to foreign countries.

Investment made in yak and pig farming is also giving good results.