Bajura, January 15

Tek Bahadur Thapa of Dhadali in Triveni Municipality-8, Bajura, spent two decades of his life working as a wage labourer in India. He returned home after his labours in India didn’t prove so fruitful. He has been involved in vegetable farming in his village for the past five years. The new undertaking has helped him generate income and given him satisfaction.

According to Thapa, he saves more than Rs three lakh annually from vegetable farming. “I’ve bought a plot of land at Attariya in Kailali from the savings and currently I am building my house there,” said Thapa, who has established an image of a model farmer in Bajura district.

Besides seasonal and off-season vegetables, he has also cultivated cash crops such as cardamom and fruits in his farmland.

Kashiram Padhyaya of Belkatya in Budhiganga Municipality-6 has also adopted vegetable farming. “After realising that I make more money than what I would earn by working in foreign countries, I started cultivating vegetables and rearing goats,” he said.

Chitra Bahadur Bista of Budhiganga Municipality-7, too, has been a vegetable farmer for the past three years. “My three kids are studying in private schools and I save more than Rs 1 lakh every year,” he said, adding he was happier working in his own village than in a foreign land.

District Agriculture Development Office, Practical Action and HRC Bajura have been helping people who want to start vegetable farming in the district.

“As one can make a good profit from vegetable farming, more and more people are taking to it, of late,” said DADO technician Min Prasad Jaishi.

A local trader Jayalal BK said they had stopped importing vegetables from the Tarai after locals in Bajura started growing vegetables in the district.

Federation of Non-government Organisations Bajura Chair Kashi BK appreciated the fact that Bajura was gradually becoming self-sufficient in vegetable production.