By Narendra Dhakal,Gorkha, Apr. 11: Dhan Maya Shrestha of Khanikhola, Gandaki Gaunpalika–6, sold Rs 30,000 worth of cucumbers this year. Having planted more than 3,500 plants at an investment of Rs 100,000, this return marks a loss of Rs 70,000 for her, and she is now worried about how she can sustain her family for the rest of the year.

“Lockdown has utterly ruined us,” Shrestha said, “This time last year, we sold Rs 500,000 worth of cucumbers. But this year, we couldn’t even recover our investment.”

With such huge losses, Shrestha is now worried about feeding and clothing her family. She said that paying her children’s school tuition fee was near to impossible now.

This season has been bitter for most of the cucumber farmers of the Gaunpalika. The fruits were just about grown and ready to be taken to the market when the lockdown hit, according to Ker Bahadur Shrestha, local farmer and cucumber collector.

He said, “We can’t go to the market ourselves, nor can we bring a vehicle to take our produce there.” He added, “Some people who lived in a more accessible area managed to sell and earn some money. But most of us have had to see our cucumbers rot in the fields.”

Unable to sell, the farmers too have stopped tending to the cucumbers. The plants are dying, the cucumbers lie rotten on the streets, some are using it as feed for the cattle while some are putting it in their fields as fertilizer.

Data collected by the Gaunpalika shows that nearly 50 tons of cucumbers are being produced every day, along with one ton of brinjals, 500 tons of cabbages, 500 tons if cauliflowers, 200 kilograms of tomatoes and 11,000 eggs.

“But they have not found a market and this has inflicted unimaginable losses on the farmers,” said Gaunpalika chair Hom Bahadur Rana. The cucumber farmers alone are staring at a total loss of more than Rs 20 million this year.

Rana remarked, “The entire Gaunpalika is facing huge financial damages.”

“We understand that this is a time of crisis and everyone has had to bear losses. But if the farmers can’t even break even on their harvest then how will they plant crops next year?” questioned Chairman Rana, adding, “We are in talks with the State and federal governments to try to manage the markets for the produce and we will decide on the way forward through an executive meeting of the Gaunpalika.”

The farmers of various parts of the country are having a hard time selling their vegetables at a time when there is a huge demand from major cities like Kathmandu.